Disentis

Who holds it

Title

Abbot of Disentis

Since

Not pinned

Confidence

low

The sources read (HLS, de.wikipedia) name no abbot for the 1190s-1200s, and we could not read a list of abbots in this session.

What it holds

• The Cadi: the upper Rhine valleys from Brigels to the Oberalp, with high justice and market rights
• The Urseren valley up to the Furka (part of the Cadi as described for 1185)
• The Lukmanier pass road and its hospices; Lombard estates added under Barbarossa

How it was acquired

Imperial grants from the Carolingians and Ottonians; Henry II gave it to Brixen in 1020, but immunity was restored in 1074; Barbarossa added possessions in Lombardy.

How things stand that morning

Held by the abbey under advocates; who the advocate is on 1 January 1200 is not pinned.

Wealth

Tolls and services on the Lukmanier road; alpine pasture and cattle.

Threats

• Advocates turning the Cadi into a family lordship
• Competition from the newly opening Gotthard route through its own Urseren valley

Advocates and rivals

Advocates in imperial service: the da Torre (for the Lenzburgs, extinct 1173), then Heinrich of Sax-Misox (1213), later the Werdenberg counts. The pass traffic makes the abbey an object of imperial and noble interest.

Places of note

• Abbey of Disentis: Abbey at the foot of the Lukmanier

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: The extent of the Cadi in 1185 comes from HLS; the abbot of 1200 is not pinned.

On the map: Drawn as the modern municipalities of the Cadi and of Urseren; the abbey's Lombard estates are not drawn.

Primary sources for Empire

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

• Annals of Marbach (compiled to 1238, the section on 1198 to 1210 written in the early 13th century). Alsatian annals on the Staufen side of the Upper Rhine. Read online
• Annals of Reiner of Saint James, Liège, Reiner of Liège (1197 to 1230, kept year by year). Contemporary annals kept inside Liège. Read online
• Chronicle of Burchard of Ursberg, Burchard of Ursberg (about 1229 to 1230, reworked by Conrad of Lichtenau). Written a generation later by a fierce partisan of the Staufen and a critic of Innocent III. Read online
• Chronicle of Otto of St Blasien, Otto of St Blasien (about 1209 to 1210). A Swabian continuation of Otto of Freising written from the Staufen side. Read online
• Chronicle of Reinhardsbrunn; Chronicle of St Peter's, Erfurt (Erfurt chronicle in the 13th century; Reinhardsbrunn compilation about 1340 to 1349 from older annals). The two Thuringian chronicles. Read online
• Chronicle of the Slavs, by Arnold of Lübeck, Arnold of Lübeck (about 1209 to 1210). Arnold continues Helmold and writes from Lübeck, close to Danish, Welf and Baltic affairs. Read online
• Royal Chronicle of Cologne (in stages from about 1175 to about 1250; the section on 1198 to 1220 written soon after the events). The fullest German narrative of the throne war from the Welf and Cologne side. Read online
• Chronicle of Hainaut, Gislebert of Mons (about 1195 to 1196). Ends in 1195, so it has no 1200 entries, but it is the indispensable background for Flanders and Hainaut: the career of Count Baldwin V of Hainaut (VIII of Flanders), his union of the two counties, the settlement with Philip over Artois, the rights, castles, fiefs and vassals of Hainaut listed by a man who ran its chancery, and the youth of Baldwin IX, who held both counties in 1200. Read online

8 more in the sources library for The Rhineland, the Low Countries and the Swiss Lands.