Essen

Who holds it

Name

Elisabeth I

Title

Abbess of Essen

Since

1172

Confidence

high

Abbess from 1172 until before 1216, at the same time abbess of St Maria im Kapitol in Cologne and of Vreden. Her successor Adelheid follows in 1216. Her family and her stance in the throne war are not pinned in the sources consulted.

What it holds

• Essen: the abbey and the market town around it
• Estates and manors between the Ruhr and the Lippe (and, by older grants, on the Rhine; their state in 1200 not pinned)

How it was acquired

Founded in the 9th century; enriched by the Ottonian abbesses (Mathilde, Sophia, Theophanu). The abbess is first styled princess in 1228.

How things stand that morning

Elisabeth rules a rich house whose estates are under pressure from its own advocates.

Wealth

Manorial rents from the Ruhr and Hellweg country; the Essen market; the treasury of Ottonian gold.

Threats

• The Isenberg advocates
• Loss of estates to ministerials and vassals

Advocates and rivals

The counts of Isenberg (of the Altena house, Archbishop Adolf's kin), advocates of Essen, who use the advocacy to squeeze the abbey's estates; the abbey of Werden next door; the archbishop of Cologne.

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: The abbess and the later princely style are attested; the advocacy by the Isenberg counts is well known from the events of 1225; the abbey's lordship in 1200 is not otherwise defined in the sources consulted.

On the map: Only the abbey town is drawn; the estates are scattered.

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.