Geneva

Who holds it

Name

Nantelme

Title

Bishop and prince of Geneva

Since

1185

Confidence

medium

Bishop 1185-1205 (en.wikipedia list), followed by Bernard Chabert. In September 1198 he and his namesake of Sion issued a joint act for Saint-Maurice (Marburg charter repository, title only). His family and his quarrels with the count are not pinned: the HLS article on him could not be read (the fetch proxy refused it).

What it holds

• Geneva: lordship of the city, high justice, mint (since 1020-1030), tolls and market
• Episcopal lands outside the city, later organised as the mandements of Jussy, Peney and Thiez (their castles are thirteenth-century; tenure of the land in 1200 is likely but not pinned)

How it was acquired

Rights of the see from the Burgundian kings; the Seyssel accord of 1124 with the count; imperial investiture of 1154 (and 1162) making the bishop a direct prince of the Empire.

How things stand that morning

The bishop holds the city; the count holds the country round it and contests the bishop's rights when he can. The bishop's neighbour at Lausanne, Roger, has just ended (1195) a war with the counts of Geneva.

Wealth

The bridge over the Rhone at the lake's outlet and its tolls; the city market; the mint.

Threats

• The counts of Geneva
• The rise of Savoy north and south of the lake

Advocates and rivals

The counts of Geneva, rivals for the city and lords of the Genevois; the Zaehringen, whose claim to stand between the Burgundian sees and the crown Barbarossa set aside for Geneva; the counts of Savoy beyond.

Places of note

• Cathedral of Saint-Pierre: Seat of the bishop, rebuilt from about 1160

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: The constitutional basis (1124, 1154, 1162) is in the HLS and en.wikipedia; the bishop and the state of the quarrel with the count in 1200 are thin.

On the map: The city is drawn as the modern municipality of Geneva. The outlying mandements are drawn as later held; Thiez, the third mandement, in the Faucigny, is left out.

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.