Liège

Who holds it

Name

Albert de Cuyck (Albert II)

Title

Bishop of Liège

Since

elected November 1194; consecrated 6 January 1196

Confidence

high

Born about 1134 in the diocese, a younger brother of Henry II, lord of Cuijk on the Meuse. Archdeacon from 1181 and provost of Saint-Paul at Liège in 1193. After Bishop Albert of Louvain was murdered near Reims in November 1192 by German knights (Henry VI was blamed), the sixteen-year-old Simon of Limbourg was elected and invested by the emperor; the other party, Albert among them, appealed to Rome. Albert was elected at Saint-Aubin in Namur in November 1194; there was fighting until both claimants went to Rome in 1195, where Simon died and Celestine III gave Liège to Albert.

Adolf of Cologne consecrated him on 6 January 1196 and he entered Liège on 21 January. In 1196 he granted the citizens of Liège a charter of liberties. He is about 65 and has a month to live.

What it holds

• Liège: the city, with the cathedral of St Lambert and the bishop's palace; the citizens hold Albert de Cuyck's charter of liberties of 1196
• Huy: the county given to St Lambert by Otto III in 985, with the town, its castle and its Meuse bridge
• Dinant: the bishop's town on the Meuse, famous for its copper and brass work
• Bouillon: the castle and its Ardennes lordship, first taken in pledge from Godfrey of Bouillon when he went on crusade (1095-1096) and kept by the bishops since
• Tongeren, Fosses and Thuin: lesser towns of the church of Liège (their status in 1200 is not pinned in the sources consulted)
• Old counties granted to the church: Brugeron (987) and Hesbaye (1040), parts of them long since held in fief by lay lords
• Maastricht: the bishop's ancient rights in the town beside the imperial lordship; the shared rule with the duke of Brabant is fixed only in 1204
• Mechelen: Liège's since 910 (confirmed), but ruled in practice by the Berthout family, its advocates, against the bishops' will

How it was acquired

Built by Bishop Notger (972-1008) and his successors from royal grants: the county of Huy (985) and Brugeron (987), then Hesbaye (1040); Mechelen confirmed in 910. Bouillon came as a pledge from Godfrey of Bouillon in 1095-1096 and was never redeemed.

How things stand that morning

Albert de Cuyck holds the see in peace after the schism of 1192-1195, but he is old and failing. The chapter and the nobles are split, Brabant is watching, and the city has its new liberties. Whoever is elected next will decide whether Liège leans to Philip or to Otto.

Wealth

Trade and bridges on the Meuse at Liège, Huy and Dinant; Dinant's copper and brass ware; the pilgrims of St Lambert; the forests and tolls of the Ardennes around Bouillon.

Threats

• Albert's death and a contested election
• Henry I of Brabant, at Maastricht and in the chapter
• The count of Looz and the other lay neighbours
• Citizens in Liège, Huy and Dinant testing their new liberties

Advocates and rivals

Henry I of Brabant, who claims the imperial rights at Maastricht, has kin in the chapter and backs Otto IV; the counts of Looz (Louis II), Namur and Hainaut; the dukes of Limburg (the family of the dead claimant Simon); the counts of Bar, old claimants to Bouillon; the Berthouts at Mechelen; and the citizens of Liège, Huy and Dinant.

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

1. 1 or 2 February 1200Albert de Cuyck dies and is buried in the cathedral of St Lambert. A disputed election follows: Hugh of Pierrepont, of a Laon family and son of Clémence of Rethel, against rivals including Henri de Jauche.Depends on: Albert's natural death. Stopped by: Nothing likely.
2. 13 and 21 April 1200Hugh of Pierrepont, confirmed by the pope, is ordained priest (13 April) and enthroned (21 April). He leans to Otto IV.Depends on: A chapter majority for Hugh and papal confirmation. Stopped by: A Brabant or Staufen candidate forced on the chapter, or the pope quashing the election.

Places of note

• Cathedral of St Lambert: The bishop's church and the city's patron saint
• Bouillon castle: Ardennes fortress of the bishops since 1096
• Saint-Aubin, Namur: Where Albert was elected in November 1194 (Namur is not Liège's)

Where the sources disagree

• The campaign notes and the brief give Albert de Cuyck's death as 1 February 1200; the French Wikipedia article on his successor gives 2 February. Source: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugues_de_Pierrepont
• The campaign notes place Liège with Philip [thin]. Albert was consecrated in 1196 by Adolf of Cologne, Otto's maker, and his successor Hugh of Pierrepont backed Otto; no source consulted fixes Albert's own stance in 1198-1199, so the notes' value is kept but should be treated as weak.

Evidence: The grants and the 1192-1196 schism are well attested. The towns' status in 1200 rests on general histories; Moha and Waremme (1204-1213), the Maastricht condominium (1204) and the county of Looz (1366) are later and are not drawn as held.

On the map: Belgian and Dutch places are drawn as whole modern municipalities, which is larger than a medieval town lordship. The countryside between the towns (the Condroz, Hesbaye, the Ardennes) was a patchwork of the bishop's fiefs, allods and vassal lordships and is not drawn.

Primary sources for Liege

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 Reiner of Saint James, Liège, Reiner of Liège (1197 to 1230, kept year by year). Contemporary annals kept inside Liège. 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
• Dialogue on Miracles, Caesarius of Heisterbach (about 1219 to 1223). Not a chronicle but a Cistercian's book of exempla, full of stories about Cologne, the Rhineland and the Low Countries around 1200: the throne war, usurers, heretics, crusade preachers, knights and townsmen, monks and recruits at Heisterbach, founded in 1189. Read online