Mainz

Who holds it

Name

Conrad of Wittelsbach

Title

Archbishop of Mainz, arch-chancellor of Germany

Since

1183 (first held 1161-1165)

Confidence

high

Born about 1120-1125, a son of the Bavarian count palatine Otto V of Scheyern-Wittelsbach; studied at Salzburg and Paris. Barbarossa made him archbishop of Mainz and imperial chancellor at Lodi in 1161. In 1165 he went over to Pope Alexander III and fled to France; the pope made him a cardinal (later cardinal-bishop of Sabina), and he held Salzburg from 1177 to 1183 before he was restored to Mainz. Back in Mainz he rebuilt the cathedral and the city walls that the emperor had razed after the citizens murdered Archbishop Arnold in 1160, and he hosted the great courts of 1184 and 1188 (the second proclaimed the Third Crusade).

He led the vanguard of Henry VI's crusade from 17 April 1197 and was in Cilicia for the crowning of Leo of Armenia (6 January 1198 or 1199). Home again in 1199, he was charged by Innocent III with making peace between the two kings. Where he is on the morning of 1 January 1200 is not pinned.

What it holds

• Mainz: the city lordship (high court, mint, market, tolls). The walls razed after the murder of Archbishop Arnold in 1160 have been rebuilt under Conrad; the citizens have no charter of liberties yet (that comes in 1244)
• The Rheingau: the right bank of the Rhine from Walluf to Lorch, between the river and the Taunus ridge, given by Otto II in 983 and under the archbishop's unrestricted lordship since about 1130; seat of the Rheingau vicedom; the Cistercian abbey of Eberbach and the houses of Johannisberg and Mittelheim lie inside it
• Bingen and the left-bank strip down to Heimbach, from the same grant of 983: the town at the mouth of the Nahe and the Rhine passage at the Binger Loch
• Aschaffenburg on the Main (982): second residence of the archbishops, collegiate church of St Peter and Alexander, walls renewed about 1122, market (1144) and town (1161), the Main bridge; seat of the vicedom for the upper lands
• Forest and hunting rights in the western Spessart behind Aschaffenburg (extent in 1200 not pinned)
• Seligenstadt: the abbey founded by Einhard, confirmed to Mainz by Henry IV in 1063 (a Staufen palace stands in the town beside it)
• Erfurt: the archbishop has been lord of the city since about 1000, with his court, mint and market on the great east road; the counts of Gleichen hold the advocacy (since 1120); there is no town council yet (first in 1212)
• The Eichsfeld: Mainz property around Heiligenstadt and Rusteberg since at least 1022; the castle of Rusteberg, named as the archbishops' seat in 1132; Heiligenstadt with St Martin's chapter and an old royal palace (made a chartered town only in 1227)
• Hesse: Fritzlar, with St Peter's chapter, the old palace and the town, given by Henry IV between 1066 and 1079 and walled between 1184 and 1196; Amöneburg, Boniface's old cell on its castle-hill, a Mainz house since about 1120
• Hofgeismar: an estate of the church in northern Hesse (chartered as a town only in 1223)

How it was acquired

Built from royal and princely grants: Aschaffenburg from Duke Otto of Swabia with Otto II's consent (982); the Rheingau and Bingen by Otto II's 'Veronese donation' to Archbishop Willigis (983); Seligenstadt confirmed by Henry IV (1063); Fritzlar with its chapter, palace and town by Henry IV's gifts (1066-1079). Erfurt and the Eichsfeld grew out of old church property (Erfurt by about 1000, Heiligenstadt and Rusteberg by 1022). Archbishop Adalbert I of Saarbrücken (1112-1137) turned the estates into a lordship of castles, made Amöneburg a Mainz house and, from about 1120, set a vicedominus over each block: Mainz and the Rheingau, Aschaffenburg, the Eichsfeld with the Hessian lands, and Erfurt.

How things stand that morning

Conrad holds everything listed. He is back from the crusade, trusted (or at least needed) by both kings, and the pope's chosen peacemaker. The see is calm but its future is open: when Conrad dies the chapter will split, one party electing Lupold of Schönfeld, bishop of Worms, for Philip and the other Siegfried of Eppstein for Otto.

Wealth

Rheingau and Bingen wine; the Rhine passage at Bingen; the Main crossing and market at Aschaffenburg; Erfurt's market on the road to Saxony and the East, and the archbishop's coinage at Mainz and Erfurt; Spessart timber and hunting; tithes and dues from Thuringia and Hesse.

Threats

• Conrad's age (about 75-80) and the double election his death will bring
• The landgrave of Thuringia, pressing on Erfurt, the Eichsfeld and Fritzlar
• A Staufen-Welf war on the Middle Rhine that would run straight through the Rheingau and Bingen
• The citizens of Mainz and Erfurt pressing for councils and liberties of their own

Advocates and rivals

The counts of Gleichen hold the advocacy of Erfurt (since 1120) and great estates in the Eichsfeld. The Ludowing landgraves of Thuringia, who are also counts in Hesse, surround Erfurt, the Eichsfeld and the Hessian outposts: their rivalry with Mainz over northern Hesse will come to open war (Fritzlar is stormed and burned on 15 September 1232). Around Mainz itself the Staufen hold the royal palaces and towns (Ingelheim, Oppenheim, Frankfurt, Gelnhausen), and Philip of Swabia was crowned in Mainz cathedral on 8 September 1198 by the archbishop of Tarentaise while Conrad was in the East.

The citizens of Mainz and Erfurt are rich and want councils of their own.

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. April 1200Conrad arranges a temporary truce between the Staufen and the Welf parties.Depends on: Both kings being willing to pause, and Conrad alive and trusted by both. Stopped by: A decisive campaign, or the pope declaring for one king before spring.
2. 1200 (month not pinned)Conrad goes to Hungary for the pope and reconciles King Emeric with his brother Andrew.Depends on: The papal commission and Conrad's health. Stopped by: War in Germany keeping him at home.
3. 25 October 1200Conrad dies at Riedfeld near Neustadt an der Aisch, on the road from Nuremberg to Würzburg, and is buried in Mainz cathedral. A double election follows (Lupold of Worms for Philip, Siegfried of Eppstein for Otto) and the see is split for years.Depends on: His natural death. Stopped by: Nothing likely.

Places of note

• Mainz cathedral: Seat of the archbishop; Philip of Swabia was crowned here on 8 September 1198
• Eberbach Abbey: Cistercian abbey of the Rheingau (Cistercian since 1136), great wine estate
• Burg Ehrenfels: Mainz toll castle opposite Bingen, built about 1211 (not yet standing)
• Burg Rusteberg: Castle and seat of the Mainz vicedom of the Eichsfeld (named 1132)
• Amöneburg: Castle-hill and old Boniface cell, Mainz house since about 1120
• Riedfeld: Where Conrad dies on 25 October 1200 (likely course)

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: The grants of 982-983 and 1063-1079, Adalbert I's vicedoms and the main towns are well attested. The exact extent of each block in 1200 is reconstructed from places attested as Mainz's by then; smaller holdings sometimes given to Mainz for this date (Oberlahnstein, Höchst, the Tauber valley, Miltenberg) are not pinned for 1200 and are left off the map. The Tauber and Odenwald lands, the Bergstrasse (from Lorsch, 1232) and the lower Eichsfeld (1294, 1342-1434) are later.

On the map: Drawn as blocks around the attested centres. The Rheingau is traced from its well-known limits; the other blocks are town territories capped at a few kilometres and are smaller than the vicedoms they headed. The Spessart is shown as a claim because the sources consulted do not fix how far Mainz's forest rights were lordship in 1200.

Primary sources for Mainz

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
• 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
• 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
• Regesta Imperii V: calendar of the acts of Philip, Otto IV and Frederick II, 1198 to 1272 (calendar of documents of 1198 to 1272, published 1881 to 1901). A dated calendar of every known act of King Philip and King Otto IV, with the acts of popes and princes that bear on the Empire. Read online
• Register of Innocent III on the affair of the Roman Empire, Innocent III and the papal chancery (1198 to 1209, compiled as a separate register at the curia). The pope's own file on the German throne war: letters to and from Philip, Otto, the German princes and bishops, and the famous Deliberatio of late 1200 or early 1201 in which Innocent weighs the claims of Frederick, Philip and Otto before deciding for Otto. Read online
• The Registers of Pope Innocent III for 1199 to 1201, Innocent III and the papal chancery (22 February 1199 to 21 February 1201). The pope's outgoing letters for the year, in his chancery's own copy, touching nearly every realm in the atlas. Read online

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