Pirmin's abbey of Murbach in the southern Vosges is lord of its valley above Guebwiller and, far to the south, of the town of Lucerne and estates in Unterwalden, which it will sell to Rudolf of Habsburg on 16 April 1291.
Its imperial immediacy as a prince-abbey is granted in 1228; in the 13th century it expands in Alsace and clashes with the bishop of Basel and the Habsburgs.
Who holds it
- Name
- Arnold
- Title
- Abbot of Murbach
- Since
- 1194
- Confidence
- high
Abbot 1194-1218, after Suitbert (1190-1194) and before Hugo of Rothenburg (1218-1239), the first prince-abbot. Nothing further on him was found in the sources consulted.
What it holds
- Murbach abbey and its valley with Guebwiller (the town grows later in the 13th century)
- Lucerne: the abbey's lordship over the town on the lake, with estates in Unterwalden (sold to Rudolf I in 1291)
How it was acquired
Founded by Pirmin (727) with royal endowments; Lucerne through the abbey's old monastery there.
How things stand that morning
Arnold holds the valley and Lucerne; the Habsburg pressure on both is beginning.
Wealth
Vosges forests and pasture; the Lucerne market at the lake's outflow.
Threats
- The Habsburgs
- The bishop of Basel
Advocates and rivals
The counts of Habsburg, rising in Upper Alsace and the Aargau and around Lucerne, with whom the abbey clashes in the 13th century; the bishop of Basel; the counts of Ferrette.
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: The abbots, the 1228 immediacy and the 1291 sale of Lucerne are attested. Lucerne lies in the Swiss region covered by another researcher; it is included here because it is Murbach's.
On the map: French and Swiss places are whole modern communes. The Unterwalden 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.
Sources and studies
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.