St. Gallen

Who holds it

Name

Ulrich von Veringen

Title

Abbot of St. Gallen

Since

4 February 1199

Confidence

high

Of the counts of Veringen, probably a son of Count Marquard. Elected on 4 February 1199 after Ulrich von Tegerfelden (abbot 1167-1199, also bishop of Chur 1170-1179) gave up the abbacy. He found the abbey deep in debt and had to pledge its farms at Romanshorn, Huettenwil and Elgg and sell treasures. He dies at St. Gallen on 15 January 1200. His successor, the provost Heinrich von Klingen, elected on 17 January 1200, is an associate of King Philip, who confirms him at Ulm in 1200; Heinrich pays off the debts and recovers the pledged farms, attends Philip's courts (Bamberg 1201, Esslingen and Ulm 1202, Ravensburg 1203) and dies on 16 December 1204.

His successor Ulrich von Sax is made a prince of the Empire by Philip in 1207.

What it holds

• The town of St. Gallen round the abbey: lordship of the abbot
• Appenzell and its valleys (Appenzell, Hundwil, Urnaesch, Teufen, Gais, Herisau): the abbey's lordship over its peasants
• Rorschach on Lake Constance: market, mint and toll of the abbey [the tenth-century grant is from general accounts]
• Courts and estates in the Thurgau and the later Fuerstenland (Gossau and others); farms pledged in 1199 (Romanshorn, Huettenwil, Elgg)

How it was acquired

Immunity and imperial status from 818; a vast landed endowment by 900. The advocacy with its high justice passed to Barbarossa about 1180 and became an imperial advocacy.

How things stand that morning

Held by the abbey under Staufen advocacy; financially crippled by debt; the abbot is dying.

Wealth

Rents in grain, cattle and linen from hundreds of farms; Lake Constance trade through Rorschach; the abbey's school and scriptorium prestige.

Threats

• Debt and pledged estates
• An advocate who is also the king, and therefore the abbey's master
• A double change of abbot in January 1200

Advocates and rivals

The Staufen as imperial advocates (Reichsvogtei), Philip of Swabia in 1200; the abbey's own ministerials and the nobility of the Thurgau and Rhine valley; the town's citizens, who will seek their own freedoms later.

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. 15 January 1200Abbot Ulrich von Veringen dies at St. Gallen.Depends on: His natural death. Stopped by: Nothing likely.
2. 17 January 1200The provost Heinrich von Klingen is elected abbot; King Philip confirms him at Ulm later in 1200.Depends on: Ulrich's death and a quick election in Philip's interest. Stopped by: A Welf-minded faction in the convent, or a papal challenge to a king's confirmation.

Places of note

• Abbey of St. Gallen: Imperial abbey
• Rorschach: The abbey's harbour and market on Lake Constance

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: The abbots of 1199-1200 are precisely dated (en.wikipedia, from the abbey's records); the extent of the abbot's lordship in Appenzell and the Fuerstenland in 1200 is drawn from general accounts.

On the map: Drawn as the abbey town and its main estates plus the Appenzell valleys. The abbey's many scattered farms in the Thurgau, Rhine valley and beyond are not drawn; the Fuerstenland as a closed territory is later.

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.