Toul

Who holds it

Name

Matthew of Lorraine

Title

Bishop of Toul

Since

1197

Confidence

medium

A son of the ducal house of Lorraine (campaign notes: a duke's son). General histories make him a worldly and violent bishop whom Innocent III will depose in 1210 and who will be killed in 1217 by his nephew Duke Theobald I of Lorraine; these later points were not checked against a source in this research.

What it holds

• Toul: the bishop's city on the Moselle, with his cathedral
• Liverdun: given to the church of Toul by Otto I (first authentic act, 960); its ruined castle was rebuilt and given a new enclosure and a collegiate church by Bishop Pierre de Brixey in 1182
• Villages and castles of the church around Toul (Blénod, Brixey and others; their state in 1200 not pinned)

How it was acquired

Royal grants of the 10th century (Liverdun 960) to an ancient see; Bishop Pierre de Brixey rebuilt its defences in the 1180s.

How things stand that morning

Matthew holds the city and Liverdun. A duke's son in the bishop's chair makes Toul in practice a satellite of the house of Lorraine.

Wealth

The Moselle crossing at Toul; the wine of the Toulois; the church's villages.

Threats

• The bishop's own conduct, which will bring papal deposition
• The counts of Bar
• The citizens of Toul

Advocates and rivals

The dukes of Lorraine (the bishop's own family), the counts of Bar, and the citizens of Toul.

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: Liverdun's grant and rebuilding are attested; the rest of the bishop's temporal in 1200 is not pinned by the sources consulted, and the bishop's later career is from general histories.

On the map: Only the city and Liverdun are drawn; the bishop's other villages are not placed.

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.