Utrecht

Who holds it

Name

Dirk van Are (Dietrich II of Are)

Title

Bishop of Utrecht

Since

1197 or 1198

Confidence

medium

Of the counts of Are (on the Ahr, in the Eifel). He came in after a double vacancy: Arnold of Isenburg and Dirk of Holland were both chosen in 1196-1197 and both died within the year. A martial churchman, 'better qualified for the camp than the choir' in one old judgment: he will spend his reign at war with Count William I of Holland (each in turn the other's prisoner), ally with Louis II of Looz, take and devastate Dordrecht, and die at Deventer on 5 December 1212.

The German list dates his accession 1197, the English article 1198.

What it holds

• Utrecht: the bishop's city (chartered in 1122), with his cathedral and the city's chapters
• The Nedersticht, roughly the later province of Utrecht: the bishop's estates, castles and vassals around the city, Amersfoort and Rhenen
• The Oversticht beyond the IJssel: Deventer, the bishop's second city; the IJsselgau (granted 1086) and the Salland and Twente lands with Oldenzaal
• Drenthe: the county given by Henry III to Bishop Bernold in 1046 (the see's first secular holding, from Adalbold's time), held for the bishop by the castellans of Coevorden
• Groningen: the 'villa Gruoninga' given by Henry III in 1040 with mint and toll
• Claims in Friesland: Oostergo and Westergo (granted 1086), shared with the count of Holland since Barbarossa's arrangement of 1165, where Frisian freemen in fact rule themselves
• Old grants long since enfeoffed to lay lords: Teisterbant (1026), the county on the east shore of the Zuiderzee (1042), Westfriesland (1064), Stavoren (1077)

How it was acquired

Drenthe from Adalbold's time (1010-1026) and confirmed in 1046; Teisterbant 1026; Groningen 1040; a county on the Zuiderzee 1042; Westfriesland 1064; Stavoren 1077; Oostergo, Westergo and the IJsselgau 1086. The bishops were princes of the Empire from 1024; the chapter has elected them since 1122.

How things stand that morning

Dirk van Are holds both halves of the Sticht and Groningen. Holland and Gelre wait for a chance; the Frisian claims are words. His great wars with Holland come after Count Dirk VII's death in 1203.

Wealth

Trade on the Rhine, Lek, Vecht and IJssel; the markets and mints of Utrecht and Deventer; Groningen's market and toll; cattle and peat lands.

Threats

• The counts of Holland and Gelre
• The castellans of Coevorden, who could make Drenthe their own
• The towns of Utrecht, Deventer and Groningen

Advocates and rivals

The counts of Holland (Dirk VII), who hold the coast and the Rhine mouths and claim Frisian rights and the Gooi; the counts of Gelre (Otto I), who hold the lands to the south and east; the castellans of Coevorden in Drenthe; the lords of Amstel, Woerden and IJsselstein, the bishop's own vassals; the citizens of Utrecht and Deventer; the Frisian freemen.

Places of note

• Coevorden: Castle of the bishop's castellans of Drenthe
• Deventer: The bishop's second city; Dirk dies here in 1212
• Dordrecht: Holland's town, later sacked by Dirk (not the bishop's)

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: The royal grants and the bishop's name are attested; the extent of the bishop's direct lordship in the Nedersticht and Oversticht in 1200 is reconstructed from the later provinces of Utrecht and Overijssel and is approximate. The see's allegiance in 1200 is not pinned by the sources consulted (the campaign notes have it Welf-leaning or wavering).

On the map: Dutch places are whole modern municipalities. The Nedersticht and Salland outlines are rough traces of the later provinces' cores; Twente beyond Oldenzaal and the north-west of the Oversticht are left out because the bishop's direct lordship there in 1200 is not pinned.

Primary sources for Utrecht

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 Egmond (12th century to about 1205). The house annals of Egmond, the counts of Holland's abbey, and the main native source for Holland around 1200. Read online
• Chronicle of the abbots of Wittewierum (Bloemhof), Emo of Wittewierum (from 1219 to 1237, continued by Menko to 1273). The chronicle opens only in 1204 with the founding of Emo's Premonstratensian house in the Groningen Ommelanden, so it has nothing for 1200 itself. Read online