Würzburg

Who holds it

Name

Conrad of Querfurt

Title

Bishop of Würzburg (and claimant to Hildesheim)

Since

elected 1198 (bishop of Hildesheim since 1194-1195)

Confidence

high

Born about 1158 of the Saxon house of Querfurt; his brother Gebhard IV is burgrave of Magdeburg. Imperial chancellor from autumn 1194, then bishop of Hildesheim; Henry VI's legate in Italy, Apulia and Sicily (1195-1196). On the 1197 crusade he crowned Amalric of Cyprus at Nicosia in September 1197 and was at Acre on 5 March 1198 when the German hospital was turned into the Teutonic Order. Elected to Würzburg while away and refused to give up Hildesheim; on 6 May 1199 Innocent III ordered the Hildesheim chapter to elect another bishop, and Conrad was excommunicated.

He is Philip's chancellor. Around 1200 he began fortifying the Marienberg above the city, with a keep and a deep well. Later course: he submits at Rome (1200-1201), is confirmed in Würzburg in summer 1201, breaks with Philip in September 1202, and is murdered in Würzburg in December 1202 (3 or 6 December) by the ministerials Bodo of Ravensburg and Heinrich (of Falkenberg or of Ravensburg), whom he had punished.

What it holds

• Würzburg: city lordship, the Saalhof in the town and the castle on the Marienberg, fortified around 1200
• Ducal jurisdiction over eastern Franconia: high justice over the diocese and its counties by the Golden Freedom (Güldene Freiheit) granted by Barbarossa to Bishop Herold at Würzburg on 10 July 1168; Zent courts and Zent counts only with the bishop's consent
• Most of the counties within the diocese, acquired in the 10th and 11th centuries, and jurisdiction over all the church's dependants
• The hereditary court offices of the see: the counts of Henneberg as marshals, Castell as seneschals, Rieneck as stewards, the lords of Boxberg as chamberlains
• A diocese reaching from Meiningen in the north to Ansbach and Heilbronn in the south

How it was acquired

Founded 741-742; after the Franconian duchy was abolished in 939 the bishops gathered counties and sovereign rights and by the early 11th century acted as dukes of eastern Franconia. The 1168 privilege confirmed the judicial power and ended the Henneberg counts' advocacy (held since 1103).

How things stand that morning

Conrad holds the see by Philip's grant, under papal excommunication, and has lost Hildesheim to a new elect. His power is real in Würzburg and on paper across Franconia.

Wealth

Main valley wine, river tolls, the city market, and fees of the ducal courts.

Threats

• The ban: his clergy and vassals may refuse obedience
• Ministerials of the see
• A shift of the pope or the princes towards Otto

Advocates and rivals

The counts of Henneberg, advocates until 1168 and burgraves of Würzburg until the bishops bought the burgraviate in 1354; the Staufen and their ministerials in Franconia; the ministerial families of the see, such as the Ravensburgs who will kill Conrad.

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. 1200-1201 (not pinned)Conrad travels to Rome and submits; he is absolved and in summer 1201 confirmed as bishop of Würzburg.Depends on: Conrad choosing submission; Philip letting his chancellor go. Stopped by: Philip's veto, or Conrad defying the pope.

Places of note

• Marienberg: Castle above the Main, fortified around 1200 by Conrad

Where the sources disagree

• The German Wikipedia's table of Magdeburg burgraves dates Conrad's Würzburg pontificate 1201-1202, counting from his confirmation; the NDB has him elected in 1198 and confirmed in 1201. On 1 January 1200 he is the elect in possession, as the campaign notes say.

Evidence: Conrad's career is thick (NDB, Wikipedia). The 1200 extent of the bishop's direct lordship outside the city is not documented in the sources consulted, so only the city is drawn.

On the map: Only the city is drawn. The ducal jurisdiction of 1168 covered the whole diocese but was judicial, not territorial, and is not drawn; the bishop's many castles and counties of 1200 are not individually pinned.

Primary sources for Würzburg

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.

• 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