The left bank of the Rhine from the edge of Cologne's Andernach to the royal town of Boppard, with the Moselle mouth at Koblenz, has been crossed by armies twice in fifteen months.
In early October 1198 Philip of Swabia forced the Moselle crossing near Koblenz against Otto IV and Archbishop Adolf after a brief, hard fight; Otto fell back on Andernach, and Philip's troops burned their way through the Cologne lands to Remagen and Bonn and, on the way back, razed Andernach and ravaged the count palatine's lands as a traitor's. In July 1199 Otto marched up the Rhine through Trier's territory, 'punishing it hard' for its archbishop's defection, and halted at Boppard, where his allies failed to come. Archbishop John rebuilt St Castor at Koblenz and the church at Andernach after the war damage.
On 1 January 1200 no army is in the field here and Koblenz and Ehrenbreitstein are firmly held, but the countryside between Andernach, Koblenz and Boppard is the throne war's front on the middle Rhine, a day's march from Otto's Cologne party.
How things stand that morning
Quiet that winter; a truce between the Rhenish princes of both parties until Martinmas 1200 follows in the course of 1200.
Who raids here
Philip's army (October 1198) and Otto IV's Cologne and Brabant troops (July 1199)
Raided
The archbishop of Trier's lands round Koblenz and on the left bank up to Boppard; the count palatine's lands near the route (1198)
Anchors on each side
Staufen and Trier: Koblenz, Ehrenbreitstein, Boppard (royal). Welf and Cologne: Andernach (the lrh researcher's), Cologne.
Last campaign
July 1199 (Otto to Boppard); before that October 1198 (Philip across the Moselle)
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.
In 1200
- 1200, until Martinmas (11 November)Truce between the Rhenish princes of both sides; the belt recovers.Depends on: Conrad of Mainz's mediation Stopped by: A royal campaign on the Rhine
Later, on the likely course
- 1201 (outlook)The armies clash on the Moselle again.Depends on: The papal decision for Otto and the end of the truce Stopped by: A settlement between the kings
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: Both campaigns are in the Annales Colonienses Maximi and the Braunschweig rhymed chronicle as used by a detailed 19th-century study; the sources disagree whether Otto actually reached the Moselle in 1199. No source describes the ground as unfarmable that winter: this belt marks recently raided country, not a no-man's-land.
On the map: Drawn on the left bank only, along the road both armies used; the right bank (Ehrenbreitstein, the Wied and Isenburg lands) is not shown as raided.
Sources and studies
- Study of Archbishop Adolf of Cologne's politics 1198-1202, chapter IV (University of Duesseldorf digital library)
- Geschichte der Stadt Koblenz (de.wikipedia), on the fight in the Moselle bed in October 1198
- Johann I. (NDB), on the churches of Andernach and Koblenz
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.