Are

Who he is

Name

Not pinned: Gerhard, count of Are, witnesses a charter of 5 August 1190; the genealogies disagree on the line's head in 1200

Title

Count of Are

Family

The house of Are has three branches by 1200: Are proper (castle of Are above Altenahr), Are-Hochstaden (Hochstaden, with the Wickrath line Wickrath) and Are-Nürburg (Nürburg). Churchmen of the house: Dietrich (Dirk II), bishop of Utrecht since 1197 or 1198; Lothar of Hochstaden, provost of Bonn and Henry VI's bishop-elect of Liège in 1192.

Confidence

low

de.wikipedia Grafen von Are; fmg.ac witness list of 5 August 1190

Overlord

The king (county of the Ahrgau); Cologne for fiefs

What it holds

• Castle of Are above Altenahr and the county of the Ahrgau
• Vineyards of the middle Ahr

How it was acquired

Ancestral.

Allies and rivals

Kin to the bishop of Utrecht (who goes over to Philip in September 1200) and to the Hochstaden line; neighbours of Cologne's Andernach and Linz and of the Sayn and Berg halves of Saffenberg.

How things stand that morning

Holds the Ahr castle; allegiance not pinned.

Wealth

Ahr wine, the county court. No figures.

Military

Castle of Are; Saffenberg (an old castle of the Ahr, divided between Berg and Sayn after 1172) is not theirs.

Threats

• Raids along the Rhine between Andernach and Bonn (1198)

Places of note

• Castle of Are: Name-giving castle of the house

Where the sources disagree

• The de.wikipedia genealogy gives conflicting dates for the Are counts round 1200 (Dietrich, husband of Luitgard of Dagsburg, died 1194 or 1197; Lothar continuing the main line, undated).

Evidence: Witness lists only; generations muddled.

On the map: Approximate block for the Ahr valley core.

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.