Bolanden

Who he is

Name

Philip I of Bolanden (Werner II's brother, died shortly after 1202) and the young Werner III (Werner II's grandson, died 1221): the Werner at Philip of Swabia's court in 1199 is most likely Werner III

Title

Lords of Bolanden, royal ministeriales; advocates of the king's estate of Ingelheim

Since

after the death of Werner II, about 1191 (marked uncertain in the Residenzen-Kommission article)

Born

not pinned

Family

Royal (once Mainz) ministeriales of the Donnersberg country. Werner I founded the family house of Hane before 1129. Werner II (active from the 1160s, regularly at Barbarossa's court after 1170, procurator in 1182, died about 1191) was the great man of the house; his daughter married Hunfried of Falkenstein, imperial steward in 1166. His brother Philip I may have held half of Hohenfels about 1189/90. Werner III and Philip III (died 1220) are Werner I's great-grandsons. The house divides in the next generation into Bolanden, Falkenstein (by 1233) and Hohenfels (documented from 1227).

Confidence

medium

Residenzen-Kommission (Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Goettingen), article 'Falkenstein'; NDB 'Bolanden, Herren von'; de.wikipedia Bolanden (Adelsgeschlecht); en.wikipedia Hohenfels Castle (Palatinate); the Cologne study of 1198-1202 (note on the feuds of 1199, citing Philip's charters of 13 May and 14 September 1199)

Overlord

The king for the advocacy of Ingelheim and as lord of the family's service; some 44 lords for the fiefs in Werner II's fief book; Lorsch abbey for Kamp and Sterrenberg

What it holds

• Altbolanden castle, the family seat, with the family abbey of Hane (founded before 1129)
• Rights in about 150 places of the Wormsgau and the Donnersberg country, held of 44 lords (Werner II's fief book)
• The royal advocacy (Reichsvogtei) of the Ingelheim estate, the king's lands round the old palace of Ingelheim
• Kamp ('curia in Chamben') and Sterrenberg castle on the right bank of the Rhine, fiefs of Lorsch since about 1190
• Hohenfels castle near Imsbach (built about 1200; described in Pruem abbey's register in 1222): Philip I may have held half of it about 1189/90; the family's fief book names the brothers Werner and Philip as holding a castle linked to it; wholly Bolanden by 1222
• Not yet: the imperial stewardship (Reichstruchsess), which Werner III receives from Frederick II after 1212; Falkenstein on the Donnersberg, still with the old ministerial lords of Falkenstein, which passes to the Bolanden probably after 1202; Neu-Bolanden (13th century)

How it was acquired

Service to the Salian and Staufen kings and to Mainz; fiefs gathered from many lords through the 12th century; Kamp and Sterrenberg from Lorsch about 1190.

Allies and rivals

Philip of Swabia, at whose court Werner appears in 1199; Count Frederick (Emich) of Leiningen, his ally in the 1199 feud; Bishop Lupold of Worms, his opponent in that feud; Kuno of Muenzenberg and the other great Staufen ministeriales (the mre researcher's).

How things stand that morning

The Bolanden switched sides more than once after 1198 (Residenzen-Kommission), but at the end of 1199 they are with Philip: Werner witnesses Philip's charters of 13 May 1199 (Boehmer-Ficker no. 26) and 14 September 1199. A 19th-century reading of the Cologne annals ties his 1199 feud with Bishop Lupold to Otto's march up the Rhine; Winkelmann denies the link and dates the feud's end to the charter of 13 May 1199. On 1 January 1200 the Bolanden hold the Donnersberg country and the Ingelheim advocacy for the Staufen side.

Wealth

Rents and rights in some 150 villages; the dues of the Ingelheim advocacy; Rhine-side vineyards at Kamp.

Military

Bolanden and Hohenfels castles, Sterrenberg on the Rhine, a large following of their own ministeriales and knights. No numbers known.

Threats

• Bishop Lupold of Worms
• Division among the heirs

Places of note

• Altbolanden: Family seat
• Hohenfels: Castle of the Hohenfels line
• Sterrenberg: Lorsch fief on the Rhine, about 1190
• Ingelheim: The king's estate of which Werner is advocate
• Falkenstein: Castle of the old lords of Falkenstein; Bolanden only from the early 13th century

Where the sources disagree

• Generations: the Residenzen-Kommission puts Werner II's death about 1191 (with a question mark) and makes Werner III (died 1221) a great-grandson of Werner I; NDB makes Werner III Werner II's grandson. The Werner of Philip's 1199 charters is therefore most likely Werner III, with his great-uncle Philip I as the senior of the house.
• NDB dates the Hohenfels side line from 1199; the Residenzen-Kommission documents it only from 1227 (Philip of Hohenfels) and says Hohenfels was wholly Bolanden by 1222.
• The fief book counts 44 lords besides the emperor (de.wikipedia, Residenzen-Kommission) or 45 (NDB); its surviving copy dates from the mid-13th century.

Evidence: The fief book and the 1199 charters are good evidence; the head of the house that winter and the Hohenfels share are not pinned.

On the map: The Bolanden's rights were scattered over some 150 places; only the main blocks are drawn.

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.