Officers: prévôtés, bailiwicks, seneschals · Philip of Swabia: Staufen and royal lands · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Boyneburg

The Boyneburg is a crown castle on a basalt hill above Sontra, between Hesse and Thuringia, where Frederick Barbarossa held court in 1166 and an imperial assembly in 1188 and from which he left on crusade in 1189.

It is kept for the king by a body of unfree knights who take their name from it. Below it, on the Werra, lies Eschwege: an old royal court with a house of noble canonesses founded about 1000, given market rights about 1188. Together they are the crown's foothold on the road from Frankfurt into Thuringia, squeezed between the landgrave's Hessian county and his Thuringian lands.

Who he is

Name
The ministeriales of Boyneburg (no individual is pinned for 1 January 1200)
Title
The king's castle-men (Burgmannen) of the Boyneburg, imperial ministeriales
Since
1144, when the castle fell back to the crown on the death of Count Siegfried IV of Boyneburg, the last male of the Northeim line; the castle-men took their name from the castle by 1138 at the latest
Born
not pinned
Family
A body of imperial ministeriales named from the castle, who split into three branches in the 13th century and fought Hessian lordship for two centuries after 1292
Confidence
medium

de.wikipedia Boyneburg: first named in 1107 as Bemelburch in a charter of Henry V, who had it destroyed for its garrison's raids; rebuilt by Siegfried III of Northeim as an imperial fief; repaired 1150-1160 by Abbot Markward of Fulda; Frederick I there in 1156 (called an imperial castle), a court day in 1166, a Reichstag in 1188 when he endowed a chaplaincy, and his departure on crusade from it in 1189. On 12 May 1292 King Adolf granted the "Reichsburg Boyneburg" with Eschwege to Landgrave Henry I of Hesse as an imperial principality.

Overlord

King Philip: the castle and Eschwege are the crown's (they are still imperial property when Adolf of Nassau grants them to Hesse in 1292)

What it holds

  • The Boyneburg, an imperial castle (first named 1107; the crown's again since 1144) with its chapel, endowed by Frederick I in 1188
  • The castle district round Sontra and Wichmannshausen (extent in 1200 not pinned)
  • The royal court of Eschwege on the Werra ford, with market rights from about 1188 (town rights only before 1249); the convent of St Cyriacus has the counts of Lohra as advocates (attested 1188: see Eschwege and Lohra)
  • Not theirs: the salt springs of Sooden and Allendorf, which belong to Fulda abbey, with the landgrave pressing on them (lordship in 1200 not pinned)

How it was acquired

Royal since the Ottonian court of Eschwege (Otto II left it to Theophanu, 974); the Boyneburg reverted to the crown in 1144 and was kept by ministeriales thereafter.

Allies and rivals

Rivals: Landgrave Hermann of Thuringia, whose Hessian county (Kassel, Melsungen, Homberg) and Thuringian lands lie on either side and who will win both castle and town in the end (1264, 1292). Fulda abbey owns the salt of Sooden next door; Hersfeld abbey and the landgrave's advocacy lie to the south.

How things stand that morning

The castle-men hold the Boyneburg for the crown, and Eschwege is the king's court with its convent. Philip has used Thuringian loyalties to buy the landgrave (he gave him Nordhausen and Mühlhausen in 1199), so this crown post sits inside a prince's sphere whose loyalty to Philip is bought, not certain.

Wealth

The Werra crossing and its market at Eschwege; the cloth and leather crafts that grow there in this century; the royal estates of the castle district.

Military

A strong hill castle with a body of ministerial castle-men; no numbers known.

Threats

  • The landgrave of Thuringia, who surrounds the district and wants the Werra crossing
  • A crown that pledges its estates for cash in a civil war

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 (no dated event)The castle-men keep the Boyneburg for Philip.Depends on: Landgrave Hermann staying in Philip's camp. Stopped by: The landgrave changing sides (the OMNIA board has him backing the Welf candidate for Mainz before the end of 1200, and forced back to Philip in 1204), or a pledge of the castle to him.

Places of note

  • Boyneburg castle: Imperial castle; Frederick I's court of 1166 and assembly of 1188
  • Eschwege: Royal court and convent of St Cyriacus on the Werra ford

Where the sources disagree

  • The OMNIA board has Eschwege as imperial demesne pledged and repledged between the crown, Thuringia and Mainz; the sources reached give no pledge before 1264, so this record keeps it the king's and leaves the pledges unpinned.

Evidence: The castle's imperial status, the royal visits and the 1292 grant are attested; no castle-man is named for 1200 and the district's bounds are reconstructed round Sontra and Eschwege.

On the map: Both blocks are drawn round their centres; the crown's rights were scattered among the landgrave's and the abbeys' estates.

Primary sources for Staufen

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.

23 more in the sources library for The Rhineland, the Low Countries and the Swiss Lands.

Sources and studies

  1. Boyneburg (de.wikipedia)
  2. Eschwege (de.wikipedia)

Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.