Coevorden

Who he is

Name

Not pinned: the house descended from Ludolf, enfeoffed in 1141; Rudolf II leads it in 1227

Title

Castellan (burgrave) of Coevorden and the bishop's officer in Drenthe

Since

Not pinned

Born

Not pinned

Family

In 1141 Bishop Hartbert gave Groningen and Drenthe in fief to the brothers Leffard and Ludolf; their heirs are the prefects of Groningen and the castellans of Coevorden.

Confidence

low

In the 1180s or 1190s the castellan robbed the merchants of Bentheim and was removed by Bishop Baldwin; he then roused the Groningers and the Drents against the bishop and his brother Otto of Bentheim, who was beaten near Rolde ('Roccloh'); Guelders joined the rebels; the archbishops of Mainz and Cologne settled the war at Deventer. Blok has Coevorden taken and held by Bentheim for about nine years. Who holds the castle on 1 January 1200 is not pinned.

Overlord

The bishop of Utrecht

What it holds

• The castle of Coevorden
• The bishop's comital rights in Drenthe, exercised by the castellan

How it was acquired

The 1141 enfeoffment.

Allies and rivals

Rivals of the prefects of Groningen and of the counts of Bentheim; uneasy vassals of the bishop.

How things stand that morning

The castellans hold Drenthe for the bishop, but whether Bentheim still held Coevorden that winter is not pinned.

Wealth

Tolls on the Ems road, the cens of Drenthe.

Military

Castle of Coevorden; the Drents' muster. No numbers are recorded.

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. 25 July 1227Far beyond 1200: Rudolf II of Coevorden and the Drents destroy Bishop Otto II's army at Ane

Places of note

• Rolde: Near the battlefield where Otto of Bentheim was beaten in the bishop's Drenthe war

Where the sources disagree

• The German Wikipedia (Otto I of Bentheim) dates the Groningen and Drenthe rising 'about 1196' but has it settled by Archbishop Philip of Cologne, who died in 1191; Blok dates the bishop's war 1195. The war belongs before 1191 or the mediators are wrong: not pinned.

Evidence: The Quedam narracio is the main source and is written later; persons and dates around 1200 are uncertain.

On the map: Only the castle district is drawn here.

Primary sources for Utrecht

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 Egmond (12th century to about 1205). The house annals of Egmond, the counts of Holland's abbey, and the main native source for Holland around 1200. Read online
• Chronicle of the abbots of Wittewierum (Bloemhof), Emo of Wittewierum (from 1219 to 1237, continued by Menko to 1273). The chronicle opens only in 1204 with the founding of Emo's Premonstratensian house in the Groningen Ommelanden, so it has nothing for 1200 itself. Read online