Counts of Brehna

Who he is

Name

Otto I (elder, died 23 December 1203) and his brother Frederick II (died 16 October 1221), ruling together

Title

Counts of Brehna

Since

1182 (after their father Frederick I, son of Conrad the Great)

Born

not pinned

Family

Wettin. Frederick II married Judith (died 6 October 1220); four children, among them Otto II and Dietrich I, later counts (birth years not pinned).

Confidence

medium

de.wikipedia Grafschaft Brehna

Overlord

The king

What it holds

• Brehna castle and Kloster Brehna (canonesses), burial place of the counts
• Herzberg on the Black Elster, the main seat after 1181
• Schlieben and Löben, where the brothers stayed
• Zörbig and the villages between Brehna and the Mulde (not pinned)

How it was acquired

From their father Frederick I, who received Brehna in Conrad the Great's division of 1156.

Allies and rivals

The Wettin cousins; the Ascanians at Wittenberg to the north.

How things stand that morning

Hold Brehna and the Herzberg lands; the de.wikipedia account puts them on Philip's side in the throne war.

Wealth

Farmland round Brehna; forest and marsh on the Black Elster.

Military

Castles at Brehna, Herzberg and Schlieben. No numbers.

Threats

• Ascanian expansion from Wittenberg

Places of note

• Brehna: Castle and family nunnery
• Herzberg: Main seat after 1181

Where the sources disagree

• The Brehna article also lists Camburg among the family's seats; we draw Camburg with the margrave of Meissen (see Margrave Dietrich).

Evidence: One article; the brothers' joint rule and dates are clear, their lands round 1200 less so.

On the map: Schematic.

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.