A castle county between Visé and Aubel over the Berwinne, with villages scattered between Liege, Limburg and Maastricht.
It belongs to the Rhineland house of Hochstaden, the family Henry I of Brabant punished after his brother's murder in 1192 by ravaging their estate (ADB: whether that estate was Dalhem is not stated). Brabant takes Dalhem only in 1239.
Who he is
- Name
- The counts of Are-Hochstaden (the individual count in 1200 not pinned)
- Title
- Count of Dalhem
- Since
- About 1150 the fortress and county seem to have passed to the counts of Hochstaden (fr.wikipedia)
- Born
- Not pinned
- Family
- Are-Hochstaden (lrh): the kin of Lothar of Hochstaden, Henry VI's candidate for Liege in 1192.
- Confidence
- low
fr.wikipedia Comte de Dalhem; ADB on Henry I (who ravaged the Hochstaden estate after 1192)
Overlord
Not pinned before 1239
What it holds
- Dalhem castle on its rock
- Bans and villages later counted to the county: Aubel, Cheratte, Trembleur (Blegny), the Fouron villages, Olne (bounds in 1200 not pinned)
How it was acquired
About 1150, by the Hochstaden.
Allies and rivals
Brabant (enemy since 1192); Limburg; Liege.
How things stand that morning
A Hochstaden outpost on the Meuse plateau; holder and side not pinned (the Hochstaden are Cologne's men in the Rhineland).
Wealth
Plateau farmland and pasture.
Military
Dalhem castle.
Threats
- Brabant
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.
- 1239 (later course)Henry II of Brabant takes Dalhem after a seven-week siege.Depends on: Brabant's later expansion. Stopped by: Any change in the Hochstaden line or the Brabant succession.
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: fr.wikipedia's 'seem to have passed' is itself hedged.
On the map: Drawn from the later county's bans.
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.
Sources and studies
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.