A family of free lords on the Tauber, named from the castle of Hohlach near Uffenheim, which guards the road from Rothenburg to Ochsenfurt, and seated at Weikersheim, a castle built about 1153 on an island of the Tauber and held of Comburg abbey.
Staufen followers: Albert went on the Third Crusade with Barbarossa. Brauneck, later a Hohenlohe line's seat near Creglingen, does not yet exist: the castle is built about 1230.
Who he is
- Name
- Henry (Heinrich) of Hohenlohe, with his brother Albert (Adelbert)
- Title
- Free lord (Edelherr) of Hohenlohe (Hohlach) and Weikersheim
- Since
- 1192 (as head of the house, per the family list)
- Born
- about 1150
- Family
- Son of Conrad of Weikersheim (named 1153, died 1183). Brother Albert, in charters 1189-1209, a crusader of 1189, who in 1207 gives the church of Mergentheim to the Knights Hospitaller (the first Hohenlohe charter). Henry's five sons: Andreas, Henry and Frederick (later Teutonic knights, who give Mergentheim to the Order in 1219), and Gottfried and Conrad, heads of the house from 1209; their birth dates are not given. The first to call himself 'of Hohenloch' was Albert in 1178.
- Confidence
- medium
de.wikipedia Hohenlohe (Adelsgeschlecht); Burg Brauneck.
Overlord
The king; Comburg abbey for Weikersheim, which the family holds of it until 1244.
What it holds
- Weikersheim castle on the Tauber (held of Comburg abbey)
- Hohlach castle near Uffenheim on the Rothenburg-Ochsenfurt road
- Haltenbergstetten castle (built about 1200; whether before 1 January 1200 is not pinned)
- The church of Mergentheim (Albert gives it to the Hospitallers in 1207)
- Probably the advocacy of Kitzingen abbey, which the family held 'for a long time' before 1243 (whether already in 1200 is not pinned)
How it was acquired
Free family of the Tauber, named at Weikersheim from 1153 and at Hohlach from 1178.
Allies and rivals
Staufen followers; neighbours the Staufen at Rothenburg, the see of Würzburg, the Rieneck (Lauda) and Mainz (Tauberbischofsheim).
How things stand that morning
Henry and Albert hold their castles; which king they back that winter is not pinned (the house served the Staufen before and after; Staufen presumed).
Wealth
Tauber valley lands and the road from Rothenburg to the Main.
Military
Weikersheim, Hohlach. No figures survive.
Places of note
- Weikersheim castle: Seat on the Tauber
- Hohlach castle: Castle near Uffenheim (site approximate)
Where the sources disagree
- Brauneck: the assignment lists it, but the castle and the Hohenlohe-Brauneck line date from about 1230. In 1200 there is no lordship of Brauneck; its ground near Creglingen is drawn with the Hohenlohe or left to its neighbours.
Evidence: The family's men and castles are dated; their acts in 1199 are not.
On the map: Extent of the Hohenlohe lands in 1200 is not pinned; Röttingen and Niederstetten mark only the approximate edges of the Weikersheim block.
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
- Hohenlohe (Adelsgeschlecht), de.wikipedia
- Burg Brauneck, de.wikipedia
- Benediktinerinnenkloster Kitzingen, de.wikipedia
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.