An island palace and toll castle on the Rhine below Düsseldorf.
Frederick Barbarossa moved the Rhine toll here from Tiel in 1174 and rebuilt the old palace as a toll fortress, finished about 1193 under Henry VI; from Philippopolis in 1189 he ordered his son to complete and guard Kaiserswerth and Nijmegen. The toll is hated in Cologne: Henry VI exempted the men of Cologne and Neuss in 1190 and confirmed Cologne's freedom from the Boppard and Kaiserswerth tolls in his settlement with Archbishop Adolf in 1193, and in the settlement of 1202 Otto had to abolish the 'unjust' tolls at Kaiserswerth and Duisburg, which shows that the toll was in his hands. The counts of Berg hold an advocacy here, taken over from the Hardenberg family under Engelbert I.
In 1213-1215 Otto still holds the castle and keeps prisoners there until Adolf III of Berg takes it in 1215.
Who he is
- Name
- Not pinned by name: held for Otto IV
- Title
- The king's castellans and toll-keepers of Kaiserswerth
- Since
- After Henry VI's death (September 1197) the palace passed into Cologne-Welf hands (de.wikipedia Kaiserpfalz Kaiserswerth)
- Confidence
- low
de.wikipedia Kaiserpfalz Kaiserswerth and Kaiserswerth; Düsseldorf study of Adolf and Otto (the settlement of 1202)
Overlord
The king (Otto IV)
What it holds
- The palace castle on the Rhine island
- The king's Rhine toll
- The royal forest of Aap (confirmed to the chapter of St Suitbert with its forest counts by Henry VI in 1193)
How it was acquired
Royal since the eleventh century; held for Otto after 1197.
Allies and rivals
Cologne (wants the toll gone), Berg (advocate).
How things stand that morning
Held for Otto IV (welf); confidence low: no source names the castellan that winter.
Wealth
The Rhine toll. No figures.
Military
The toll fortress with its keep, palace, curtain wall and moat.
Threats
- Cologne's pressure to destroy the toll
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: Welf control inferred from the de.wikipedia statement and the 1202 settlement; no castellan named.
On the map: The town is drawn as a point on its own record.
Primary sources for Welf
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
- 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
- Annals of Stade, by Albert of Stade, Albert of Stade (about 1240 to 1256). A world chronicle written at Stade in the 1240s from older Stade and Bremen annals. 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
18 more in the sources library for The Rhineland, the Low Countries and the Swiss Lands.
Sources and studies
- de.wikipedia: Kaiserpfalz Kaiserswerth
- de.wikipedia: Kaiserswerth
- Study of Adolf of Cologne and Otto IV, pp. 56-58
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.