Kröver Reich

Who he is

Name

The king: which of the two kings it obeys that winter is not pinned, and no royal officer is named for 1199

Title

The crown's own estate (Reichsgut) with its court

Since

Royal land long before 1200; King Rudolf pledged it to the counts of Sponheim only on 25 November 1274, with a share for Trier

Confidence

medium

de.wikipedia, Hintere Grafschaft Sponheim

Overlord

The king (the Empire's own land)

What it holds

• Kröv and the Reich court held there
• Kinheim, Kinderbeuern and Bengel, villages of the Reich (the full list for 1200 is not pinned; Kövenig and Erden are likely members)
• Vineyards on the Moselle slopes and the court's fines and rents

How it was acquired

Old royal estate; the date it came to the crown is not in the sources we read.

Allies and rivals

Hemmed in by the archbishop of Trier, the counts of Sponheim (Starkenburg above Enkirch, built about 1197, stands a few miles downstream) and the canons of Springiersbach in the side valley.

How things stand that morning

The crown's land under local officers whose names are not recorded. Which king it answers to is not pinned.

Wealth

Wine shipped down the Moselle; rents and court fines due to the king.

Military

No castle of its own is recorded; its men answered to the king through the Reich court. No numbers.

Threats

• Sponheim, which takes the Reich in pledge in 1274
• Trier, which shares that pledge and surrounds the Reich on the Moselle

Places of note

• Kröv, seat of the Reich court: the king's court for the villages of the Reich

Where the sources disagree

• The OMNIA board does not mark the Reich of Kröv.

Evidence: Royal status is secure from the pledge of 1274; the extent and officers in 1200 are not pinned.

On the map: The villages follow the later Reich of Kröv; its extent on 1 January 1200 is not pinned.

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.