Küssaberg

Who he is

Title

Count of Küssaberg, landgrave of Stühlingen

Since

not pinned

Born

not pinned

Family

A comital house of the High Rhine seated at the Küssaburg. Heinrich of Küssenberg is first named in 1135-1150; Werner of Küssenberg was abbot of St Blasien in 1170-1178. In 1172 the house inherited the landgraviate of Stühlingen. It dies out about 1250 (the last count perhaps in 1270); the bishop of Constance bought the Küssaburg in 1241 and the lords of Lupfen took Stühlingen.

Confidence

low

de.wikipedia Küssaburg

Overlord

The king, for the county; the landgraviate is the high justice in the king's name.

What it holds

• The Küssaburg and its villages above the Rhine
• The count's rights in the Klettgau
• The landgraviate (high court) of Stühlingen, inherited in 1172

How it was acquired

The county by descent; Stühlingen by inheritance in 1172.

Allies and rivals

Kin to St Blasien's abbots; neighbours the lords of Krenkingen (the family of Bishop Diethelm of Constance), the Zähringen at Schaffhausen, the abbey of Rheinau.

How things stand that morning

Hold the Küssaburg and the courts of the Klettgau and Stühlingen; no part in the throne war recorded.

Wealth

Court fines, Klettgau grain, the Rhine crossings.

Military

The Küssaburg; no numbers.

Threats

• The bishop of Constance's buying-up of the district (the Küssaburg goes to him in 1241)
• The Krenkingen and the Zähringen

Places of note

• Küssaburg: the counts' seat

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: The county and the 1172 inheritance are documented; no count is named for 1200.

On the map: County and landgraviate are jurisdictions over a mixed country; drawn roughly.

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.