Officers: prévôtés, bailiwicks, seneschals · Philip of Swabia: Staufen and royal lands · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Münzenberg

The greatest of the Staufen ministeriales in the Wetterau and Philip's man without wavering.

The king's chamberlain since 1162, the witness most often named in Henry VI's charters and his companion in Italy, he holds the great castle of Münzenberg above the Wetterau, Hayn in the Dreieich (the base from which his family has governed the royal forest and hunting ban of the Dreieich since about 1075), Königstein in the Taunus by his wife's inheritance, and since 1194 half of the royal mint at Frankfurt; he strikes his own bracteates. In the throne war he ravaged the Hessian lands of Landgrave Hermann early in 1199 to keep him out of Otto's campaign, attended Philip's court at Speyer in May 1199 and fought Philip's enemies on the middle Rhine that summer. In 1188 Mainz Jews fled from the crusade riots to his castle of Münzenberg.

Who he is

Name
Kuno I of Münzenberg (of the Hagen family)
Title
The king's chamberlain (Reichskämmerer), lord of Münzenberg, hereditary advocate (Vogt) of the royal forest of the Dreieich
Since
chamberlain attested from 1162
Born
1151 (de.wikipedia, Hagen-Münzenberg)
Family
Son of Konrad II of Hagen-Arnsburg and Luitgart of Bickenbach. Wife: Luckharde of Nürings, through whom he inherited Königstein (de.wikipedia, Hagen-Münzenberg). Sons Kuno II and Ulrich I and probably a daughter Liutgard; birth years not pinned. He dies in 1207 (one passage says 1212).
Confidence
high

de.wikipedia Kuno I. von Münzenberg and Hagen-Münzenberg.

Overlord

The king (Philip). He is a royal ministerialis, an unfree knight of the king, and also a great lord in his own right.

What it holds

  • Münzenberg castle (built about 1160; the family's name from 1156), land got from Fulda by exchange
  • Hayn (Dreieichenhain), expanded into an imperial castle by 1180, and the advocacy of the royal forest and hunting ban of the Dreieich
  • Königstein in the Taunus, by the Nürings inheritance through his wife (burgrave first named 1215)
  • Half of the Frankfurt mint (granted by Henry VI in 1194)
  • The hospital at Sachsenhausen (founded 1190, endowed by Henry VI on 29 March 1193, later given to the Teutonic Order)
  • Arnsburg, given up in 1174 to found the Cistercian abbey of Arnsburg
  • A mint of his own for bracteates, probably at Münzenberg (no royal grant proven)

How it was acquired

Münzenberg by exchange with Fulda in the mid-12th century; the Dreieich advocacy by inheritance in the Hagen family; Königstein by marriage; the Frankfurt mint by Henry VI's grant in 1194.

Allies and rivals

Philip's household (Henry of Kalden, Heinrich of Waldburg); the Wetterau ministeriales and castle-men; enemy of Otto's party and in 1199 of the landgrave of Thuringia; neighbour of Mainz, Hanau, Büdingen and Eppstein.

How things stand that morning

Holds all his castles and offices for Philip; the Wetterau and the Dreieich are firmly Staufen that winter. His raid on Hermann of Thuringia's Hessian lands lies a year back, and Hermann is now on Philip's side.

Wealth

Half the Frankfurt mint, his own coinage, the forest and hunting rights of the Dreieich, Wetterau farmland.

Military

Münzenberg, Hayn and Königstein castles; the Wetterau ministeriales who follow him. Raided Hesse early in 1199; fought on the middle Rhine in summer 1199.

Threats

  • A Welf revival on the middle Rhine (Otto reached Boppard in 1199)
  • The Mainz schism after Conrad's death

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.

  1. 1200Keeps the Wetterau for Philip; if Otto marches up the Rhine to Mainz about Christmas 1200, the Wetterau castles are Philip's base against him.Depends on: The Mainz schism and Otto's march. Stopped by: A settlement of the throne.

Places of note

  • Münzenberg castle: His seat.
  • Hayn (Dreieichenhain): Base for the Dreieich forest.
  • Königstein castle: Nürings inheritance.
  • Arnsburg abbey: Cistercian, founded on his castle in 1174.

Where the sources disagree

  • de.wikipedia (Hagen-Münzenberg) gives his death as 1207 in one passage and has Kuno II inherit 'after his death in 1212' in another.

Evidence: His office, holdings and actions in 1199 are dated in de.wikipedia's articles from charters and chronicles.

On the map: The Dreieich outline is a rough rendering of the royal hunting district between the Main and the Gersprenz; the Münzenberg block follows the later inheritance.

Primary sources for Staufen

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.

23 more in the sources library for The Rhineland, the Low Countries and the Swiss Lands.

Sources and studies

  1. Kuno I. von Münzenberg, de.wikipedia
  2. Hagen-Münzenberg, de.wikipedia
  3. Geschichte der Stadt Mainz, de.wikipedia (1188)

Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.