Cologne's southernmost Rhine town, on the frontier with the Trier lands and the Staufen middle Rhine, with market rights and a toll by 1167 and its own seal before 1200.
It was taken and razed in the war of 1198 and is being rebuilt: the Rhine gate dates from about 1200. The parish church (rebuilt 1196-1220) was long a proprietary church of the archbishop of Trier.
Who holds it
- Name
- Archbishop Adolf of Cologne
- Title
- Lord of the town
- Since
- 1193 (the see since 1167)
- Confidence
- high
de.wikipedia Andernach; Düsseldorf study
Lord in 1200
The archbishop of Cologne (granted with the market toll by Barbarossa to Rainald of Dassel in 1167); his officers not named.
Overlord
The archbishop
How things stand that morning
Cologne's town, in ruins after 1198, on the frontier of the throne war.
Charter
Barbarossa's grant to Cologne, 1167 (with the 'teloneum'); a town seal before 1200.
Council
Not pinned for 1200.
Communities
The Augustinian canonesses of St Thomas (1126-1129).
Fairs and markets
Market by 1167.
Walls and castle
Old Roman walls; the Rhine gate built about 1200 during the rebuilding.
Trade and crafts
Rhine trade; shipping of Eifel millstones and tuff (general, not dated to 1200).
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.
- April 1200Conrad of Mainz's truce gives the frontier town time to rebuild.Depends on: Both kings accepting Stopped by: A new Staufen push down the Rhine
Where the sources disagree
- Who razed Andernach in 1198 differs: the Düsseldorf study (following the Cologne chronicle) has Philip's troops raze it in October 1198; de.wikipedia credits Otto IV with conquering and destroying it. Either way it was destroyed in 1198.
Evidence: Grant of 1167 and the 1198 destruction are attested; the town's institutions in 1200 are not.
On the map: Town and fields.
Primary sources for Cologne
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 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 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
- Regesta Imperii V: calendar of the acts of Philip, Otto IV and Frederick II, 1198 to 1272 (calendar of documents of 1198 to 1272, published 1881 to 1901). A dated calendar of every known act of King Philip and King Otto IV, with the acts of popes and princes that bear on the Empire. Read online
- Register of Innocent III on the affair of the Roman Empire, Innocent III and the papal chancery (1198 to 1209, compiled as a separate register at the curia). The pope's own file on the German throne war: letters to and from Philip, Otto, the German princes and bishops, and the famous Deliberatio of late 1200 or early 1201 in which Innocent weighs the claims of Frederick, Philip and Otto before deciding for Otto. Read online
- The Registers of Pope Innocent III for 1199 to 1201, Innocent III and the papal chancery (22 February 1199 to 21 February 1201). The pope's outgoing letters for the year, in his chancery's own copy, touching nearly every realm in the atlas. Read online
2 more in the sources library for The Rhineland, the Low Countries and the Swiss Lands.
Sources and studies
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.