The bishop's city at the meeting of the Lech and the Wertach, the largest town of eastern Swabia (de.wikipedia's population table gives fewer than 12,000 inhabitants for 1200).
Its law was settled by Barbarossa in 1156; the king's advocate holds the high justice. Philip married Irene-Maria at the Gunzenle near the city in 1197.
Who holds it
- Name
- Bishop Udalschalk (1184-1202), a Church map record; the advocacy is Philip's
- Title
- Bishop of Augsburg (town lord); the Staufen advocate holds the high justice
- Since
- 1184
- Confidence
- medium
de.wikipedia (Geschichte der Stadt Augsburg; Augsburg); en.wikipedia (Prince-Bishopric of Augsburg).
Lord in 1200
The bishop is lord of the city; the advocate (Vogt), the Staufen house since the Schwabegg advocates died out (1167, from general reference knowledge), holds the high court through a sub-advocate whose name that winter is not pinned (see Augsburg advocacy).
Overlord
The king.
How things stand that morning
Under its bishop and the Staufen advocate on 1 January 1200, quiet so far as the sources show.
Charter
On 21 June 1156 Barbarossa restored and fixed the city's law (a town law setting out the rights of bishop, advocate and burgesses; the content is from general reference knowledge, the date from de.wikipedia). Later steps: a seal and the right to tax the citizens in 1251; King Rudolf's confirmation of the town book and recognition as a city of the Empire on 9 March 1276. Not yet free of the bishop in 1200.
Council
No council is recorded by 1200; the burgesses act under the bishop's and advocate's courts. Their rise against the bishops comes later in the century.
Communities
A Jewish street near the St Leonhard chapel is recorded by 1241, with the community's own court; whether a community existed in 1200 is not pinned.
Fairs and markets
Not pinned for 1200.
Militia
Not recorded for 1200.
Walls and castle
The bishop's town with its cathedral precinct; walls not described in the sources used.
Trade and crafts
Crossroads of the old Roman road over the Alps by the Lech and the routes along the Danube; long-distance trade (not pinned in detail for 1200).
Where the sources disagree
- The campaign notes' Part 9 does not place the bishop of Augsburg in either camp; the city's allegiance is set by the Staufen advocacy here (medium confidence).
Evidence: The 1156 town law and later dates are documented; the 1200 advocacy is from general reference knowledge.
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.
Sources and studies
- Geschichte der Stadt Augsburg (de.wikipedia)
- Augsburg (de.wikipedia)
- Prince-Bishopric of Augsburg (en.wikipedia)
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.