Dortmund is the king's chief place in Westphalia: a palace and royal manor on the Hellweg where Frederick I held court in 1152, a trading town of long-distance merchants, and one of only two places in the Cologne archdiocese allowed by Henry VI (25 March 1190) to strike royal coin.
Henry VI founded the convent of St Catherine there on 23 March 1193, keeping its advocacy for the Empire. The merchants' church of St Nicholas was consecrated in 1198, and the town walls rise about 1200.
Who holds it
- Name
- The king, through the count of Dortmund (Konrad I is documented from 1200; Albert was count in 1189)
- Title
- Town lord
- Confidence
- medium
Lord in 1200
The king; the count of Dortmund judges the townsmen (they were still under his court in 1220). Which king the town and its count follow on 1 January 1200 is not pinned.
Overlord
The king. Not pledged on 1 January 1200: Otto IV's promise to pledge Dortmund to Archbishop Adolf if he failed to repay his debt by 24 June comes in an agreement of October 1202 at the earliest
How things stand that morning
On 1 January 1200 Dortmund is a king's town whose side is not pinned. Its own history reads Otto's pledge of the town to Cologne and his avoidance of the Hellweg as signs of Staufen leanings, but the pledge belongs to 1202-03; and Archbishop Adolf and Bishop Hermann of Münster meet there at the beginning of January 1200. Neighbours: the young count Adolf of Altena (Burg Mark) to the east, the Vest of Recklinghausen (lrh) and Münster to the north, Cologne's Volmarstein to the south.
Charter
A privilege of Conrad III (August 1145); the renewal by Frederick II on 1 May 1220 to the 'universitas Tremoniensium civium' is later.
Council
Not before 1240; the court of assessors (Schöffen) is its forerunner.
Fairs and markets
Not pinned for 1200 (a further fair is granted only on 30 September 1232).
Walls and castle
Royal palace and manor; town walls built about 1200 (81 hectares, about 3,300 m, 14 towers), whether begun by January 1200 not pinned.
Trade and crafts
Long-distance trade along the Hellweg; Dortmund merchants in the Gotland peace (date not pinned) and later in London and Smolensk (1229); royal mint.
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.
- early January 1200Archbishop Adolf and Bishop Hermann of Münster meet at Dortmund; Hermann commits to Otto.Depends on: The town receiving them. Stopped by: War on the Hellweg.
Where the sources disagree
- The Dortmund history infers Staufen sympathies from Otto's pledge of the town to Cologne, which the study of Archbishop Adolf (ch. V) dates to a conditional agreement of October 1202 at the earliest; the January 1200 Cologne-Münster meeting at Dortmund points the other way. Left 'not pinned'.
Evidence: Royal acts and buildings well dated; the town's stance in the throne war is not.
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 Dortmund, de.wikipedia
- Grafschaft Dortmund, de.wikipedia
- Study of Archbishop Adolf I of Cologne, ch. IV: his politics while allied with Otto, summer 1198 to autumn 1202 (pp. 38-56), digitised by ULB Düsseldorf
- Study of Archbishop Adolf I of Cologne, ch. V: Adolf's break with Otto (pp. 56-64), digitised by ULB Düsseldorf
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.