A royal palace town where the Ruhr meets the Rhine, a seat of kings since the tenth century (a synod in 929).
The Rhine's main arm began to move away from the old town soon after 1000. Barbarossa granted two yearly cloth fairs of fourteen days each in 1173. It stays the king's town until it is pledged to Cleves in 1290.
Who holds it
- Name
- The king (held for Otto IV; see Duisburg (king's))
- Title
- Lord of the town
- Confidence
- low
de.wikipedia Duisburg
Lord in 1200
The king's officers (not named), for Otto IV.
Overlord
The king
How things stand that morning
The king's town, held for Otto (welf, low confidence).
Charter
Barbarossa's grant of two fourteen-day cloth fairs a year (1173). No town charter is pinned for 1200.
Council
Not pinned for 1200 (a council appears about 1270).
Fairs and markets
Two fourteen-day cloth fairs each year (1173).
Walls and castle
The royal palace; walls not pinned for 1200.
Trade and crafts
Cloth fairs; trade with London, Antwerp and Brussels in the Middle Ages (undated); the king's Rhine toll.
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: Fairs dated; control inferred.
On the map: Town and fields; the later Duisburg forest is not drawn.
Primary sources for Welf
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 Egmond (12th century to about 1205). The house annals of Egmond, the counts of Holland's abbey, and the main native source for Holland around 1200. Read online
- 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
- Annals of Stade, by Albert of Stade, Albert of Stade (about 1240 to 1256). A world chronicle written at Stade in the 1240s from older Stade and Bremen annals. 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
18 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.