Lübeck

Who holds it

Name

Count Adolf III of Holstein, through his advocate

Title

town lord in fact

Since

1192 (de.wikipedia: the castle ducal until 1192; ADB: taken without imperial confirmation)

Confidence

medium

Lord in 1200

Count Adolf III of Holstein, who took the town about 1190-92 without the emperor's consent (ADB), rules it through his advocate; the emperor's 1188 privilege stands.

How things stand that morning

Under Adolf III; backs Philip through him.

Charter

Barbarossa's privilege of 1188 (territory, trading rights); Henry the Lion's earlier grants.

Council

A council of leading burghers going back to Henry the Lion's foundation (de.wikipedia gives 24 councillors; number in 1200 not pinned).

Communities

German merchants trading to Gotland (protected since the Artlenburg privilege of 1161); the bishop and cathedral clergy.

Walls and castle

The castle at the north of the town peninsula; the cathedral (begun 1173, not re-checked).

Trade and crafts

Baltic trade to Gotland and Russia, herring, salt from Oldesloe and Lüneburg, furs, wax, cloth from Flanders.

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. 1202 (after this year)Lübeck does homage to the Danish king.Depends on: Adolf's capture in 1201 Stopped by: Adolf III avoiding defeat and capture in 1201 (no battle at Stellau, or relief from Philip and the Saxon princes), or a settlement with Canute VI

Where the sources disagree

• Date of the Danish takeover: the ADB on Adolf III has Lübeck do homage to the Danish king in 1202; the NDB says the Danish king seized the whole county of Holstein in 1200-1201, which would put Lübeck in Danish hands by 1201. Either way it falls after 1200.

Evidence: de.wikipedia Geschichte der Hansestadt Lübeck; ADB on Adolf III.

Primary sources for Holstein

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 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 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
• Chronicle of the Slavs, by Helmold of Bosau, Helmold of Bosau (about 1167 to 1172). Background only. Read online
• The Danish annals of Lund, Ryd and other houses (12th and 13th centuries; Lund continued to 1307, Ryd to 1288). Short dated entries from Lund, the archbishop's seat, and from Ryd in Schleswig. Read online
• Deeds of the Danes, Saxo Grammaticus (about 1185 to 1208). Saxo was writing at Lund in 1200 under Absalon, who died in March 1201, and his last books are an insider's history of Valdemar I and Knud VI to 1185: the Wendish wars, the taking of Rügen, the submission of Pomerania in 1185, the Danish fleet, Absalon's power and the Danish quarrel with the Empire. Read online
• Charter books of Lübeck and of Hamburg (documents to 1226 (Lübeck vol. 1) and to 1300 (Hamburg vol. 1)). The charters of the two north German towns and of the archbishops of Bremen and Hamburg. Read online
• The Danish diplomatarium: charters and letters concerning Denmark, with Danish translation (documents of 789 to 1448; the online edition is continuing). Twenty-seven documents are dated to 1200: Innocent III's letters of February and March 1200 to Philip Augustus and Queen Ingeborg and his order for the interdict on France, Otto IV's letter to the pope expecting King Knud VI to move into Saxony, the reports of the legate Octavian and the French bishops on the lifting of the interdict in September, the pope's letters to Knud VI asking him to send advocates for his sister, Knud VI's ordinance on manslaughter for Skåne of 28 December 1200, and private gifts to Roskilde and Næstved. Read online