Cologne's isolated market town on the road to Hesse: called a 'respectable town' with a public market under the king's ban and Soest market law by Archbishop Arnold I in 1144 (a moneyer is named), its charter confirmed and enlarged by Archbishop Rainald in 1165 with mention of trade to 'Denmark or Russia'.
Both documents' authenticity is disputed, and Medebach becomes a full town only by about 1220. Bernhard of Lippe and Widukind of Rheda took and destroyed it on 28 October 1179; a Gottfried of Medebach is in Lübeck in 1183.
Who holds it
- Name
- Archbishop Adolf I of Cologne
- Title
- Lord of the place
- Confidence
- medium
Lord in 1200
Archbishop Adolf I of Cologne
Overlord
Archbishop Adolf I of Cologne
How things stand that morning
Cologne's, rebuilt after 1179; on the Waldeck and Itter border.
Charter
Soest market law 1144; charter of 1165 (authenticity disputed); Soest town law confirmed 1220.
Council
None known in 1200.
Trade and crafts
Long-distance trade (Lübeck 1183; 'Datia vel Rucia' 1165); market.
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: Minor place; dates from modern town histories.
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.