The king's town of western Thuringia: an old market settlement (11th century) with a new town round St Mary's laid out under Barbarossa, a royal palace and castle, and the first place in Thuringia counted as a town (villa regia, 1135).
Philip of Swabia was elected king here on 8 March 1198. Henry the Lion took it in 1180. Since August 1199 Philip has granted it to Landgrave Hermann as a fief.
Who holds it
- Name
- Landgrave Hermann I, holding the king's town as an imperial fief granted by Philip on 15 August 1199
- Title
- Lord of the town
- Since
- 15 August 1199
- Confidence
- medium
Lord in 1200
Landgrave Hermann I by Philip's grant (1199). The king's castle has a royal burgrave and the town a royal advocate and Schultheiss, attested from the early 13th century; the officers that winter are not pinned.
How things stand that morning
In the landgrave's hands under Philip's grant.
Charter
Royal town without a known written charter. The Mühlhausen law book, the oldest town law book in German, is of about 1220 (later); mint and toll rights in the early 13th century (later).
Council
None attested yet.
Fairs and markets
Market town; fair dates not pinned.
Walls and castle
The inner town wall (seven double gates) is dated 'about 1200' and may be building; the royal castle stands apart from the town.
Trade and crafts
Market for the Unstrut and Eichsfeld country; the road from Eisenach and Kassel to Nordhausen and the Harz.
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: Grant dated in the ADB; town institutions from de.wikipedia.
Primary sources for Thuringia
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.
- 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
- 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
- Annals of Pegau; Annals of Magdeburg (12th and 13th centuries; Pegau continued to 1227). The annals of the Wettin lands and of Magdeburg. Read online
- Chronicle of the Lauterberg (Petersberg near Halle), Konrad of Lauterberg (about 1225). The house chronicle of the Wettin foundation on the Lauterberg, sharp-tongued and well informed on Saxony, Meissen and Magdeburg. 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
- The political songs of Walther von der Vogelweide, 1198 to 1201, Walther von der Vogelweide (about 1198 to 1201). Three stanzas of the Reichston, composed between 1198 and 1201 after Walther left Vienna, lament the disorder of the double election and call on Philip to take the crown. Read online
Sources and studies
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.