Seligenstadt

Who holds it

Name

The abbey under Mainz, with the king's palace and advocate in the town

Title

Lord of the place

Confidence

low

Lord in 1200

Mixed: Einhard's abbey, a Mainz proprietary abbey (Mainz's right confirmed 1063), and the king, who has a palace here (court of 23 April 1188, Frederick I's betrothal of his son Conrad to Berenguela of Castile) and an advocate (the 'Vogtei' house is mentioned in 1187).

How things stand that morning

Abbey town on the Main with a Staufen palace; first called a civitas in 1232; a stage on the merchants' road to the Frankfurt fair.

Charter

None in 1200 (civitas 1232).

Council

None recorded for 1200.

Walls and castle

The Staufen palace (Palatium) on the Main bank.

Trade and crafts

Main ferry held by the abbey; road to Frankfurt.

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: General town histories; first mentions and later charters dated, the state in 1200 inferred.

Primary sources for Mainz

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
• 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
• 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

1 more in the sources library for The Rhineland, the Low Countries and the Swiss Lands.