Soest is the largest and richest town of Westphalia and the archbishop of Cologne's capital there: a walled trading town on the Hellweg, with brine springs worked since the early Middle Ages, an archiepiscopal palace, the great collegiate church of St Patroclus (954) and merchant families who trade to the Baltic and Novgorod.
Its law, among the oldest recorded town laws in Germany, is the model for a family of Westphalian towns, and Soest merchants helped found Lübeck.
Who holds it
- Name
- Archbishop Adolf I of Cologne, through his officers in Soest (Schultheiss and advocate; names not pinned)
- Title
- Town lord
- Confidence
- high
Lord in 1200
Archbishop Adolf I of Cologne; his Schultheiss and advocate (Vogt) in the town (not named in the sources consulted).
Overlord
The archbishop of Cologne as lord of the town and duke of Westphalia
How things stand that morning
Firmly the archbishop's town, and so in Otto's camp through him. The Soest Börde round it is Cologne's; Werl, Arnsberg and the Lippe lands lie beyond.
Charter
Soest law (later written down in the 'old Kuhhaut' and the old Schrae; date of the first recording not pinned). Medebach was given Soest market law in 1144, Korbach Soest town law in 1188, and Rüthen will follow Soest law from 1200.
Council
Not pinned for 1200: the council structure described in the sources is of 1260. The town court sits under the archbishop's officers with burgher assessors (Schöffen) (assumed from the general pattern, not checked).
Militia
The burghers held their new walls against Bernhard II of Lippe during his war with Cologne (1177-1179).
Walls and castle
Walls built about 1180, enclosing about 102 hectares (later counts give 26 towers and 10 gates); the archbishop's palace in the town.
Trade and crafts
Salt from the town's brine springs; long-distance trade along the Hellweg to the Rhine and the Weser and on to the Baltic and Novgorod; Soest merchants among the founders of Lübeck.
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.
- 29 September 1200Rüthen is founded under Soest law, the first of the new Cologne towns of the duchy to take it.Depends on: The Arnsberg settlement. Stopped by: Its failure.
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: Walls and law well known; officers and council in 1200 not pinned.
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.