Margraviate of Brandenburg

Who rules

Name

Otto II (later called 'the Generous')

Title

Margrave of Brandenburg (marchio de Brandenburg); also lord of the family's own Altmark lands, held since 1195-96 as fiefs of the archbishop of Magdeburg

Since

July 1184, on the death of his father Otto I

Born

after 1147 (de.wikipedia: after 1148), so about 50 on 1 January 1200

Family

Ascanian. Eldest son of Margrave Otto I (died 1184) and Judith, daughter of Duke Boleslaw III of Poland; grandson of Albert the Bear, the founder of the march. Uncle: Bernhard, duke of Saxony (born 1140). Wife: Ada of Holland, daughter of Count Floris III of Holland; Helmut Assing argues she was first his father's second wife (married 1176) and the mother of his half-brother Albert, and that Otto married her after his father's death, which canon law forbade; whether she is alive on 1 January 1200 is not pinned. No children. Full brother Henry, count of Gardelegen, founder of the Stendal chapter, died in 1192. Half-brother Albert (born before 1177), count of Arneburg since 1184, his co-ruler and heir.

Confidence

high

de.wikipedia (Otto II. (Brandenburg); Albrecht II. (Brandenburg)); en.wikipedia (Otto II, Margrave of Brandenburg, citing Assing 1997 and 2002, Partenheimer 2001, Lyon 2013). fmg.ac would not load.

Overlord

The king for the march itself (a principality of the Empire, held as a fief of the crown). Since 1195-96 the archbishop of Magdeburg is feudal lord of the family's own lands (the Altmark allods, the land of Schollene and the Zauche), which the brothers surrendered to the see and took back as fiefs. The margraves claim overlordship of the Pomeranian dukes under the Empire, against the Danish king's lordship over Pomerania since 1185.

What the realm holds

• The Altmark west of the Elbe (Salzwedel, Stendal, Tangermünde, Gardelegen, Osterburg, Arneburg): drawn on the Rhineland map (Brandenburg (Otto II))
• The Havelland: the castle and the old and new towns of Brandenburg (the castle island shared with the bishop and the burgrave), the villages round Nauen (named 1186) and Ketzin, the Slav castle place of Rathenow (not named until 1216), the Rhin marshes
• The Zauche south of the Havel (the christening gift of the Heveller prince Pribislav to Otto I), with the Ascanian family monastery of Lehnin (founded 1180, monks from 1183)
• Spandau castle and Vogtei at the mouth of the Spree (Vogt Everard, 1197)
• The Havel crossing at Potsdam (a Slav castle place, conquered by Albert the Bear in 1150; who keeps it in 1200 not pinned)
• Havelberg town on the lower Havel (lordship of the margraves, attested 1160; the cathedral hill shared with the bishop)
• The land and castle of Schollene on the lower Havel (castrum 1195; surrendered to Magdeburg and taken back as a fief in 1195)
• The castle of Zerbst south of the Fläming (first documented 1196; built by Albert the Bear; the margraves' until they enfeoffed the lords of Barby in the 13th century)
• Lordship over the free lords of the Prignitz (the Gans of Putlitz) and claims over the Ruppin land
• The Slav lands round Tribsees in western Pomerania (made dependent about 1198, confirmed by Philip; how much is held on 1 January 1200 is not pinned)
• Claims of overlordship over the duchy of Pomerania under the Empire, against the Danish king

How it was acquired

Albert the Bear inherited the Havelland from the Christian Heveller prince Pribislav-Henry (died 1150), took Brandenburg back from Jaxa of Köpenick on 11 June 1157 and called himself margrave of Brandenburg from 3 October 1157. The Prignitz was won by Saxon lords in the Wendish crusade of 1147. The Zauche was Pribislav's christening gift to the young Otto I and was occupied by Albert before 1150; Otto I ruled 1170-1184 and founded Lehnin.

Otto II succeeded in 1184 and took his brother Henry's Altmark allods in 1192.

Allies and rivals

Allies: King Philip of Swabia; his uncle Duke Bernhard of Saxony; Archbishop Ludolf of Magdeburg, his feudal lord for the allods since 1195-96; Count Adolf III of Holstein, whom he backed against the Danes in 1192 and 1194. Rivals: King Canute VI of Denmark and his brother Duke Valdemar of Schleswig, overlords of the Pomeranian dukes and of Jaromar of Rügen; Jaromar himself; the Welfs (Otto IV and his brothers) beyond the Altmark's western border; the burgrave of Brandenburg, a royal officer whose rights compete with his; the Wettin margrave Conrad II of Lusatia, whose men push into the Teltow and Barnim from the south (Köpenick is his by 1209 at the latest). Uncertain: the Pomeranian dukes Bogislaw II and Casimir II, Danish vassals whom the margraves claim as imperial vassals of their own; in the war of 1198-99 they fought Denmark and Rügen on the same side as Otto (de.wikipedia, Jaromar I), but whether as his allies or his dependants is not pinned.

The realm that morning

On 1 January 1200 Otto II holds the Altmark and the Havelland and Zauche securely, Spandau as his easternmost castle, and the lower Havel to Havelberg; the Prignitz lords are his men or allies. The Teltow and the Barnim are not his: the archbishop holds the southern Teltow as part of the land of Jüterbog (charter of 1174), the eastern Teltow and southern Barnim round Köpenick are probably held from the Pomeranian dukes (a Wettin conquest about 1178 is alleged; Conrad II of Lusatia holds Köpenick by 1209), the northern Barnim on the Finow and at Oderberg is Pomeranian, and the Ascanian advance there begins only in the 1210s to 1230s. The Uckermark beyond is Pomeranian.

Across the march's borders on 1 January 1200: west of the Elbe the Altmark (Otto's own, Rhineland map) and the Welf counties of Lüchow and Dannenberg; south-west the archbishop of Magdeburg (Burg, Loburg, Jerichow, Jüterbog); south Duke Bernhard's Wittenberg and the counts of Belzig and Dornburg; south-east, beyond the Fläming and the Spreewald, the Wettin march of Lusatia (Conrad II); east of the Barnim, past the Buckow channel, the Lebus land of the Silesian duke Boleslaw the Tall (outside this sheet; held by the Wettins only in 1209-1211); north-east and north the Pomeranian dukes (the Uckermark, the Finow, Köpenick) and the Mecklenburg lords (Parchim, Plau). Otto backs Philip of Swabia (named in the Speyer declaration of 28 May 1199; attested again for 1200 and 1203). Philip kept Christmas 1199 at Magdeburg with the Saxon princes; Otto's own presence there is not pinned.

The war with the Danish king and Jaromar of Rügen, fought in 1198 and 1199, has no attested truce or peace: the northern coast is unsettled, though the fighting lay in Pomerania and towards Rügen, not on the march's own borders.

Wealth

Rents and tithes of a countryside filling with settlers from the Altmark, Flanders, Holland and the Rhineland (Netherlandish drainers worked the Elbe and Havel marshes from the 1160s); the market and mills of Brandenburg (the Havel dammed for watermills from about 1180); the Elbe crossings and tolls at Tangermünde (Altmark) and Havelberg; the Havel and Spree crossings at Spandau and Potsdam; the margrave's mints with their bracteates (thin coins struck on one side). No figures.

Military

The castles of Brandenburg (shared), Spandau, Rathenow and Potsdam (Slav castle places taken over), Havelberg, Schollene, Zerbst and the Altmark castles; the margrave's vassals (the Gans of Putlitz and other Prignitz lords) and ministeriales; settlers owing service. Record: Albert the Bear's war of 1157; Otto II's campaigns for Holstein against the Danes (1192, 1194), his capture of his rebellious brother Albert (1194), and his campaign into the Danish-held parts of Pomerania (winter 1198-99) and towards Rügen (1199). No figures.

Threats

• The Danish king and Duke Valdemar, if they answer the raids of 1198-99 (the Danish conquests in Holstein and the Elbe lands of 1201-03 are later)
• Danish and Rügen retaliation for the war of 1198-99, and a Pomeranian return to Danish obedience (Valdemar II brings Pomerania back under Denmark in 1202)
• The Welf party west of the Altmark if Philip's cause weakens in Saxony
• Magdeburg's feudal grip on the family lands since 1195-96, and its claims on the Teltow and Lebus
• The Wettins pushing into the Teltow and the Barnim from Lusatia
• A childless succession that rests on one half-brother

Family and heirs

No children. Heir: his half-brother Albert (born before 1177; son of Otto I's second wife, Adelheid or Ada), count of Arneburg since 1184, reconciled by 1195 and named heir; unmarried on 1 January 1200 (he marries Matilda of Groitzsch only in 1205). Uncle Bernhard, duke of Saxony, and his sons Henry (later of Anhalt) and Albert (later duke of Saxony) are the next Ascanian heirs, which the 1195-96 surrender to Magdeburg may have been meant to bar.

Cousins by marriage: the lords of Arnstein (Walter III married Gertrud, a granddaughter of Albert the Bear).

Officers and vassals

Officers known nearest the date: Everard, the margrave's Vogt (advocatus) at Spandau, named in Otto II's charter of 1197; Siegfried, the burgrave (castellan) of Brandenburg since at least 1186, a royal officer beside the margrave rather than his servant, from the family later called counts of Belzig. The Vögte of the other castle districts in the winter of 1199-1200 are not pinned. Free vassals: Johann Gans of Putlitz (a baro in 1178, close to Otto II at the end of the century), probably the Plotho lords of the Jerichow land (their fiefs between Magdeburg and the margrave not pinned).

Otto appears only four times in the charters of the Brandenburg cathedral chapter (1192-1204), so his household is thinly documented.

Relations with rome

Nothing personal pinned for 1199-1200. As a partisan of Philip he stands with a king whom the pope has not recognised. The bishops of Brandenburg (Norbert, 1192-1205, by the usual lists; not checked against a source in this run) and Havelberg are suffragans of Magdeburg (Church map records); the bishop of Brandenburg's own lands (Ziesar, Pritzerbe) are not pinned for 1200 and are coloured with the march.

Coinage

Brandenburg bracteates struck for the margrave (mint places in 1200 not pinned beyond Brandenburg and the Altmark towns); Jaxa of Köpenick's Slav coins are a memory of the 1150s. The archbishop strikes his own at Jüterbog (attested 1192).

The host

Led by the margrave in person with his brother Albert; vassals and ministeriales of the Altmark and the Havelland; Prignitz lords. No figures in the sources.

Treaties and wars

With Holstein against Denmark (1192, 1194). War of Denmark and Rügen against Pomerania and Brandenburg, 1198-99: no truce attested. Feudal bond to Magdeburg (1195-96). Philip's confirmation of the Tribsees lands (about 1198).

As seen from the France and Iberia sheet

Only the old western part of the march, the Altmark between the Ohre and the Elbe, lies inside this sheet; the Havelland and the Zauche beyond the Elbe are the march proper. The Altmark is the Ascanians' ancestral ground: Salzwedel, Tangermünde, Gardelegen, Osterburg, and the market and collegiate church of Stendal. Otto II is childless; his half-brother Albert, who rebelled in 1194, was captured, released and accepted as co-ruler.

In 1195-96 the brothers surrendered their allods (the Altmark, Schollene and the Zauche) to Archbishop Ludolf of Magdeburg and received them back as fiefs, perhaps to keep them from their cousins the dukes of Saxony if both died without heirs. About 1198 Otto took the Slav lands round Tribsees in western Pomerania as his fiefs, which Philip confirmed. He backs Philip.

Name

Otto II 'the Generous'

Title

Margrave of Brandenburg

Since

1184 (death of his father Otto I)

Born

after 1148

Family

Ascanian; eldest son of Margrave Otto I and Judith of Poland; grandson of Albert the Bear; nephew of Duke Bernhard of Saxony. Married to Ada of Holland (daughter of Count Floris III); no children.

Confidence

high

de.wikipedia (Otto II. (Brandenburg)).

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.

In 1200

1. During 1200Stays with Philip of Swabia (attested for 1200).Depends on: Philip keeping the upper hand in eastern Saxony and the Ascanian house holding together. Stopped by: A Danish or Welf threat that Philip cannot answer, or a papal decision for Otto IV that moves the Saxon princes.
2. During 1200 (not pinned)The war with Denmark and Rügen continues or settles; Otto's hold on the Tribsees lands, between Rügen's and Pomerania's mainland lands, is tested.Depends on: The Danish king's attention (Holstein, Count Adolf III and the Rendsburg quarrel of 1199) and Philip's support. Stopped by: A truce brokered by Philip or the Danish king, or a Danish expedition up the Oder or the Peene.
3. 25 May 1200 or 1201 (Waschow, outside this sheet)Battle of Waschow in western Mecklenburg: the Danish king's Slav vassals beat the counts of Schwerin; Nicholas of Rostock falls. It strengthens the Danish order on the coast north of the march.Depends on: The quarrel between the Danish vassals and the counts of Schwerin running its course. Stopped by: A settlement in Mecklenburg.

Later, on the likely course

1. 4 July 1205 (not yet)Otto II dies; Albert II succeeds.Depends on: Natural death. Stopped by: Nothing likely.

Places of note

• Brandenburg: the castle island (Dominsel), the old town (a town by 1170) and the new town (first named 1196): The title seat; castle shared with the bishop's Premonstratensian chapter (on the island since 1165) and the royal burgrave.
• Spandau castle: The margrave's eastern castle and Vogtei (Vogt Everard, 1197).
• Lehnin Abbey: Cistercian house founded by Otto I in 1180; family monastery and burial place.
• Havelberg: Margrave's town on the Havel island; cathedral hill shared with the bishop.
• Zerbst castle: First documented 1196; Ascanian margraves' castle south of the Fläming.

Where the sources disagree

• The Rhineland map's record (Brandenburg (Otto II)) calls Albert Otto's half-brother and dates the surrender to Magdeburg 1195-96: agreed. It gives Ada of Holland simply as Otto's wife; en.wikipedia, after Assing (2002), says Otto married his father's widow Ada, and de.wikipedia makes Albert the son of Otto I's second wife Adelheid (married 1176): if so Ada was both Otto I's widow and Otto II's wife. Followed here as disputed.
• en.wikipedia says Otto devastated 'Danish-occupied Pomerania' in the winter of 1198-99; de.wikipedia (Jaromar I) calls the war of 1198 one of Denmark against Pomerania and Brandenburg, and de.wikipedia (Kasimir II) says the dukes regained their lands up to the Ryck in 1198-99. Read together: Otto struck the Danish and Rügen-held parts of Pomerania, not the dukes' own lands. The pom sheet should check this against its sources.
• The surrender of the allods is dated 1195 in the Schollene article (Zolene given to the archbishop in 1195) and 1196 in many summaries; de.wikipedia (Otto II) gives 1195-1196. The deeds themselves were not reached.
• en.wikipedia says Otto's campaign of 1199 'threatened Hamburg'. Hamburg belonged to his ally Adolf III of Holstein, so the phrase is not followed.
• The brief asks whether Otto was excommunicated before the 1195-96 surrender. The pages reached do not say so; de.wikipedia states that the motives for the surrender are unknown and suggests it was meant to keep the lands from the Saxon Ascanians if both brothers died childless. Not followed.

Evidence: His family, the surrender to Magdeburg, his Staufen side and the 1198-99 campaigns are attested in modern summaries; his officers, his whereabouts and the state of the Danish war in the winter of 1199-1200 are not. East of the Elbe the charters are few (Otto appears four times in the Brandenburg chapter's charters, 1192-1204).

On the map: The drawing gives the margrave the whole Havelland and Zauche; in 1200 the bishop of Brandenburg and the burgrave held rights and villages inside it, and the lands east of the Havel and the Nuthe (Teltow, Barnim) were not his. The Prignitz lords, Zerbst and Spandau are drawn as separate records.

Primary sources for this realm

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 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
• Deeds of the archbishops of Magdeburg (main text to 1142, continued in the 13th and 14th centuries). The Magdeburg house history, with a continuation covering Archbishop Ludolf of Kroppenstedt (1192 to 1205), a firm supporter of Philip who hosted the king's Christmas court at Magdeburg on 25 December 1199. Read online
• Pomeranian charter book, volume 1, 786 to 1253 (documents of 786 to 1253, edited 1868). All known charters for Pomerania and Rügen to 1253. Read online