County of Holstein

Who rules

Name

Adolf III of Schauenburg

Title

count of Holstein and Stormarn, count of Schauenburg

Since

1164 (as a child; he was born in 1160)

Born

1160

Family

son of Count Adolf II (killed 1164) and Mechthild of Schwarzburg. Married (1) 1182 Adelheid, daughter of Count Otto of Assel (died 25 December 1185); (2) before 1189 Adelheid, daughter of Count Burchard of Querfurt (NDB). If she is a sister of Conrad of Querfurt, bishop of Würzburg and Hildesheim and Philip's chancellor, as seems likely, Adolf is the chancellor's brother-in-law (not checked).

Confidence

high

NDB and ADB (deutsche-biographie.de)

Overlord

the king (the county is an imperial fief); the duke of Saxony's old rights north of the Elbe lapsed with Henry the Lion's fall

What the realm holds

• Holstein (the land of the Holsten round Itzehoe, Kellinghusen, Schenefeld and Neumünster) with the Hollander-settled Elbe marshes of Wilster and Krempe
• Stormarn (round Hamburg and Oldesloe) with the salt springs of Oldesloe
• Wagria (eastern Holstein, won from the Slavs in the 1140s) with the castles of Segeberg and Plön
• the new town of Hamburg (founded 1188) and the advocacy of the old town
• Lübeck, in his hands since 1192 (de.wikipedia), taken without the emperor's confirmation (ADB)
• the castle of Rendsburg on the Eider island, rebuilt about 1199
• the castle at Travemünde
• the running of the county of Stade for the archbishop of Bremen, with a third of its revenues (Gelnhausen, October 1195; see Stade (county))
• the county of Schauenburg on the Weser, his ancestral land
• the Cistercian abbey of Reinfeld, his foundation (1186, not re-checked), and the advocacy of the Augustinian houses of Segeberg and Neumünster
• a claim to Dithmarschen, which he could not hold

How it was acquired

Holstein and Stormarn came to the Schauenburgs in 1110/11; Wagria was won by Adolf II in the 1140s. Lübeck and Stade were taken or confirmed in the wars of 1189-95.

Allies and rivals

Allies: Archbishop Hartwig II of Bremen, Duke Bernhard of Saxony, Margrave Otto II of Brandenburg, Count Adolf of Dassel. Rivals: Canute VI and Duke Valdemar; the Welf brothers; the Mecklenburg princes and the counts of Schwerin as Danish vassals; the Dithmarschers.

The realm that morning

On 1 January 1200 Adolf holds Holstein, Stormarn, Wagria, Hamburg's new town, Lübeck, Rendsburg and Stade, and backs Philip. The Danish attack on Rendsburg in 1199 has been beaten off without a battle, but the frontier on the Eider is live. Lauenburg is still held for the Welfs (not pinned). Ratzeburg's count is dead (1199) and his widow's county is about to pass to Adolf's ally Adolf of Dassel. Dithmarschen is not his.

Wealth

Tolls and market dues of Hamburg and Lübeck, the Oldesloe salt, the rents of the marsh colonies, the Elbe crossing, the Stade revenues. No figures.

Military

Castles: Segeberg (the Siegesburg on its chalk hill), Plön, Itzehoe, Hamburg, Travemünde, Rendsburg; Stade castle. Record: fought Henry the Lion 1180-95; held the Eider in 1199.

Threats

• Canute VI and Duke Valdemar, now pressing on Rendsburg and the Eider
• the Danish vassals in Mecklenburg and Schwerin
• the Welf brothers (Lauenburg, Stade)
• Dithmarschen going over to the Danes

Consort

Adelheid of Querfurt (married before 1189; died about 1210)

Heirs

Three sons (Adolf IV, Conrad, Bruno) and three daughters by Adelheid of Querfurt (NDB). None is securely born by 1 January 1200: Adolf IV is put before 1205 (NDB) and is usually reckoned born about 1205. Treat the succession as not settled in 1200.

Officers

Count Adolf of Dassel ruled Holstein for him during the Third Crusade (1189-90) and is now his ally (see Ratzeburg). Wirad of Boizenburg organised the count's new town at Hamburg in 1188 (de.wikipedia Geschichte Hamburgs). The overboden of the Holsten and Stormarn and his advocates at Lübeck, Hamburg and Segeberg are not pinned by name (see Holstein officers).

Court in 1200

Not pinned: Hamburg, Segeberg and Itzehoe are his main seats north of the Elbe.

Treaties

Henry VI's peace of 1195 with Archbishop Hartwig and the Bremen burghers (Stade). Alliance with Margrave Otto II of Brandenburg against Denmark (1198, NDB). Alliance with Hartwig in 1199 on the Eider. Alliance with Duke Bernhard of Saxony and Adolf of Dassel (de.wikipedia Schlacht bei Waschow).

Feuds

War with King Canute VI and Duke Valdemar of Schleswig (open since 1197-98; Rendsburg attacked 1199). Enmity with the Welf brothers, who hold Lauenburg and claim Stade. The Dithmarschers resist him.

Throne war

Philip (Staufen), by alignment rather than by a dated charter: he is the Welfs' old enemy, crusaded under Henry VI, and fights Otto IV's brother-in-law Canute VI with Philip's princes Bernhard of Saxony and Otto of Brandenburg as allies. He is not named in the Speyer declaration of May 1199, and no charter of Philip with him as witness was checked; since when is not dated. Confidence: medium.

Relations with rome

A double crusader (1189-90, 1196/97-98). No case at Rome is known.

Coinage

Not pinned for 1200 (the counts struck pennies at Hamburg; not checked).

The host

The free farmers of Holstein and Stormarn under their overboden, the Wagrian settlers, the count's vassals and ministeriales, the burghers of Hamburg and Lübeck. No figures.

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. 1200 (month not pinned)Adolf hands the Reinoldsburg (Rendsburg) to Canute VI (NDB, ADB).Depends on: continued Danish pressure on the Eider and no relief Stopped by: a renewed joint stand with Hartwig, or a truce with Duke Valdemar
2. 1200 (month not pinned)Adolf of Dassel, Adolf III's ally, marries Countess Adelheid and takes over Ratzeburg (de.wikipedia).Depends on: the widow's consent and the duke of Saxony's Stopped by: a rival claimant (the Welfs, the Danes' vassals)
3. 25 May 1200 (some sources 1201)Battle of Waschow: the Danish king's Mecklenburg and Schwerin vassals with Duke Valdemar beat Adolf of Dassel; Nicholas of Rostock falls; Gadebusch and Wittenburg surrender; Ratzeburg passes under Danish overlordship.Depends on: Canute VI ordering his vassals to punish Dassel's raids Stopped by: Adolf III and Bernhard of Saxony bringing help to Dassel in time
4. 1200-1201The Danes take Dithmarschen (NDB).Depends on: the Dithmarschers' turn to Denmark Stopped by: Bremen and Holstein together holding the land

Later, on the likely course

1. 1201 (after this year)Battle of Stellau; Adolf falls back by way of Stade to Hamburg, is besieged there and captured; Lauenburg, which he had lately taken, holds out (ADB). 1202: Lübeck does homage to the Danish king; Travemünde and Segeberg fall. 1203: Adolf gives up Holstein for his freedom and goes home to Schauenburg.Depends on: the Danish successes of 1200 Stopped by: Philip sending help north, or Adolf avoiding battle

Places of note

• Segeberg castle (the Siegesburg): the count's chief castle in Wagria
• Rendsburg (the Reinoldsburg): castle on the Eider island, rebuilt by Adolf about 1199; attacked by Duke Valdemar in 1199
• Plön castle: count's castle in Wagria
• Itzehoe castle: count's castle in Holstein proper
• Travemünde castle: guards the mouth of the Trave below Lübeck
• Schaumburg castle: the family's ancestral castle on the Weser hills

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: Adolf's career is well documented (NDB, ADB, Arnold of Lübeck behind them), but the month of the Rendsburg handover in 1200, the date he took Lauenburg and the birth dates of his children are not pinned.

On the map: The outline follows the Eider and the Levensau in the north, the Dithmarschen border in the west, the Elbe in the south and the Trave and the Ratzeburg border in the east. Rendsburg is drawn on the Holstein side as it stood on 1 January 1200. The Schauenburg block is rough.

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 Stade, by Albert of Stade, Albert of Stade (about 1240 to 1256). A world chronicle written at Stade in the 1240s from older Stade and Bremen annals. 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
• Chronicle of the Slavs, by Helmold of Bosau, Helmold of Bosau (about 1167 to 1172). Background only. Read online
• The Danish annals of Lund, Ryd and other houses (12th and 13th centuries; Lund continued to 1307, Ryd to 1288). Short dated entries from Lund, the archbishop's seat, and from Ryd in Schleswig. Read online
• Deeds of the Danes, Saxo Grammaticus (about 1185 to 1208). Saxo was writing at Lund in 1200 under Absalon, who died in March 1201, and his last books are an insider's history of Valdemar I and Knud VI to 1185: the Wendish wars, the taking of Rügen, the submission of Pomerania in 1185, the Danish fleet, Absalon's power and the Danish quarrel with the Empire. Read online
• Charter books of Lübeck and of Hamburg (documents to 1226 (Lübeck vol. 1) and to 1300 (Hamburg vol. 1)). The charters of the two north German towns and of the archbishops of Bremen and Hamburg. Read online
• The Danish diplomatarium: charters and letters concerning Denmark, with Danish translation (documents of 789 to 1448; the online edition is continuing). Twenty-seven documents are dated to 1200: Innocent III's letters of February and March 1200 to Philip Augustus and Queen Ingeborg and his order for the interdict on France, Otto IV's letter to the pope expecting King Knud VI to move into Saxony, the reports of the legate Octavian and the French bishops on the lifting of the interdict in September, the pope's letters to Knud VI asking him to send advocates for his sister, Knud VI's ordinance on manslaughter for Skåne of 28 December 1200, and private gifts to Roskilde and Næstved. Read online