Prince-bishopric of Liège

Who rules

Name

Albert of Cuyck (Albert de Cuyck)

Title

Bishop of Liege and prince

Since

Elected November 1194 at Namur; invested by Henry VI at Worms; consecrated by Adolf of Cologne on 6 January 1196; entered Liege on 21 January 1196

Born

Not pinned; old in 1200

Family

House of Cuijk, free lords on the Meuse (nld): younger brother of Henry II, lord of Cuijk. Archdeacon of Liege from 1181, provost of St Paul's at Liege from 1193.

Confidence

high

fr.wikipedia Albert de Cuyck; campaign notes Part 6 D and Part 10.

Overlord

The king (the regalia); the archbishop of Cologne is his metropolitan.

What the realm holds

• The city of Liege
• Huy, Dinant, Visé, Tongeren, Fosses, Thuin, Couvin, Ciney
• The bishop's half of Maastricht (Our Lady's church, the mint and toll granted 908)
• The Hesbaye round Liege and Waremme
• The Condroz
• The Entre-Sambre-et-Meuse with Thuin, Lobbes, Fosses and Couvin
• The marquisate of Franchimont (Theux, Spa)
• Bouillon castle and its land, pledged to Liege by Godfrey of Bouillon in 1096 and recovered from Bar in 1141
• Hoegaarden, an enclave in Brabant
• The lordship of Mechelen on the Dijle (with the Berthouts as advocates)
• Fiefs: Loon, Hainaut, Montaigu and Clermont, Florennes, Rochefort, Agimont

The realm that morning

Albert holds the see and its towns peacefully; the city enjoys its new liberties; Loon and Hainaut owe homage. On 1 January the bishop is alive but old and failing; the chapter's factions (Pierrepont, Jauche, the Brabant and Limburg interests) are already in place.

Wealth

The Meuse: metalwork and copper of Dinant and Huy, the cloth of the Meuse towns, the tolls and the bridge at Maastricht; tithes and rents of the Hesbaye, the richest farmland of the region; lead and iron of the Condroz and Entre-Sambre-et-Meuse (not dated here).

Military

The bishop's vassals and ministeriales, the advocate of Hesbaye with the citizens of Liege, and the town levies of Huy and Dinant. No numbers.

Threats

• The bishop's death and a contested election
• Brabant on the west and north
• Limburg's grudge over Simon
• The throne war at its door (Otto at Aachen)

Election and family

After Albert of Leuven's murder (1192) the see was disputed: Simon of Limburg, 16, backed by his father and by Henry I of Brabant, was elected and invested by Henry VI at Aachen on 13 November; four archdeacons, Albert of Cuyck, Albert of Rethel, Otto of Valkenburg and Hugh of Pierrepont, appealed to Rome with Hainaut's backing. Albert was elected in November 1194 at Saint-Aubain in Namur; war followed (Hainaut besieged Huy); both claimants went to Rome in Lent 1195, Simon was made a cardinal and died, and the pope gave the see to Albert.

Chapter

The chapter of St Lambert elects; in 1194 its archdeacons included Albert of Rethel, Otto of Valkenburg and Hugh of Pierrepont. The provost and dean on 1 January 1200 are not pinned. The collegiate churches of the city (St Paul, St Martin, St Denis, St Croix, St John, St Bartholomew) and of Huy, Tongeren, Fosses, Visé and Maastricht (Our Lady) are the bishop's network.

Advocates and vassals

The advocate of Hesbaye leads the citizens' service under the charter of 1196 (holder not pinned, see Advocate of Hesbaye). Vassal counts and lords: the count of Loon (fief of Liege); the count of Hainaut, whose county is held of Liege since 1071 (France map); the counts of Duras (now Loon); Wery of Walcourt as count of Montaigu and Clermont; the lords of Florennes, Rochefort and Agimont (not pinned); the castellans of Bouillon; the Berthouts as advocates of Mechelen; the count of Moha (Albert of Dagsburg, France map).

Officers

The bishop's mayor (maieur) and the echevins (aldermen) judge in the city; the Tribunal of the Peace, founded in 1082, judges breaches of the peace across the principality. Named officers for 1200 not pinned.

Towns and privileges

Liege: Albert's charter of 1196 (no taille or corvee on burgesses; service only to relieve a besieged fortress of the principality, under the advocate of Hesbaye; no arrest without judgment of the echevins; no ordeal; the home inviolable; a year and a day of quiet possession secures property), codifying customs from the 1175 charter of Brustem. Huy: the charter of 1066, the oldest in the Empire. Dinant, Tongeren, Fosses, Thuin, Visé, Ciney, Couvin: the bishop's towns (privileges not dated here).

Throne war

STAUFEN on 1 January 1200, low to medium confidence. The campaign notes put Liege with Philip [thin]; the Staufen princes' protest of Speyer (28 May 1199) names Bishop Albert among the absent princes who authorised it (de.wikipedia, after Regesta Imperii V,1,1 no. 27), and the study of Archbishop Adolf of Cologne says Philip lost 'this great and powerful bishopric' by Albert's death. Against that: the Loon history on dbnl says Louis of Loon chose Philip 'although his Liege and Brabant overlords backed Otto IV'; Albert was consecrated in 1196 by Adolf of Cologne, now Otto's kingmaker; and his successor Hugh of Pierrepont backed Otto (fr.wikipedia).

For Philip: Albert held the see by Henry VI's investiture, and his charter survives through a diploma of Philip of Swabia that repeats it word for word (date of the diploma not pinned here, probably of the years 1204-1208 when Liege was Staufen). No act of Albert for either king in 1198-1199 was found.

Rome and the Church

Albert owes the see to Celestine III's judgment of 1195. No quarrel with Innocent III on record.

Castles

Bouillon, Huy (the castle on the rock), Franchimont, Couvin, Thuin, Dinant (the rock castle), and the city's walls.

Tolls and mints

Meuse tolls at Huy, Dinant, Visé and Maastricht; the bishop's mints at Liege, Huy, Dinant and Maastricht (the Maastricht mint and toll date from 908).

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. 1 or 2 February 1200Albert of Cuyck dies at Liege and is buried in St Lambert's.Depends on: His natural death (campaign notes, Part 10). Stopped by: Play changing his circumstances.
2. 1200, after Albert's death (day not pinned)The chapter elects Hugh of Pierrepont, one of the archdeacons of 1194, from the diocese of Laon (son of Hugh called Vanault and Clemence of Rethel), not yet a priest; Henry of Jauche and a Conrad (called 'de Seine' by fr.wikipedia) contest it. Baldwin of Hainaut supports Hugh. A papal legate confirms him; he is ordained priest on 13 April and installed on the 21st (fr.wikipedia; the year is not stated there). Hugh backs Otto.Depends on: Albert's death; the chapter's majority; papal confirmation. Stopped by: A candidate imposed by Brabant or Limburg; a royal investiture fight; Rome quashing the election because Hugh was not a priest.

Later, on the likely course

1. 1203-1204 (later course)Louis of Loon hands Hasselt, Tessenderlo, Montenaken and Brustem to Hugh and takes them back as fiefs (1203); Albert of Moha sells his allods to Hugh (1204).Depends on: Hugh's election and the Loon War. Stopped by: A different bishop.

Where the sources disagree

• campaign notes (Part 6 D, Part 9) put Liege with Philip [thin]. The Loon history on dbnl says Liege backed Otto; Albert was consecrated by Adolf of Cologne (1196) and his successor was Otto's man. The Speyer list (Albert among the absent princes who authorised the protest of May 1199) and the study of Archbishop Adolf (Philip lost Liège by Albert's death) support the campaign notes, so the record follows them (Staufen, low to medium confidence) and keeps the dbnl statement as contrary evidence. Assent by proxy is weaker than presence.
• fr.wikipedia gives Hugh of Pierrepont's priesting (13 April) and installation (the 21st) without a year; if they are of 1200 the election falls between February and April 1200.

Evidence: The election of 1194-1196, the charter of 1196 and the death date are well attested; the bishop's side in the throne war is not.

On the map: Drawn from the later extent of the bishop's own lands, without back-projecting the 13th-century gains (Moha 1204-1225, the Loon allods of 1203). Mechelen is drawn in Berthout; Maastricht is a town record.

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 Reiner of Saint James, Liège, Reiner of Liège (1197 to 1230, kept year by year). Contemporary annals kept inside Liège. 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
• Chronicle of Hainaut, Gislebert of Mons (about 1195 to 1196). Ends in 1195, so it has no 1200 entries, but it is the indispensable background for Flanders and Hainaut: the career of Count Baldwin V of Hainaut (VIII of Flanders), his union of the two counties, the settlement with Philip over Artois, the rights, castles, fiefs and vassals of Hainaut listed by a man who ran its chancery, and the youth of Baldwin IX, who held both counties in 1200. Read online
• Dialogue on Miracles, Caesarius of Heisterbach (about 1219 to 1223). Not a chronicle but a Cistercian's book of exempla, full of stories about Cologne, the Rhineland and the Low Countries around 1200: the throne war, usurers, heretics, crusade preachers, knights and townsmen, monks and recruits at Heisterbach, founded in 1189. Read online