Bishopric of Münster

Who rules

Name

Hermann II of Katzenelnbogen

Title

Bishop of Münster, prince of the Empire

Since

1173/74: named by Frederick Barbarossa after Bishop Ludwig of Wippra (the sources give 1173 and 1174)

Born

about 1130 or 1140, so in his sixties or older

Family

The counts of Katzenelnbogen on the Middle Rhine, a house loyal to the Staufen and patrons of Eberbach abbey. Before Münster he was a canon of Würzburg.

Confidence

high

A Staufen court bishop: Barbarossa sent him as envoy to the Byzantine emperor Isaac II Angelos to prepare the Third Crusade, and he rode in the emperor's inner circle on that crusade (1189-1192). In spring 1198 he worked for the Cologne party: Archbishop Adolf sent him to Erfurt to ask the Thuringian princes to delay their election, but he arrived after Philip had already been chosen (8 March 1198). He was not at Otto's coronation at Aachen on 12 July 1198 and afterwards leaned towards Philip.

At the beginning of January 1200 he met Archbishop Adolf at Dortmund and from then on stood with Otto without conditions. He died on 9 June 1203 as a monk at Marienfeld.

Overlord

The king, from whom the see holds its regalia. The archbishop of Cologne is his metropolitan; Cologne's ducal grant of 1180 covered the dioceses of Cologne and Paderborn, not Münster, so the bishop is lord in his own house.

What the realm holds

• The city of Münster: the cathedral close (Domburg) and the market town round it, rebuilt after the fire of 1197, with the new parishes of St Ludgeri, St Martini, St Aegidii and St Servatii laid out under Hermann
• The mint of Münster, striking for the whole diocese from about 1180
• Coesfeld: town charter of 12 March 1197, confirmed by the emperor the following August
• Warendorf on the Ems: town rights from Hermann about 1200 (whether before or after 1 January 1200 is not pinned)
• The church manors, tithes and markets of the Münsterland, with the villages that later became the towns of Beckum, Ahlen and Dülmen
• Stromberg castle on the eastern edge, held for him by the burgraves of Stromberg
• Nienborg: a new castle (castrum novum) built by Hermann in 1198 on the bishop's estate in the parish of Heek, held by his castle men (Burgmannen), near the Bentheim and Twente borders on the road from Münster towards Deventer
• The advocacy (Vogtei) of the see itself, since 4 May 1173
• Spiritual rule (not lordship) over the Frisian districts of the Ems that belong to his diocese

How it was acquired

The see dates from Liudger (805). Its advocacy was bought back from Count Simon of Tecklenburg and the purchase approved by Frederick I on 4 May 1173; the regalia are the king's.

Allies and rivals

Allies: the cathedral chapter; the Cistercians of Marienfeld, whose foundation he laid on 1 November 1185 with the lords of Rheda and Lippe; the free lords who followed him on crusade (Rudolf of Steinfurt led the see's vassals in 1189); from January 1200, Archbishop Adolf of Cologne. Rivals: Count Simon of Tecklenburg, who lost the advocacy in 1173 and fought the bishops of Münster and Osnabrück about 1196; the counts of Bentheim and Guelders on the Dutch side; the Frisians, who sit in his diocese but obey no lord.

The realm that morning

At first light on 1 January 1200 the bishop holds Münster, Coesfeld and his manors without challenge. In the throne war he has drifted from Cologne's party (spring 1198) towards Philip without any act of war; within days he will meet Archbishop Adolf at Dortmund and leave that meeting as Otto's man. Across his borders: south over the Lippe, the archbishop of Cologne's Vest of Recklinghausen (lrh) and the Altena lands of Count Arnold (Isenberg) and young Count Adolf (the line later called Mark); west, the count of Guelders and Zutphen and the lords of the Achterhoek (nld); north-west, Bentheim and the bishop of Utrecht's Twente (nld); north, Tecklenburg; east, Lippe's Rheda, Osnabrück's Wiedenbrück and the bishop of Paderborn.

Wealth

The markets and mint of Münster; the tithes and manors of the church; the new market towns of Coesfeld and Warendorf. No figures survive.

Military

The bishop's ministeriales and castle men (Burgmannen) at Nienborg (1198) and elsewhere, the burgraves of Stromberg, the levy of the free lords and vassals of the see (they went to the Holy Land with him in 1189), and the walls of Münster, decided after the fire of 1197 and not finished until 1278. No numbers in the sources.

Threats

• Tecklenburg power north of the city and the count's old claim to the advocacy
• The throne war: a wrong choice brings the other king's friends into the diocese; Cologne, Paderborn, Minden and Tecklenburg are all Otto's
• His age, and the pull of Marienfeld, where he will end his days
• The cost of rebuilding and walling the city after the fire of 1197

Court in 1200

At Münster, rebuilding after the fire of 1197; in the first days of January on the road to meet Archbishop Adolf at Dortmund.

Officers

The cathedral chapter (its provost not named in the sources consulted); the bishop's ministeriales; the burgraves of Stromberg. No lay advocate of the see since 1173.

Relations with rome

No quarrel with Rome known. He did not sign the 1198 electors' letter asking Innocent III to confirm Otto. Like every prelate he must levy the fortieth for the crusade, ordered by Innocent III at the end of December 1199 (campaign notes Part 8.4), which will set him against his own clergy during 1200.

Coinage

Münster pennies struck for the whole diocese from about 1180.

The host

The see's ministeriales, castle men and vassal free lords (Steinfurt, Horstmar and others) when he calls them; 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.

1. early January 1200 (day not pinned)Hermann meets Archbishop Adolf of Cologne at Dortmund and from then on backs Otto IV without conditions.Depends on: Adolf wanting to bind the Westphalian bishops while he himself hesitates; Hermann making the winter journey. Stopped by: A better offer from Philip's side, Adolf's own change of side, or illness.
2. after 20 October 1200Hermann sits with the archbishops of Cologne and Trier at a meeting between Koblenz and Andernach led by Bishop Wolfger of Passau, trying to make peace between the kings; it achieves nothing.Depends on: The peace talks begun under Conrad of Mainz (a truce among the Rhenish princes until Martinmas) and Hermann remaining Otto's man. Stopped by: Open war on the Rhine, or Hermann staying at home.
3. about 1200 (not pinned)Warendorf on the Ems receives town rights from the bishop.Depends on: The bishop's policy of planting market towns, as at Coesfeld in 1197. Stopped by: War in the eastern Münsterland or the bishop's death.

Places of note

• Münster cathedral close (Domburg) and the bishop's palace: Seat of the bishop and chapter; the market town round it burned in 1197 and is being rebuilt.
• Coesfeld: The bishop's new town, chartered 12 March 1197.
• Stromberg castle: Eastern castle of the see, held by its burgraves.
• Nienborg castle: The bishop's new castle of 1198, garrisoned by castle men.
• Marienfeld abbey: Cistercian house founded 1185 with Hermann's support, on the meeting point of the dioceses of Münster, Osnabrück and Paderborn; where he will die.

Where the sources disagree

• campaign notes Part 6 D group Münster with Osnabrück and Utrecht as 'Welf-leaning or wavering [thin]'. The digitised study of Archbishop Adolf (ch. III and IV) is more precise: Cologne's envoy in spring 1198, then inclined to Philip, won back for Otto at Dortmund at the beginning of January 1200. 'Wavering' fits the morning of 1 January; 'Welf' fits from a few days later.
• de.wikipedia says Hermann probably gave up his offices and withdrew to Marienfeld before 1200. The Dortmund meeting of January 1200 and the peace meeting after 20 October 1200 show him acting as bishop that year; treat the withdrawal as later (he died at Marienfeld on 9 June 1203).
• Accession: the Münster city history dates Barbarossa's approval of the advocacy purchase and Hermann's start as prince-bishop to 4 May 1173, while his biography has Bishop Ludwig of Wippra dying on 26 December 1173. Not settled here.

Evidence: His career and the January 1200 meeting are well attested (the latter in a 19th-century study of Archbishop Adolf citing the chronicles); the extent of the bishop's own lands in 1200 is drawn back from later borders and is rough.

On the map: The Münsterland of 1200 is a patchwork of church manors, parishes and free lords' castles; the polygon gives the bishop the whole ground except the lay lordships, which overstates his direct hold in the far west.