County palatine of the Rhine

Who rules

Name

Henry of Brunswick, called the Elder or the Tall (Heinrich der Aeltere, der Lange)

Title

Count palatine of the Rhine (Pfalzgraf bei Rhein)

Since

1195: enfeoffed by Henry VI after the death of his father-in-law Conrad of Staufen on 8 or 9 November 1195

Born

about 1173/74

Family

Eldest son of Henry the Lion, duke of Saxony and Bavaria (died 1195), and Matilda of England; brother of King Otto IV and of William of Lueneburg; nephew of King John of England. Wife: Agnes of Staufen (born about 1177, died 9 May 1204), only heiress of Count Palatine Conrad of Staufen and Irmingard of Henneberg, and so first cousin of Henry VI and Philip of Swabia; married at Stahleck in January or February 1194 (de.wikipedia on Conrad gives 3 February 1194), a match made behind the emperor's back while Henry was under the imperial ban, which Henry VI then accepted. Children born by 1 January 1200: Henry the Younger, the heir (born about 1197; NDB gives about 1195; he dies in 1214 aged about 17). Two daughters, Irmgard (later wife of Margrave Hermann V of Baden) and Agnes (later wife of Otto II of Wittelsbach), are given birth years of 1200 and 1201 in en.wikipedia: on 1 January 1200 Irmgard is at most newborn and probably not yet born, and Agnes is not born.

Confidence

high

NDB and ADB on Heinrich der Aeltere; de.wikipedia on Heinrich (V.) der Aeltere von Braunschweig and on Konrad der Staufer; en.wikipedia; the Cologne study of 1198-1202 citing the Braunschweig rhymed chronicle.

What the realm holds

• Stahleck castle above Bacharach, with Bacharach and the valleys behind it: held of the archbishop of Cologne; the old seat of the palatines (Conrad moved his court to Heidelberg about 1182)
• Heidelberg: the castle and the new settlement below it, first named in 1196 (a parish priest 'de Heidelberch' witnesses Henry's charter for Schoenau in 1196); the castle was held of the bishop of Worms
• Alzey and the palatine lands round it, where the Raugraves served as the count palatine's stewards (Truchsessen)
• The Salian inheritance of Conrad of Staufen at the Donnersberg, in the Nahegau, on the Haardt, on the Bergstrasse and in the Kraichgau (place by place in 1200 not pinned)
• The advocacy of the church of Worms (Hochstiftsvogtei), which came to Conrad from his mother Agnes of Saarbruecken; Henry the Elder and his son both held it
• The royal advocacy of Lorsch abbey, which came to Conrad through his wife Irmingard of Henneberg (the Bergstrasse and Lorsch ground is the mre researcher's)
• The advocacy of the Cistercian abbey of Schoenau in the Odenwald (from 1156), where Conrad is buried
• The county on the Maifeld (Grafschaft auf dem Maienfeld): pledged to the counts of Sponheim in 1197/98 (NDB)
• Thurant castle above Alken on the lower Moselle, on Trier ground: built by Henry probably between 1198 and 1206; whether it stood or was begun by 1 January 1200 is not pinned
• Given up: the overriding advocacy of the church of Trier, renounced in 1197/98

How it was acquired

Conrad of Staufen was made count palatine by Barbarossa at Regensburg in 1156, with the Worms advocacy, the Schoenau advocacy and Staufen property in the Speyergau and Wormsgau; Lorsch came through his marriage. Agnes, his heiress, married Henry of Brunswick at Stahleck in January or February 1194; Henry VI pardoned Henry and, after Conrad died on 8 or 9 November 1195, enfeoffed him with the palatinate. In 1197/98 Henry gave up the Trier advocacy and pledged the Maifeld county to Sponheim, probably to pay for the crusade.

Allies and rivals

Allies: his brother Otto IV and Archbishop Adolf of Cologne (his overlord for Stahleck); his middle-Rhine followers, who will serve in Otto's army in 1201; Count Frederick (Emich) of Leiningen, who worked for Otto's election in 1198, and other Welf-friendly lords of the Worms country, who were expected to join Otto at Boppard in July 1199 and did not come. Rivals: Philip of Swabia, his wife's cousin, who ravaged his lands in the autumn of 1198; Archbishop John of Trier, who bought out his advocacy and now stands with Philip; Bishop Lupold of Worms, Philip's fighting bishop and the church Henry is advocate of; the Staufen ministeriales of the Palatinate round Kaiserslautern and Trifels.

The realm that morning

Henry backs Otto IV, firmly: he is Otto's brother and declared for him in the autumn of 1198. He holds Stahleck and Bacharach and the palatine rights on the lower part of the middle Rhine. The upper palatinate (Heidelberg, Alzey, the Haardt and the Neckar lands) lies inside Philip's sphere and was ravaged in 1198; ADB says Henry could hold only the parts lower down the Rhine until the peace of 1204, but who commanded Heidelberg and Alzey castles on 1 January 1200 is not pinned.

His whereabouts that winter are not pinned; ADB says he put his effort into defending the Welf lands in Saxony.

Wealth

Rhine wine and the Rhine trade at Bacharach, the wine staple of the middle Rhine; the advocacies of Worms, Lorsch and Schoenau, which bring dues, justice and men; rents of the Salian and Staufen inheritance on the Haardt and the Bergstrasse, now hard to collect; the Welf allods in Saxony, shared with his brothers and formally divided only at Paderborn on 1 May 1202.

Military

Stahleck; Heidelberg and Alzey (if they still answer to him); the palatine ministeriales and the Raugraves as stewards; his own Saxon knights. In 1197 he led a crusading fleet with the archbishop of Bremen by sea to Messina and Acre (de.wikipedia gives 44 ships). No numbers for 1200 are known.

Threats

• Philip of Swabia and his ministeriales, who already ravaged the palatine lands in 1198 and hold the king's castles all round the upper palatinate
• Archbishop John of Trier, now Philip's, on whose ground Thurant is to stand
• Bishop Lupold of Worms, whose church's advocacy Henry holds
• The war in Saxony, which keeps him away from the Rhine
• Otto's weakness: by late 1199 Adolf of Cologne was ready to leave 'the leaking ship'

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 1200 (not pinned)Birth of a daughter, Irmgard, if the usual birth year of 1200 is right.Depends on: Agnes's pregnancy and health Stopped by: Death or illness of Agnes
2. August 1200 (the attack fails on 21 August)Philip campaigns in Saxony and his attack on Brunswick fails completely (ADB); the town is then walled; the Welf brothers defend their allods.Depends on: Philip carrying the war north after his Magdeburg court Stopped by: A truce between the kings, or Philip turning to the Rhine
3. Spring or summer 1200 to Martinmas (11 November 1200)A truce between the Rhenish princes of both parties, made after Conrad of Mainz's mediation, spares the Rhine; Henry's middle-Rhine lands are quiet.Depends on: Conrad's mediation Stopped by: Either side carrying the war to the Rhine
4. 25 or 27 October 1200Death of Conrad of Mainz; the Staufen party elects Lupold of Worms, the Welf party Siegfried of Eppstein. Henry, as advocate of Worms, has a stake in Lupold's double role.Depends on: Conrad's natural death Stopped by: Play that changes Conrad's circumstances

Later, on the likely course

1. 1201-1204 (outlook)Henry's followers serve in Otto's army in 1201; the Welf allods are divided at Paderborn on 1 May 1202; Henry goes over to Philip in 1204 and recovers the whole palatinate.Depends on: Otto's continuing weakness and refusal to compensate him Stopped by: A Welf victory

Places of note

• Stahleck: Palatine castle above Bacharach, a fief of Cologne; scene of the marriage of 1194
• Heidelberg castle: Conrad's later seat (about 1182); held of the bishop of Worms
• Thurant: Henry's castle above Alken, built probably 1198-1206 on Trier ground
• Schoenau Abbey: Cistercian house under palatine advocacy; Conrad's burial place

Where the sources disagree

• Not in the campaign notes: the palatine is the one Welf prince inside this area, so the count palatine's lands are a Welf island in Staufen country on 1 January 1200, and the upper palatinate is in practice lost to him until 1204 (ADB).
• Henry the Younger's birth: about 1197 in en.wikipedia and de.wikipedia (died 1214 aged 17); about 1195 in NDB. Either way he is born by 1 January 1200.

Evidence: Henry's marriage, enfeoffment, crusade and side are well attested (NDB, ADB, the Cologne annals and the Braunschweig rhymed chronicle via a detailed study). The palatine lands in 1200 are not: the sources say only that Philip ravaged them in 1198 and that Henry held only the lower Rhine parts until 1204.

On the map: The drawing shows the three attested centres. The Salian inheritance on the Haardt, the Donnersberg and the Kraichgau, and the advocacies of Worms, Lorsch and Schoenau, cannot be drawn as ground for 1200. Heidelberg and Alzey are marked contested because the sources put them out of Henry's reach without naming who held them.

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.

• 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