Landgraviate of Thuringia

Who rules

Name

Hermann I

Title

Landgrave of Thuringia and count palatine of Saxony (charters of 1199 style him lantgravius Thuringie et palatinus comes Saxonie)

Since

Count palatine of Saxony since 1181 (granted at the Erfurt diet after the fall of Henry the Lion, on his brother Louis III's resignation of it); landgrave since 1190, after Louis III died on 16 October 1190 returning from the crusade: Henry VI first tried to take the landgraviate as a lapsed fief, then enfeoffed Hermann

Born

about 1155

Family

Ludowingian (Ludowinger). Son of Landgrave Louis II (died 1172) and Judith (Jutta) of Swabia, half-sister of Frederick Barbarossa: so Hermann is a first cousin of Henry VI and of King Philip. Brothers: Louis III (died 1190), Henry Raspe III (died 1180), and Frederick, count of Wildungen, who is alive and claims the Ziegenhain inheritance (see Wildungen).

Confidence

high

NDB 8 (Eberhardt 1969) and ADB 12 (Winkelmann 1880); FMG Medieval Lands, Thuringia; de.wikipedia Philipp von Schwaben.

Overlord

The king (the landgraviate and the Saxon palatinate are imperial fiefs). Much of the Hessian county is held of the archbishop of Mainz (northern Hesse had been a Mainz fief since about 1120); the Ebersburg too is a Mainz fief since 1189-90.

What the realm holds

• The Wartburg and Eisenach
• Gotha
• The Creuzburg on the Werra
• The Runneburg at Weissensee
• The Neuenburg above Freyburg on the Unstrut and Eckartsberga
• The Tenneberg and the advocacy of Reinhardsbrunn, the house monastery
• Sangerhausen (old Ludowingian land, town rights 1194; medium confidence)
• The Ebersburg in the southern Harz (a Mainz fief)
• Schmalkalden (medium confidence)
• In Hesse: Marburg, Gudensberg and the county court at Maden, Kassel, Grünberg, Melsungen, Homberg, Alsfeld, Biedenkopf (Felsberg not pinned)
• The advocacy of Hersfeld abbey
• The Saxon palatinate (the title and its rights; which lands went with it in 1200 is not pinned here)
• Royal fiefs since 1198-99: Nordhausen, Mühlhausen, Saalfeld, Ranis and the Orla lands

How it was acquired

The Thuringian lands by the Ludowingian rise in the 11th and 12th centuries (Louis the Springer, the landgrave's title from 1131); Hesse by Louis I's marriage to Hedwig of Gudensberg, heiress of the Gisonen and of the counts Werner (after 1122 and 1137); the Saxon palatinate in 1181; the royal fiefs from Otto in 1198 and Philip in 1199.

Allies and rivals

Allies: King Philip; Margrave Dietrich of Meissen (son-in-law); the Wittelsbachs; his brother Frederick. Rivals: the Welfs (Otto and his brothers); the archbishop of Mainz over Hesse, Erfurt and the Eichsfeld (quiet under Conrad); the abbot of Hersfeld over the advocacy (settled by Barbarossa at Erfurt in 1182); Thuringian counts who resent his peace court.

The realm that morning

On 1 January 1200 Hermann backs Philip of Swabia (since 15 August 1199). He holds all his own lands without challenge, and the royal towns of Nordhausen and Mühlhausen, Saalfeld, Ranis and the Orla are in his hands by royal grant. No war is being fought in Thuringia or Hesse this winter: the last campaign was his own siege of Nordhausen in the autumn of 1198. The Welfs hold the lands north of the Harz and the Eichsfeld's northern edge; Mainz holds Erfurt, the Eichsfeld round Heiligenstadt, Fritzlar and Amöneburg in the middle of his lands.

Wealth

Tolls on the great road from Frankfurt through Hesse to Eisenach, Gotha and Erfurt (the later Via Regia), the Werra crossings at the Creuzburg and Eschwege, the Thuringian grain lands of the Unstrut, forests of the Thuringian Forest, mints, the advocacies of Hersfeld and Reinhardsbrunn, and now the royal towns' dues.

Military

Castles listed above; a large body of ministeriales; vassal counts who serve when it suits them. No numbers given.

Threats

• A Welf counterstroke against Nordhausen and the Harz edge
• The death of Archbishop Conrad (October 1200) and a contested Mainz election that would set Erfurt, Fritzlar and the Eichsfeld against him
• His own reputation for changing sides, which makes neither king trust him
• His brother's Ziegenhain quarrel

Consort

Sophia of Wittelsbach (born 1170, died 10 July 1238), daughter of Otto I, duke of Bavaria, married 1196. She is the niece of Archbishop Conrad of Mainz (her father's brother) and the sister of Duke Louis I of Bavaria. She is not yet with child on 1 January: Louis, born 28 October 1200, is conceived about February 1200. Hermann's first wife, Sophia of Sommerschenburg, widow of Count Henry of Wettin, married about 1181-82, died in 1189 (Reinhardsbrunn chronicle, FMG; the ADB and en.wikipedia say 1195).

Heirs and children

• Jutta (born about 1183-84), daughter of the first marriage: margravine of Meissen as wife of Margrave Dietrich (married 1194 per the Genealogia Wettinensis and FMG, 1197 per de.wikipedia). About 16 years old.
• Hedwig, daughter of the first marriage (birth year not pinned, before 1190), unmarried; she marries Count Albert of Orlamünde only in 1211.
• Irmgard (born about 1196-97), daughter of the second marriage, a small child; marries Henry I of Anhalt in 1211.
• Hermann (born before 1200, year not pinned; died at Eisenach 31 December 1216), the only son living on 1 January 1200 and so the heir, an infant.
• Not yet born: Louis (28 October 1200), Agnes (about 1205), Henry Raspe (1204), Conrad (1206-07).

Officers

• Four hereditary court offices held by Ludowingian ministeriales: cupbearer (Schenk) by the lords of Vargula (see Vargula), steward (Truchsess) by the lords of Schlotheim (Schlotheim), chamberlain (Kämmerer) by the lords of Fahner (Grossfahner), marshal by the kin of Kunemund of Vargula and Eckartsberga (died before 1199): his son Heinrich held the landgrave's Ebersburg and was called after it (Ebersburg). The individual holders of the cupbearer's, steward's and chamberlain's offices that winter are not pinned.
• Chaplains, notaries and the household's clerks: not pinned.
• The advocate (Vogt) of Hersfeld abbey is the landgrave himself; subadvocates not pinned.

Court winter 1199 in 1200

The Wartburg above Eisenach is the main seat, with the Neuenburg on the Unstrut, the Runneburg at Weissensee, the Creuzburg and, in Hesse, Marburg and Gudensberg. Where Hermann himself is on 1 January 1200 is not pinned: Philip kept Christmas 1199 at Magdeburg in great state, and Walther von der Vogelweide's poem on that feast has the Thuringians and the Saxons serving the king there, so the landgrave or his men were probably present or on the road home.

Poets

The most famous literary court in Germany. Heinrich von Veldeke finished his Eneasroman in Thuringia at the request of Hermann, then count palatine, and his brother Frederick (before 1190); Herbort von Fritzlar wrote his Liet von Troye and Albrecht von Halberstadt his Ovid at Hermann's command (both dated only to about 1190-1210); Walther von der Vogelweide is at this moment Philip's poet (1198-1201) and his stays in Thuringia are later; Wolfram von Eschenbach's Thuringian years (Parzival with its trampled Erfurt vineyards, Willehalm) come after 1203. The Wartburg singers' contest is a later legend set in 1206.

King backed

Philip of Swabia since 15 August 1199. Dated changes of side: (1) 1198, after returning from Henry VI's crusade, for Otto of Brunswick, who gave him money and enfeoffed him with Nordhausen and Saalfeld; in the autumn of 1198 he besieged Nordhausen from mid-September for about six weeks until it surrendered. (2) 15 August 1199, to Philip, who gave him Mühlhausen, Orla and Ranis besides (Winkelmann, ADB; a local history of the Ebersburg puts the agreement at Fulda and has Philip grant Nordhausen, Saalfeld, Mühlhausen and Ranis as imperial fiefs).

The Staufen princes' declaration of Speyer (28 May 1199) does not name him, which fits: he was still Otto's man then, while his son-in-law Dietrich of Meissen and the abbots of Fulda and Hersfeld put their names to it. Firmness: bought rather than convinced; he has changed sides once already for land and money and will do so again if the price is right. His later changes (feud with Philip's friends 1202, open defection to Otto 1203, submission at Ichtershausen 17 September 1204 with the loss of the 1199 grants) have not happened.

Vassal counts

• Frederick of Thuringia, count of Wildungen, his brother (Wildungen): with Hermann.
• Henry II of Schwarzburg (Schwarzburg): said to have backed Philip (undated); not pinned.
• Günther III of Käfernburg (Käfernburg): not pinned.
• Lambert of Gleichen (Gleichen), more Mainz's man than the landgrave's (Erfurt advocacy, Gleichen castle): not pinned.
• Frederick III of Beichlingen (Beichlingen): not pinned.
• Siegfried III of Weimar-Orlamünde (Weimar-Orlamünde), Ascanian with a Danish wife: not pinned.
• The count of Lohra (Lohra, name not pinned) and Dietrich II of Berka (Berka): not pinned.
• The burgraves of Kirchberg (Kirchberg) are royal ministeriales rather than the landgrave's vassals.
• In Hesse the counts of Ziegenhain (Ziegenhain) and Nidda (Nidda) are not his vassals; Ziegenhain is Staufen.
• Thuringian counts in general: no evidence pins any of them to Otto on 1 January 1200, and with the landgrave, Mainz neutral and Meissen all on Philip's side or neutral, a Welf party in western Thuringia that winter is unlikely.

Belt assessment

No raiding belt is drawn. The last fighting in this area was the landgrave's six-week siege of Nordhausen in the autumn of 1198, when he was Otto's man; since 15 August 1199 the landgrave, the abbots of Fulda and Hersfeld and the Ziegenhain counts are all on Philip's side and Mainz is neutral, and we have found no campaign in Thuringia or Hesse recorded for 1199. The Mainz-Thuringian feud of 1193-95 is over. The Welf frontier lies north of the Harz and the Eichsfeld (nse's area).

Relations with rome

No quarrel of his own with Innocent III on 1 January 1200. His churches lie in the province of Mainz under an archbishop who is cardinal and mediator. He is one of the princes both kings and the pope will court in 1200.

Treaties marriages feuds

The August 1199 agreement with Philip (grants of royal lands). The Wettin alliance through Jutta's marriage to Margrave Dietrich of Meissen. The Wittelsbach marriage (1196), which ties him to Duke Louis of Bavaria and to Archbishop Conrad of Mainz. The old rivalry with Mainz over Hesse and Erfurt: in 1189-90 Archbishop Conrad bought Melsungen from the Ludowingians and the Ebersburg from Hermann, who took the Ebersburg back as a Mainz fief for himself, his wife and their daughter; in a feud of 1193-95 Melsungen was wrecked and rebuilt as the landgrave's own, and Mainz troops destroyed his castle at Grünberg (1195).

In 1196 he married Conrad's niece, and no feud is known that winter. A long-running claim of his brother Frederick against the Ziegenhain counts over Gozmar III's inheritance. The Welfs, his allies of 1198, are now his enemies.

Coinage

Thin silver pennies of the Thuringian bracteate type struck for the landgrave; Eisenach and Gotha are among his mints (the exact list in 1200 is not pinned). Erfurt's mint is Mainz's.

The host

His ministeriales (the household officers and the castle families of Vargula, Schlotheim, Fahner, Eckartsberga and Ebersburg, Treffurt and Salza), the Hessian ministeriales and Burgmannen, and the service of his vassal counts. No numbers for the host are given here. His record: captured with Louis III by Henry the Lion at Weissensee in 1180; took Nordhausen by siege in 1198.

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. August 1200 (Philip's attack on Brunswick fails on 21 August)Philip campaigns into Saxony against Otto and fails before Brunswick; the landgrave, as Philip's man, may be summoned (his part is not pinned).Depends on: Philip keeping his Saxon allies and Hermann staying loyal Stopped by: A truce brokered by Conrad of Mainz, or Hermann changing sides again
2. 25 or 27 October 1200Archbishop Conrad of Mainz, Sophia's uncle, dies; the Mainz chapter splits between Lupold of Worms (Philip's) and Siegfried of Eppstein (Otto's), and Erfurt, Fritzlar, Amöneburg and the Eichsfeld have two claimant lords (the double election follows late in 1200, before Christmas; the day is not pinned).Depends on: Conrad's natural death on its date Stopped by: Only a change in Conrad's circumstances in play
3. 28 October 1200Birth of Louis (the later Louis IV), Hermann's second son.Depends on: Sophia conceiving about February 1200 and the pregnancy going to term Stopped by: The couple kept apart early in 1200 (war, captivity), miscarriage, or the mother's death

Places of note

• The Wartburg: Main seat of the landgraves above Eisenach
• The Neuenburg: Ludowingian castle above Freyburg on the Unstrut
• The Runneburg at Weissensee: Castle begun 1168 by Landgravine Jutta
• The Creuzburg: Castle over the Werra crossing
• Marburg castle: Seat of the Hessian lands on the Lahn
• Reinhardsbrunn: The landgraves' house monastery and burial place

Where the sources disagree

• English Wikipedia (from the 1911 Britannica) says Philip first bought Hermann's support and that he later went over to Otto; Winkelmann's ADB article and de.wikipedia (Philipp von Schwaben) say he backed Otto first in 1198 and went to Philip in 1199 (the ADB gives 15 August 1199). We follow the ADB.
• What Philip gave in 1199: the ADB says 'besides, Mühlhausen, Orla and Ranis' (on top of Otto's Nordhausen and Saalfeld); the Ebersburg local history says Philip granted Nordhausen, Saalfeld, Mühlhausen and Ranis. Either way all are in Hermann's hands on 1 January 1200.
• First wife's death: 1189 (Reinhardsbrunn chronicle, FMG; NDB 1189/90) or 1195 (ADB, en.wikipedia).
• The campaign notes do not mention Hermann; nothing in them conflicts. They put Philip's Christmas court of 1199 at Magdeburg, which the de.wikipedia article on Philip confirms; the NDB entry on Archbishop Ludolf dates that Christmas to 1198 instead.

Evidence: The side changes are dated in the ADB and in modern summaries; the exact list of royal grants and the poets' presence that winter are less certain.

On the map: The realm's ground is drawn through the lord records: Landgrave (Thuringia), Landgrave (Hesse), Royal fiefs of the landgrave, Wildungen, the Thuringian counts and the landgrave's ministeriales. Mainz's enclaves (Erfurt, the Eichsfeld, Fritzlar, Amöneburg, Hofgeismar) are drawn by the hes-mainz records, and Fulda, Hersfeld, Ziegenhain and Nidda as empire. The Thuringian counts are coloured as the landgrave's because they sit inside his landgraviate and peace jurisdiction, though many of their fiefs were held of the king, Mainz, Hersfeld or Fulda.

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.

• Chronicle of Reinhardsbrunn; Chronicle of St Peter's, Erfurt (Erfurt chronicle in the 13th century; Reinhardsbrunn compilation about 1340 to 1349 from older annals). The two Thuringian chronicles. 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
• 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
• Regesta Imperii V: calendar of the acts of Philip, Otto IV and Frederick II, 1198 to 1272 (calendar of documents of 1198 to 1272, published 1881 to 1901). A dated calendar of every known act of King Philip and King Otto IV, with the acts of popes and princes that bear on the Empire. Read online
• The political songs of Walther von der Vogelweide, 1198 to 1201, Walther von der Vogelweide (about 1198 to 1201). Three stanzas of the Reichston, composed between 1198 and 1201 after Walther left Vienna, lament the disorder of the double election and call on Philip to take the crown. Read online