Archbishopric of Trier

Who rules

Name

John I (Johann I)

Title

Archbishop of Trier, prince of the Empire and one of the three Rhenish archbishops who lead a royal election

Since

Elected in September 1189 at the wish of Henry VI, then ruling Germany for his absent father; confirmed by Pope Clement III in 1190

Born

about 1140

Family

Probably of a family of the lesser nobility of the Speyer country (NDB: 'probably'). First found in 1173 as archdeacon of Speyer and provost of St German at Speyer. No kin of political weight is known.

Confidence

high

NDB (Corsten, 1974) and ADB (Endrulat, 1881) on Johann I; de.wikipedia; a 19th-century study of Archbishop Adolf of Cologne's politics 1198-1202 (University of Duesseldorf digital library) that cites the Annales Colonienses Maximi, Reiner of Liege and the Boehmer-Ficker regesta.

What the realm holds

• Trier: the city lordship and the high justice in the city, sole since the count palatine gave up the advocacy (1197 in ADB and in the city's history, 1198 in NDB); the palace (Palatium) is first named as the archbishop's residence in 1197; the cathedral, reconsecrated on 1 May 1196, with the Holy Robe placed in its new altar
• Pfalzel by Trier: palace and manors, with Ehrang and Kordel, pledged in 1190 to the cathedral chapter for the costs of his election (redemption by 1200 not pinned; from the Church map record)
• Koblenz: the royal estate (fiscus) given by Henry II to Archbishop Poppo in 1018 with market, mint and toll; the archbishop appoints the Schultheiss there
• Ehrenbreitstein: the castle on the right bank opposite Koblenz, the see's since about 1020
• The Oberburg at Manderscheid: Trier's since the mid-12th century, beside the Niederburg of the lords of Manderscheid
• Humbach (later Montabaur) in the Westerwald: an archiepiscopal castle; its state in 1200 not pinned (rebuilt and renamed about 1217)
• Saarburg: a castle built by Count Siegfried in 964, later a favourite residence of the archbishops; when it came to Trier is not pinned in the sources consulted
• Castles and fiefs acquired by John I, dates not pinned (NDB): Sayn, Altenburg, the lower castle at Kobern, Starkenburg on the Moselle, Hamm and Oberstein
• Royal forest rights in the Hunsrueck and the Eifel (grants of 897 and 973, from the Church map record)
• Estates and rents on the Saar, the middle Moselle, the Hochwald, the Maifeld and round Koblenz, recorded later in the see's register (Liber annalium iurium), finished only about 1215-1217: place by place for 1200 not pinned
• The homage of vassal counts and lords: the counts of Sponheim (Starkenburg), Virneburg and Sayn, the Eifel lords; how each stood that winter is in their own records

How it was acquired

City lordship and comital rights in Trier from Carolingian and Ottonian grants; Koblenz from Henry II in 1018; Ehrenbreitstein about 1020. John was elected in 1189 after the disputed election of 1183 (Folmar of Karden against Rudolf of Wied) was ended by deposing both. The count palatine's overriding advocacy was given up by Count Palatine Henry in 1197 or 1198 (NDB says the palatine 'gave up' the Trier advocacy; the terms are not known).

Allies and rivals

Allies: Philip of Swabia, who came to Trier on 7 March 1199 and dealt directly with the burghers and the see's ministeriales; Bishop Lupold of Worms and the Staufen bishops of the Upper Rhine; the counts of Sponheim, who sided with the Staufen. Rivals: Archbishop Adolf of Cologne, who claimed Trier's vote for Otto at Cologne on 9 June 1198 (de.wikipedia says the vote was bought); Otto IV, who ravaged Trier's Rhine lands in July 1199; Count Palatine Henry, Otto's brother, whose lands and castles border Trier's on the Rhine and the lower Moselle and who will build Thurant on Trier ground; the counts of Luxembourg (now Theobald of Bar for Ermesinde) over the abbeys of St Maximin and Echternach, which refuse to be the archbishop's; the burghers of Trier, whose sworn commune was broken up at Archbishop Hillin's request in 1161 and who dealt with Philip over John's head in 1199.

The realm that morning

John holds Trier, Pfalzel (in pledge to his own chapter), Koblenz and Ehrenbreitstein and the Manderscheid Oberburg. He backs Philip of Swabia: he went over from the anti-Staufen princes in 1198, was called wavering when Philip came to Trier on 7 March 1199, is named among the princes of the Staufen protest issued at Speyer on 28 May 1199 (present or by proxy is not known), and was punished as a defector by Otto's raid up the Rhine in July 1199. His city's burghers and the see's ministeriales have their own understanding with Philip.

Philip's Christmas court of 1199 was at Magdeburg, far away; Otto is at Cologne or in his Saxon lands, with no army on the Moselle that winter. The Rhine bank between Andernach and Boppard has been crossed by armies in October 1198 and July 1199 (see the belt record).

Wealth

Moselle wine; the market, mint and toll at Koblenz (the 1018 grant) and the mint and market at Trier; tolls on the Moselle and the Rhine (the Trier toll treaty with Cologne of 1149 was sealed with the city's seal); the forests of the Hunsrueck and the Eifel; pilgrims to the apostle Matthias's tomb at St Matthias and to the cathedral's Holy Robe; rents from estates on the Moselle, Saar, Maifeld and Westerwald.

Military

The see's ministeriales and castle-men at Ehrenbreitstein, Koblenz (the ministerial family von der Arken built the Alte Burg tower there about 1185), Pfalzel and the Manderscheid Oberburg; the fief-holding counts and free lords of the Eifel, Hunsrueck and Westerwald, who come when it suits them. John fortified the city of Trier (a wall of the 12th and 13th centuries enclosing about 138 ha; ADB ties the walling to the end of the palatine advocacy) and gathered castles. No numbers are known.

Threats

• Otto IV and Archbishop Adolf of Cologne, who ravaged the Trier lands on the Rhine in July 1199 and stand at Andernach, a short march from Koblenz
• Count Palatine Henry, Otto's brother, whose lower Rhine lands (Stahleck and Bacharach) and followers sit between Koblenz and Bingen
• The burghers of Trier and the see's ministeriales, who dealt with Philip over his head in March 1199 and will seek a royal charter of their own (Otto IV grants one in 1212)
• The abbeys of St Maximin and Echternach, exempt and protected by the counts of Luxembourg; Henry VI refused to give Echternach to Trier in 1192
• Rome: Innocent III leans to Otto; in February 1203 he will put John under censure and John will go to Rome that year (after this date)

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. 13 January 1200Death of Otto, count palatine of Burgundy, Philip's brother; with the death of Bishop Albert of Liege (1 or 2 February) it weakens Philip on the western edge and steadies Adolf of Cologne in Otto's camp.Depends on: Natural death Stopped by: Only a change in Otto of Burgundy's circumstances by play
2. Spring or summer 1200 (not pinned)Archbishop Conrad of Mainz mediates: Otto refuses to meet his envoy at Boppard; Conrad then talks with Adolf and the Cologne burghers. The only result is a truce between the Rhenish princes of both parties until Martinmas (11 November 1200), which spares the Rhine and the Moselle a campaign in 1200 while the kings fight in Saxony.Depends on: Conrad's mediation and the willingness of Cologne and Trier to stand down Stopped by: Either king carrying the war to the Rhine, or a Rhenish prince breaking ranks
3. 25 or 27 October 1200 (campaign notes; the Cologne study gives 20 October)Conrad of Mainz dies; the Staufen party elects Lupold of Worms and the Welf party Siegfried of Eppstein, splitting Mainz, Trier's neighbour on the Rhine.Depends on: Conrad's natural death Stopped by: Play that changes Conrad's circumstances
4. Late 1200, after Conrad's deathBishop Wolfger of Passau continues the mediation at a meeting between Koblenz and Andernach attended by the archbishops of Cologne and Trier and Bishop Hermann of Muenster; it ends without result.Depends on: The truce and Wolfger's mission Stopped by: Renewed fighting on the Rhine

Later, on the likely course

1. 1201 onward (outlook)The papal legate proclaims Otto at Cologne (3 July 1201) and the armies clash on the Moselle in 1201; John stays with Philip until 1208 and joins Otto only after Philip's murder.Depends on: Innocent III's decision for Otto, not yet made on 1 January 1200 Stopped by: A different papal decision or a settlement between the kings

Places of note

• Ehrenbreitstein: The see's strongest castle, on the right bank opposite Koblenz
• Pfalzel: Archiepiscopal palace and manors, pledged to the chapter since 1190
• Manderscheid Oberburg: Trier's castle since the mid-12th century
• Humbach (Montabaur): Trier castle in the Westerwald; state in 1200 not pinned
• Starkenburg: Sponheim castle (built about 1197) whose overlordship John acquired, date not pinned
• Kobern, lower castle: Acquired by John I, date not pinned
• Himmerod Abbey: Cistercian abbey John favours; he will be buried there

Where the sources disagree

• campaign notes (Part 6 D) call John 'Henry VI's former chancellor'. NDB makes him chancellor 1186-1189 and calls it the chancery of Frederick I; ADB calls him Henry VI's chancellor without dates. In 1186-1189 Henry VI governed Germany while his father was in Italy and then on crusade, so both can be defended; John was elected to Trier at Henry VI's wish. Source: https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/sfz37626.html
• campaign notes say 'STAUFEN since 1198'. Agreed, with a nuance worth knowing: John was among the anti-Staufen princes who called the Andernach meeting of 1 March 1198, Adolf of Cologne claimed his vote at Otto's election on 9 June 1198, and when Philip came to Trier on 7 March 1199 he dealt with the burghers and ministeriales 'over the head of the wavering archbishop' (the Cologne study, citing Reiner of Liege and Ficker's regesta no. 24). He is named second among the issuers of the Staufen princes' protest of Speyer (28 May 1199), and Otto's army then punished the Trier lands in July 1199 for his defection. On 1 January 1200 he is Staufen, but recently and without zeal.
• The end of the palatine advocacy: ADB and the de.wikipedia history of Trier give 1197; NDB on John gives 1198; NDB on Henry gives 1197/98.

Evidence: The career and the throne-war turns are attested in NDB, ADB and the chronicles cited by a detailed 19th-century study. The see's lands place by place in 1200 are not, since the register was compiled about 1215-1217; the castles John acquired are listed without dates. The ministeriales are known as a body; few names are pinned for 1200.

On the map: Only the attested centres are drawn. The see's estates, rents, forests and fiefs along the Moselle and in the Eifel, Hunsrueck and Westerwald are real but cannot be placed one by one for 1200, so the map understates Trier. Its vassals' lands (Sponheim, Virneburg, the Eifel lords) are drawn under their own records.

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
• Deeds of the archbishops of Trier, continuations (continuations written in the 13th century). The Trier house history for Archbishop John I (1190 to 1212), who held the Moselle between the two kings. 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
• Register of Innocent III on the affair of the Roman Empire, Innocent III and the papal chancery (1198 to 1209, compiled as a separate register at the curia). The pope's own file on the German throne war: letters to and from Philip, Otto, the German princes and bishops, and the famous Deliberatio of late 1200 or early 1201 in which Innocent weighs the claims of Frederick, Philip and Otto before deciding for Otto. Read online
• The Registers of Pope Innocent III for 1199 to 1201, Innocent III and the papal chancery (22 February 1199 to 21 February 1201). The pope's outgoing letters for the year, in his chancery's own copy, touching nearly every realm in the atlas. Read online
• Constitutions and public acts of the emperors and kings, volume 2, 1198 to 1272 (documents of 1198 to 1272, edited 1896). The public documents of the throne war in full text: the election notices of 1198, the princes' declaration of Speyer of 28 May 1199 to Innocent III, the pope's replies, Philip's and Otto's letters and promises, and the imperial acts of 1200 and 1201 including Otto's promises at Neuss in June 1201. 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