Zähringen lands and rectorate

Who rules

Name

Berthold V

Title

Duke of Zähringen (a ducal title without a duchy of its own, used by the family since 1122); rector of Burgundy (the king's deputy over the lands between the Jura, Lake Geneva and the Alps); imperial advocate (Reichsvogt) of Zürich; from 1198 imperial advocate of Schaffhausen

Since

1186, on the death of his father Berthold IV

Born

about 1160 (HLS, de.wikipedia)

Family

Son of Duke Berthold IV and Heilwig (of Frohburg, per the usual genealogies). Wife: Clementia of Auxonne, daughter of Count Stephen of Auxonne (numbered Stephen II on the France map, Stephen III on de.wikipedia and en.wikipedia); marriage date not pinned. HLS also names an Ida of Boulogne as his wife, but most accounts make Ida the wife of his father (married 1183): not pinned. No living son is securely attested on 1 January 1200: chroniclers' stories of sons poisoned by his enemies, and en.wikipedia's son Berthold who died in 1216, are not reliable. Sisters: Agnes, wife of Count Egino IV of Urach (sons Egino, later count of Freiburg, and Conrad, a canon who turned Cistercian at Villers and later a cardinal), and Anna, wife of Count Ulrich III of Kyburg. These two marriages make Urach and Kyburg the heirs in waiting.

Confidence

high

HLS Zähringen (E. Eugster) and Berchtold V (E. Tremp); de.wikipedia and en.wikipedia Berthold V; de.wikipedia Speyerer Fürstenerklärung.

Threats

• No heir of his body: every neighbour reckons with the end of the line.
• Savoy (Thomas I) presses into the Vaud; Moudon is the point of contact.
• The bishop of Sion and the Valais nobles, outside his reach since 1189.
• The unbroken Burgundian nobility (Neuchâtel, Gruyère, the Oberland lords) obey because they were beaten, not because they agree.
• Habsburg leaning to Otto IV on the upper Rhine; Rudolf II has just succeeded (25 November 1199).

Consort

Clementia of Auxonne (see holder). She outlives him; her later captivity under Frederick II is outside 1200.

Heirs and children

No child securely attested on 1 January 1200 (not pinned). Heirs presumptive to the allods: the sons of his sisters Agnes (Urach) and Anna (Kyburg). The imperial fiefs, the rectorate and the advocacies would fall back to the king.

Officers

Names of his officers on 1 January 1200 are not pinned. His government rests on ministeriales (unfree knights) holding his castles: in the Breisgau the families named after Staufen, Falkenstein and other castles (see their records); in Burgundy castellans at Burgdorf and Thun and the town officers (Schultheissen) of Freiburg, Bern and Fribourg. The free lords of the plateau (Eschenbach, Tegerfelden and others) hold Zähringen fiefs and follow him in war.

Court winter 1199 in 1200

Not pinned. His usual residences are Freiburg im Breisgau with the Zähringen castle above it, and, south of the Rhine, Burgdorf and Bern. No charter fixes him in December 1199 or January 1200.

Treaties marriages wars

The bargain with Philip of Swabia of 1198 (advocacy of Schaffhausen and All Saints, Breisach, his Breisgau and Ortenau rights, money) is in force. The war with the Burgundian nobles is over since 1191 (skirmishes at Payerne and Grindelwald; the revolt began over his claims against the lords of La Glâne and of Thun). Rivalry, not open war, with Count Thomas I of Savoy over the Vaud and the Valais, and with the bishop of Sion, who since 1189 holds his regalia straight from the king.

The family claim to the Rheinfelden inheritance underlies his hold on Rheinfelden. The marriages of his sisters bind Kyburg and Urach to him.

Rome and interdict

No quarrel with Rome on record for 1199. His bishops (Constance under Diethelm of Krenkingen, Basel under Lütold of Aarburg, Lausanne, Sion) are Staufen or neutral.

Throne dispute

Backs Philip of Swabia, firmly, since his withdrawal in spring 1198 (exact date and place of the bargain not pinned); listed among the princes of the Speyer declaration of 28 May 1199. The upper Rhine was swept for Philip in summer 1198 and Otto IV has no foothold in Berthold's lands. His one standing grievance is that the crown slipped from him.

Coinage

Pennies of Freiburg and Breisach are struck for the duke; Zürich money is the Fraumünster abbess's, minted under his advocacy; the old market and mint right of Villingen (999) is a Zähringen right. Black Forest silver feeds the mints. Who struck what in 1200 in detail is not pinned.

The host

His ministeriales and their castles, the free vassals of the Breisgau and of the plateau, and the townsmen of his new towns, who owe service. Proven in the field in 1190-1191. No numbers in the sources.

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. 13 January 1200Otto, count palatine of Burgundy and count of Lenzburg, Philip's brother, dies at Besançon (the France map treats it as a murder). His Lenzburg castle and the advocacies of Beromünster, Schänis, Glarus and Engelberg pass with his eight-year-old daughter Joan under her mother's guardianship, or back to Philip: a gap in Staufen power in the Aargau that Berthold, Kyburg and Habsburg can all try to fill.Depends on: Otto dying as history has it. Stopped by: Anything in play that keeps Otto alive.
2. 1200 (month not pinned)Berthold begins the first enlargement of the parish church of Freiburg, the later Minster.Depends on: Peace in the Breisgau and his money. Stopped by: War or a ruinous campaign.
3. around 1200 (not pinned)The Schöllenen gorge is opened, putting the Gotthard road through Uri, where Berthold is advocate as imperial advocate of Zürich.Depends on: The work of the Uri valley men and their lords; peace in Uri. Stopped by: A feud in the valley or a change in the advocacy.
4. later course (not 1200)1211: a war with Savoy and a failed thrust into the Valais, beaten at Ulrichen; 18 February 1218: Berthold dies at Freiburg; Frederick II takes back the rectorate and the advocacies; Kyburg takes the allods south of the Rhine and Urach those of the Breisgau and the Black Forest.Depends on: No son. Stopped by: A son, or a new marriage settlement.

Where the sources disagree

• The France map draws Bern and Fribourg as 'empire' in its anchors; on this sheet they are Zähringen ground under the rector (HLS Zähringen: Bern and Fribourg became imperial only after 1218).
• HLS names Ida of Boulogne as a wife of Berthold V; most genealogies give her Zähringen husband as Berthold IV (1183). Not pinned.
• en.wikipedia dates a crushing of the Burgundian nobles to 1198 (from the Breisach gate inscription); HLS dates the fighting to 1190-1191. This sheet follows HLS.
• campaign notes Part 9 do not list Berthold; nothing contradicts a firm Staufen allegiance in 1199.

Evidence: Accession, the 1191 war, Bern 1191, the 1198 Schaffhausen grant and the Speyer list are well attested. The terms of the 1198 bargain beyond Schaffhausen come from en.wikipedia and de.wikipedia, not from a charter; his wife's dates and his officers are not pinned.

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 Marbach (compiled to 1238, the section on 1198 to 1210 written in the early 13th century). Alsatian annals on the Staufen side of the Upper Rhine. Read online
• Chronicle of Burchard of Ursberg, Burchard of Ursberg (about 1229 to 1230, reworked by Conrad of Lichtenau). Written a generation later by a fierce partisan of the Staufen and a critic of Innocent III. Read online
• Chronicle of Otto of St Blasien, Otto of St Blasien (about 1209 to 1210). A Swabian continuation of Otto of Freising written from the Staufen side. Read online