On the morning of 1 January 1200 the Atlas records 32 realms and principalities in The Rhineland, the Low Countries and the Swiss Lands, with 414 lords and officers, 439 towns, ports and sites, 77 church lands and religious houses and 21 provinces, peoples and free lands.
The realms
- County of HollandDirk VIICounty
Holland in 1200 is a county of dunes, peat bogs and river mouths running from the Maas islands to Kennemerland, rich in the tolls of the river trade at Geervliet and Dordrecht and in cattle, fish and salt.
- Prince-bishopric of UtrechtDirk II of ArePrince-bishopric
The bishop of Utrecht rules two separate countries: the Nedersticht round Utrecht and Amersfoort, wedged between Holland and Guelders, and the Oversticht beyond the IJssel, with Deventer, Salland, Twente and the county of Drenthe, and far to the north his town
- County of Guelders and ZutphenOtto ICounty
Otto I rules a county in pieces strung along the great rivers: the old county round the castle of Geldern and Roermond in the south, the Betuwe between Rhine and Waal, the Veluwe heath north of Arnhem, and the county of Zutphen on the IJssel, inherited through
- The free Frisian landsThe Frisian lands and their judgesFree lands
From the Vlie to the Weser lie the free Frisian lands: rich marsh farms on terps and dikes, without castles or resident counts, governed by assemblies of landholders and judged by their own law.
- Duchy of BrabantHenry IDuchy
The strongest prince of the southern Low Countries and Otto IV's chief lay ally west of the Rhine.
- Duchy of LimburgHenry IIIDuchy
A compact hill duchy on the Vesdre and the plateau of Herve, between Liege, Aachen and the Ardennes, with the Land of Rode (Herzogenrath) toward Aachen, Wassenberg on the Rur, the lordship of Montjoie (Monschau) in the high Eifel being built up, and the county
- County of LoonLouis IICounty
The county of the Demer and the Kempen between Brabant, Liege and the Meuse, ruled from Borgloon by a young, unmarried count of about thirty.
- Prince-bishopric of LiègeAlbert of CuyckPrince-bishopric
The richest church principality of the Low Countries: the city of Liege with its new charter of liberties (1196), the Meuse towns of Huy, Dinant and Visé, half of Maastricht, Tongeren, the Hesbaye, the Condroz, the Entre-Sambre-et-Meuse with Thuin, Fosses and
- Archbishopric of CologneAdolf of AltenaArchbishopric
The richest see in the Empire and the maker of the Welf king.
- County of JülichWilliam IICounty
A compact, aggressive county on the Rur between Aachen and Cologne, ruled from the rock castle of Nideggen above the Rur gorge and from the old Roman town of Jülich.
- County of BergAdolf IIICounty
The hill county between the Ruhr and the Sieg, east of the Rhine opposite Cologne, held by the senior line of the Berg house since the division of 1160-1161 that gave the Altena lands to Eberhard.
- County of ClevesCounty
A riverside county on the lower Rhine round the castle of Kleve (the Schwanenburg) and Kalkar, with Wesel on the right bank (from the marriage of Arnold I to Ida of Brabant) and the old family castle of the Tomburg far to the south near Rheinbach, held of Colo
- Bishopric of MünsterHermann II of KatzenelnbogenPrince-bishopric
The bishop of Münster is the strongest lord of the Münsterland.
- Bishopric of OsnabrückGerhard of Oldenburg-WildeshausenPrince-bishopric
The bishop of Osnabrück is the weakest of the Westphalian prince-bishops as a lord.
- Bishopric of PaderbornBernhard IIPrince-bishopric
Bernhard II rules the see of Paderborn between the Hellweg, the Weser hills and the Diemel.
- Bishopric of MindenThietmarPrince-bishopric
Thietmar of Minden holds the city of Minden at the Weser crossing below the Porta Westfalica, with the market, mint and toll granted in 977 and a town officer of his own (the Wichgraf), and the church's lands north of the Wiehen hills.
- Archbishopric of BremenHartwig II of UthledeArchbishopric
Hartwig II comes from the see's own unfree knightly family (ministeriales) of Uthlede.
- Bishopric of VerdenRudolf IPrince-bishopric
A small principality around the cathedral town of Verden on the Aller and the castle of Rotenburg on the Wümme, which Bishop Rudolf built in 1195 against the archbishop of Bremen.
- County of HolsteinAdolf III of SchauenburgCounty
Adolf III holds Holstein, Stormarn and Wagria north of the Elbe, the new town of Hamburg and the town of Lübeck, the running of the archbishop of Bremen's county of Stade, and his family's old county of Schauenburg on the Weser.
- Bishopric of HalberstadtGardolfPrince-bishopric
The bishopric of Halberstadt is the old mother church of eastern Saxony, stretching from the Oker to the Saale, but its temporal lordship is small and scarred.
- Bishopric of HildesheimHartbertPrince-bishopric
Hildesheim is a rich old see squeezed between the Welf lands on three sides.
- Duchy of Saxony (Bernhard of Anhalt)BernhardDuchy
Bernhard is the prince who took the title of duke of Saxony when Henry the Lion fell in 1180, but the duchy he received was a shell: Westphalia went to Cologne, the Welf allods stayed with the Welfs, and the bishops and counts of eastern Saxony answer to no du
- Otto IV: Welf and royal landsOtto IV of BrunswickKing and his house
One of two crowned kings of Germany.
- Landgraviate of ThuringiaHermann ILandgraviate
Hermann I, landgrave of Thuringia and count palatine of Saxony, is the leading lay prince of Thuringia and Hesse and, since 15 August 1199, King Philip's man again after a year on Otto's side.
- Archbishopric of TrierJohn IArchbishopric
John I is a former royal chancellor (1186-1189) who was put into Trier by Henry VI to end a six-year disputed election.
- County palatine of the RhineHenry of Brunswick, called the Elder or the TallCounty palatine
The county palatine is a cluster of castles, advocacies and old royal rights on the middle Rhine, the Nahe, the Haardt and the lower Neckar that Conrad of Staufen, Barbarossa's half-brother, built up from 1156: Stahleck and Bacharach on the Rhine (fiefs of Col
- Archbishopric of MainzConrad of WittelsbachArchbishopric
The first prince of the German kingdom in rank: arch-chancellor of Germany, holder of the first voice in a royal election, dean of the cardinals, and lord of Mainz, the Rheingau, Bingen and Aschaffenburg, with the Mainz lands in Hesse, the Eichsfeld and Thurin
- Other imperial landsPhilip of SwabiaImperial lands
On 1 January 1200 the German kingdom has two crowned kings and no settlement.
- Bishopric of WürzburgConrad of QuerfurtPrince-bishopric
On 1 January 1200 the see of Würzburg is held by Conrad of Querfurt, the most powerful churchman at Philip's court: royal chancellor since the days of Henry VI, imperial legate in Italy in 1196, a leader of the German crusade of 1197, present at Acre on 5 Marc
- Bishopric of BambergTimoPrince-bishopric
Bamberg is Henry II's foundation of 1007, built out of royal lands in the Radenzgau, the Volkfeld and the Rangau, and it remains a rich see with lands from the upper Main to the Carinthian passes (Villach and the Kanaltal lie far outside this sheet).
- Philip of Swabia: Staufen and royal landsPhilip of SwabiaKing and duke
Philip is a crowned king with the larger party: most of the bishops of the south and east, the dukes of Bavaria and Saxony, the margrave of Meissen, Bohemia, Thuringia since 1199, Trier and Magdeburg.
- Zähringen lands and rectorateBerthold VDuchy and rectorate
The strongest prince between the Black Forest and the Alps, and Philip of Swabia's man since 1198.
Self-governing peoples and other lands
Records of this region that belong to no single realm page.
Primary sources for The Rhineland, the Low Countries and the Swiss Lands
- Chronicle of Alberic of Trois-Fontaines, Alberic of Trois-Fontaines (about 1227 to 1241, at the Cistercian abbey of Trois-Fontaines in Champagne). The widest net of any Latin chronicle for 1200, compiled from dozens of sources, many now lost.
- Chronicle of Hainaut, Gislebert of Mons (about 1195 to 1196). Ends in 1195, so it has no 1200 entries, but it is the indispensable background for Flanders and Hainaut: the career of Count Baldwin V of Hainaut (VIII of Flanders), his union of the two counties, the settlement with Philip over Artois, the rights, castles, fiefs and vassals of Hainaut listed by a man who ran its chancery, and the youth of Baldwin IX, who held both counties in 1200.
- Chronicle of Robert of Auxerre, Robert of Auxerre (Robert of Saint-Marien) (about 1190 to 1211; continued at Saint-Marien to 1227). A universal chronicle whose last twenty years are contemporary and well informed from Burgundy and the Auxerrois.
- The Deeds of Innocent III, Anonymous (a curial official, perhaps Peter of Benevento) (about 1208 to 1209). The curia's own account of the pontificate's first decade, with letters copied in.
- Chronicle of Sicard, bishop of Cremona, Sicard of Cremona (about 1210 to 1213). A universal chronicle whose last part is a well-placed eyewitness account by a Lombard bishop who served emperors and popes.
- The Danish diplomatarium: charters and letters concerning Denmark, with Danish translation (documents of 789 to 1448; the online edition is continuing). Twenty-seven documents are dated to 1200: Innocent III's letters of February and March 1200 to Philip Augustus and Queen Ingeborg and his order for the interdict on France, Otto IV's letter to the pope expecting King Knud VI to move into Saxony, the reports of the legate Octavian and the French bishops on the lifting of the interdict in September, the pope's letters to Knud VI asking him to send advocates for his sister, Knud VI's ordinance on manslaughter for Skåne of 28 December 1200, and private gifts to Roskilde and Næstved.
- 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.
- The Capture of Constantinople, Gunther of Pairis (about 1205 to 1210). Written at the Cistercian abbey of Pairis in Alsace from the account of its abbot Martin, who preached the crusade at Basel in 1200 (Gunther gives the sermon) and led a contingent from the Upper Rhine.
- The Livonian Chronicle of Henry, Henry of Livonia (1225 to 1227). The chief source for the Baltic mission.
- Annals of Egmond (12th century to about 1205). The house annals of Egmond, the counts of Holland's abbey, and the main native source for Holland around 1200.
- 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.
- Annals of Reiner of Saint James, Liège, Reiner of Liège (1197 to 1230, kept year by year). Contemporary annals kept inside Liège.
- Annals of Stade, by Albert of Stade, Albert of Stade (about 1240 to 1256). A world chronicle written at Stade in the 1240s from older Stade and Bremen annals.
- Charter books of Lübeck and of Hamburg (documents to 1226 (Lübeck vol. 1) and to 1300 (Hamburg vol. 1)). The charters of the two north German towns and of the archbishops of Bremen and Hamburg.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Chronicle of the abbots of Wittewierum (Bloemhof), Emo of Wittewierum (from 1219 to 1237, continued by Menko to 1273). The chronicle opens only in 1204 with the founding of Emo's Premonstratensian house in the Groningen Ommelanden, so it has nothing for 1200 itself.
- Chronicle of the Slavs, by Arnold of Lübeck, Arnold of Lübeck (about 1209 to 1210). Arnold continues Helmold and writes from Lübeck, close to Danish, Welf and Baltic affairs.
- Chronicle of the Slavs, by Helmold of Bosau, Helmold of Bosau (about 1167 to 1172). Background only.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
How these entries are made
Every entry describes one morning, 1 January 1200, and keeps later events in a dated "what the year holds" list with the conditions each depended on. Each entry names its sources, rates its confidence and says where the sources disagree. Published 4 November 2026. Corrections are welcome.