The Chronicle of Arnold of Lübeck

335 Pages·2019·12.4 MB·English

by  Graham A. Loud

THE CHRONICLE OF ARNOLD
OF LÜBECK
The chronicle of Arnold, Abbot of the monasteryof St John of Lübeck, is one
of the most important sources for the history of Germany in the central
Middle Ages, and is also probably the major source for German involvement
in the Crusades. The work was intended as a continuation of the earlier chron-
icle of Helmold of Bosau, and covers the years 1172–1209, in seven books. It
was completed soon after the latter date, and the author died not long after-
wards, and no later than 1214. It is thus a strictly contemporary work, which
greatly enhances its value.
Abbot Arnold’s very readable chronicle provides a fascinating glimpse into
German society in the time of the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa and his
immediate successors, into a crucial period of the Crusading movement, and
also into the religious mentalityof the Middle Ages.
Graham A. Loud isProfessorofMedievalHistoryattheUniversityofLeeds,
wherehewasHeadoftheSchoolofHistory2012–15.HeholdsaLeverhulme
Major Research Fellowship 2017–19, during which he isworking on a book
about the social history of the principality of Salerno, c.1020–1300, as
revealedbythechartersoftheabbeyofHolyTrinity,Cava.Amonghisprevi-
ous books are The Age of Robert Guiscard. Southern Italy and the Norman
Conquest (Harlow 2000), The Latin Church in Norman Italy (Cambridge
2007),RogerIIand the Creation ofthe Kingdom ofSicily (Manchester 2012),
and The Origins of the German Principalities, 1100–1350, editedwith Jochen
Schenk (Routledge 2017). He has also translated The Crusade of Frederick
Barbarossafortheseries‘CrusadeTextsinTranslation’(2010).
Crusade Texts in Translation
Editorial Board
Malcolm Barber (Reading), Peter Edbury (Cardiff), Norman Housley
(Leicester), Peter Jackson (Keele)
The crusading movement, which originated in the 11th century and lasted
beyond the 16th, bequeathed to its future historians a legacy of sources
which are unrivalled in their range and variety. These sources document in
fascinating detail the motivations and viewpoints, military efforts and spir-
itual lives of the participants in the crusades. They also narrate the internal
histories of the states and societies which crusaders established or sup-
ported in the many regions where they fought. Some of these sources have
been translated in the past but the vast majority have been available only
in their original language. The goal of this series is to provide a wide-ran-
ging corpus of texts, most of them translated for the first time, which will
illuminate the history of the crusades and the crusader-states from every
angle, including that of their principal adversaries, the Muslim powers of
the Middle East.
Titles in the series include
Graham A. Loud
The Chronicle of Arnold of Lübeck
Carol Sweetenham
The Chanson des Chétifs and Chanson de Jérusalem
Anne Van Arsdall and Helen Moody
The Old French Chronicle of Morea
Keagan Brewer
Prester John: The Legend and its Sources
Martin Hall and Jonathan Phillips
Caffaro, Genoa and the Twelfth-Century Crusades
Denys Pringle
Pilgrimage to Jerusalem and the Holy Land, 1187–1291
The Chronicle of Arnold of
Lübeck
Translated by
GRAHAM A. LOUD
Firstpublished2019
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Contents
Preface vi
Abbreviations vii
Maps viii
Genealogicalcharts x
Introduction 1
1 Prologue 38
BookI 39
2 BookII 63
3 BookIII 92
4 BookIV 132
5 BookV 164
6 BookVI 227
7 BookVII 261
Appendix:FrederickIIrecognisesLübeckasanimperialcityand
listsitsspecialprivileges(June1226) 303
Bibliography 307
Index 316
Preface
My interest in the Chronicle of Arnold of Lübeck began with a casual con-
versation many years ago with Bernard Hamilton, the former president of
the Society for the Study of the Crusades and the Latin East. This led me
to read the chronicle for the first time, if rather too hurriedly. Much later, I
looked at this text in greater depth when searching for primary sources to
present to the students taking my third-year option at the University of
Leeds on ‘Emperor and Authority in Medieval Germany’, for whom I
translated Arnold’s account of the downfall of Henry the Lion. I returned
to his chronicle once again while working on my previous translation in
this series, The Crusade of Frederick Barbarossa, and it was while complet-
ing that work that I decided to produce a complete translation of Arnold’s
chronicle as a companion volume. The attentive reader will note that I
have called this work simply ‘the Chronicle of Arnold of Lübeck’ – for
reasons that are explained in the introduction the traditional title of ‘the
Chronicle of the Slavs’ is inappropriate and unjustified.
I am grateful to John Smedley of Ashgate publishers, who originally
commissioned the book, and to Routledge for honouring the contract
when Ashgate was taken over. Over the several years that I have been
working on this book many others have assisted me, often by patiently
answering importunate questions, or advising on problematic passages.
Among them have been Oliver Auge, Julia Barrow, David D’Avray, Susan
Edgington, Bill Flynn, Thomas Förster, John Gillingham, Sebastian
Modrow, Alan Murray, Guy Perry, Tom Smith, Olivia Spencer (a graduate
student who kindly assisted with the translation of a particularly confusing
chapter), and Helmut Walther. Above all, my retired colleague at Leeds
Ian Moxon has been an unfailing source of advice on translation, the scan-
sion of verse and classical literature in general, as he was also for The Cru-
sade of Frederick Barbarossa. David Crouch and (once again) Bernard
Hamilton kindly commented on drafts of the introduction. It has been a
particular pleasure to collaborate with Oliver Auge (Kiel) and Sebastian
Modrow (Griefswald), who are preparing a German translation of this
same work. Finally, I am as ever most indebted to my wife, Kate Fenton,
and for so much more than just her work on the maps and genealogical
charts, and patient nursing of malfunctioning computers, although she has
done all this, as she has for my previous books.
Leeds and Lyme Regis,
September 2018
Abbreviations
ArnoldiChronica Arnoldi Chronica Slavorum, ed. Johannes M. Lap-
penberg, with Georg Heinrich Pertz (MGH SRG,
Hanover1868)
AV AuthorisedVersion[oftheBible]
CrusadeofFB Graham A. Loud, The Crusade of Frederick Barba-
rossa. The History of the Expedition of the Emperor
FrederickandRelatedTexts(CrusadeTextsinTrans-
lation19:Farnham2010)
Dipl.Fred.I. Die Urkunden Friedrichs I, ed. Heinrich Appelt (5
vols., MGH Diplomatum Regum et Imperatorum
Germaniae10,Hanover1975–90)
Helmold,Cronaca Helmoldi Presbyteri Bozoviensis Cronica Slavorum,
ed. Bernhard Schmeidler (MGH SRG, Hanover
1937)
MGH Monumenta Germaniae Historica, following the
usualconventions(SRG=ScriptoresRerumGerma-
nicarum;SS=Scriptores,etc.)
MPL Patrologia Latina, ed. J-P. Migne (221 vols, Paris
1844–64)
UrkundenHL Die Urkunden Heinrichs des Löwen, Herzogs von
Sachsen und Bayern, ed. Karl Jordan (MGH,
Weimar1949)
Note: Classical texts in the footnotes that are available in multiple editions
are referred to by the usual book and chapter divisions, but without editor-
ial details.
Maps
I NorthGermany(Schleswig-HolsteinandEasternSaxony)
II TheHolyLand