#84 The Staple Right of 1259: Cologne’s Key to Centuries of Wealth

Cologne in the 1250s. There was a lot of unrest in the city in the middle of the 13th century. The richest citizens of the city had twice come into armed conflict with the city's ruler, the archbishop of Cologne. Both times were bloody and was only with the greatest effort that they managed to settle the conflict with the mediation of Alberto's Magnus. In 1259, one year after the last conflict, Cologne's political landscape continued to be characterized by deep social tensions. Many people are excluded from the city government, especially the last privileged classes, but also large sections of the middle class consisting of small traders and craftsmen. The influential Rieschitzich, the bravo of the rich, made up of the city's wealthy families, represented only a small proportion of the wealthy population, but nevertheless donated political power. And while it was still permeable in the 12th century, it increasingly isolates itself from the rest of the population and prefers to keep to itself. The Rieschitzichich began to see themselves as the city-nobility, allegedly with ancestors going way back to Cologne's Roman period, what nonsense, given that many of these families had themselves only immigrated to Cologne a few generations ago. Cologne in the year 1259. As I said, many inhabitants are excluded from the bourgeois city regiments, only a few families united in the Rieschitzichich camp. Nevertheless, they only made up a tiny proportion of the rest of the city's population even of the wealthy inhabitants of Cologne. And as I said, the year 1259, one year after the great arbitration, which we covered in the last episode. And you remember, one person was not at all happy with the results or rather the compromises that had been reached, our city-lord Archbishop Conrad von Hohschdalen. Despite several military victories, he had not achieved what he wanted, regaining absolute control over the city of Cologne. Of course, Conrad von Hohschdalen was not unaware of the dissatisfaction among some citizens of Cologne, and here he saw an opportunity to exploit this foist-owned political advantage. And what the Archbishop of Cologne said in motion here in 1259 was, as the historian Hohschdalen Kampel once summarized a revolution from above. That's dive into it right after the intro. If you read the title for this episode, you might be confused why it's this about domestic conflicts, again, and not about the Staperites. You'll soon find out what the Staperites, the Stapericht in German is. It was like a money-printing machine for Cologne for centuries to come, the granting of the Stapericht, the Staperites, by the city's rule of Conrad von Hohschdalen 1259 is well known to many Cologne residents. However, the fact that this was accompanied by major political appeal is less well known, that is why we will look also into this first. And that's welcome back to the history of Cologne, a podcast about the city of Cologne that is over 2000 years old. But until it became a dis today, this all city on the Rhine is due to colour for enriched past, hence it can therefore be seen as a microcosm of your pre-history. This podcast you can listen as the city grows from the Romans, a month or a present time. If you wanted to disempower the city's most powerful bourgeois families, you could not simply proceed by force as many Archbishop said already bitterly learned as Cologne's city ruler. Perhaps the field of the previously unified front of the Rieschitzess you could be thinned out beforehand and Conrad made a poisoned offer. The Archbishop first offered the wealthiest citizens of Cologne, economic advantages and prosperity, especially money and goods, in return for which they were to give him back some of their political power. In other words, they were to give up positions in the collegiate of jurus, for example, and submit themselves and their family members as his own subjects. However, the Archbishop was not successful with this. The families, the patricians rejected the offer who were surprised. They were already rich, so why trade freedom for more wealth? And here it comes, this is exactly what Conrad von Horsch down the Archbishop of Cologne was counting on. He now set his planned maneuvers into motion. The Archbishop immediately sought out his new allies among the citizens of Cologne above all the craftsmen, weavers and those responsible in the parishes, some of whom already played a role in the city council, the new city council, but was still a very young institution in Cologne. These citizens who were often wealthy but marginalized in terms of power politics formed a new alliance with the Archbishop against the patricians, a so-called League of the Discontentate, so to speak, an alliance against the power of the few patrician families. Here in 1259, one year after the proclamation of the Great arbitration, Conrad cancels the Great arbitration, the agreement between myself and the rich citizens of Cologne, this was because he had the majority of the citizens behind him with his League of the Discontentate. The behavior here is rude and sometimes violent, but how does the city rule justify this? By invoking the Great arbitration that he's going to cancel, plot twist. The Great arbitration had largely confirmed, previously, the power of the Richard Session Cologne as far as the co-rule of the rich citizens in the city was concerned, however, the arbitrator Alberto's Magnus had given the Archbishop quasi-quality management over the city's ruling bodies with the aim of appeasing both parties. The Archbishop was to intervene if the patrician families did not behave decently in the exercise of their power over the city. According to the Great arbitration, the Archbishop was explicitly authorized to redress grievances in the city. The thing is, who decided when such abuses existed in the city? Who made the decision about that? Well, that's the point. It was within the Archbishop's own discretionary powers, a dangerous loophole to throw political power in Cologne overboard, and Conrad used this backdoor, this loophole immediately. The Archbishop said in motion a veritable step by step plan to disempower the previous officeholders in the Cologne citizenry among the patrician families. Firstly, he struck at the point that had originally started all the disputes in 1252. The control of when, how, and how many coins were to be struck was to return entirely to him, the Archbishop. On 24th of March 1259, shortly after the richest families in the cities had rejected his off-op submission, Conrad therefore announced that this missile of the minting comrades. This was the body that minted the money in Cologne, but had some kind of autonomous status in that time. In doing so, the Archbishop utilized the backdoor, already explained which the Great arbitration at Grand Demond year earlier. The Archbishop attested to corruption and misconduct on the part of the minting cooperative. According to the Great Arbitrator, it was up to him to remedy these abuses and crack down on them. Most of the mint mates were removed from office and Conrad replaced them with new mint mates who were completely loyal to him now. The new people were when actually recruited from his alliance, his league of this contents that Conrad had formed with the craftsmen, small merchants and with members of the parishes in the city. Perhaps some members of the collegiate of magistrates of the jurors had hoped that the supreme lord of the city had thus been politely saturated after all he had always been interested in money, which was always in short supply for Archbishop Duke and Elector at the same time, but that was not the case. Conrad von Hochstein wanted to completely turn the clock back. The next step followed among the later on 17th April 1259. Now the Archbishop complained that the collegiate of magistrates, the collegiate of jurors, was full of those who were guilty of bribery, corruption, robbery and extortion against the ordinary people in the city. Corruption was rampant among the magistrates, including in court judgments and the election of new magistrates. And between you and me, I believe the Archbishop was certainly not even lying with that accusation. Corruption and nepotism were probably really rampant in the committee. How else could the Archbishop have forged a broad alliance of discontent among the town's population so quickly? The magistrates, once appointed by the Archbishop as a body to support the Archbishop in court, had risen to become powerful and municipal officials. Although they still swore on to the Archbishop as lord of the city, they had long been travelling with their own agenda. Conrad therefore cracked down here to the Archbishop dismissed 16 of the 25th He had the deposed magistrates in prison or banished from the city and they were also excluded from the Richard Secherthe Brotherhood of the rich. Do we know who was ostracized here? Mainly the Petrician members, so those from the few richest families in Cologne. Five members of the Mildengrosser family already well known from an earlier podcast episode. Two more men from the Lindgrosser family. Of course the Klangerdangs were pinnered odds with the Archbishop the year before, also had to pay the price for magistrates from the Klangerdang family where this missed from office, in addition to Bill Kylian and two harder first members as well. However, it was also interesting to note which of the other nine magistrates did not lose their position in the College of Magistrates. Above all not a single member of the Oberstorzen family fell out of favor with the Archbishop. At the Oberstorzen's negotiate the deal with the city law beforehand, good question, I don't know. The previous admission procedure was also radically reorganized in that collegiate of magistrates. Previously the magistrates decided among themselves who they would elect to their midst when one of the 25 places became vacant usually due to the death of a previous magistrate. One wrote now decided directly who became a magistrate and who did not. The Archbishop immediately filled the 16 vacant posts with new men and what wonder the new magistrates were non-petitions and the majority were craftsmen and no longer rich long distant traders as before. So he recruited them from his alliance of the discontent at which was led by him. Formerly the Archbishop was careful not to act alone in order to avoid the accusation of tyranny. He had the disempowerment of the 16th or Petrician magistrates confirmed and witnessed by the council, brotherhoods, the guilds and the people of the municipality and the entirety of the citizens as Godfrey Targens, rhyme chronicle of the city of Cologne lists. It shows the allies on this side of Conrad, his alliance of the discontentate. The new magistrates who were appointed by the Archbishop became overzealous in the declarations of loyalty to Conrad and urged the city law to have the deposed magistrates executed. But Conrad did not allow this. On the contrary he allowed almost all the deposed imprisoned Petrician magistrates to escape from the city and go into exile. As already mentioned, the Archbishop did not want to be seen as a tyrant and certainly did not want to antagonize other Petrician families who were still in the city or had not been targeted by the political purges yet. The Archbishop of Cologne Conrad von Hochstahl. He now had done it. He had regained control over the riot to mint coins and brought the College of Magistrates into line and thus put an end to the increasingly willful politics of the citizens of Cologne. All this through a radical exchange of personal at both institutions. All under the pretense of standing up for the poorest classes such as the middle classes. Ultimately of course it was also about his own power. The supreme law of the city invoked the legal means to which he was entitled but contemporary witnesses like Kronkler, Klürgemann and Cologne resident Gottfried Haarng saw this as a breach of the law and called these new magistrates "donkeys" because they were not normal merchants and were blindly obedient to their patron Archbishop Conrad. In the summer of 1259 Conrad is at the height of his power in the exercise of the city rule. What sounds like a coup to us? Conrad saw as perfectly legitimate. Great arbitration had given him the task of redressing grievances in the city and yet now done so. But what does all this have to do with the staple right? A privilege that should make Cologne incredibly rich as a city. Thank you for listening up to this point because what has come before was the basis for why the Archbishop gained to grant such an extensive privilege in the first place and we will get to that now. So, let's finally get to the staple right. What is the staple right anyway? The Stapelecht in German which was valid in Cologne till the 19th century is a compulsory right from merchants traveling through. And on the other hand was a trading privilege for the city or the market town that possessed it. It's that in general terms that a foreign trader traveling through a place must stay there for a certain period of time. He had to take a break and a load, way measure or evaluate his goods there and then even offer them for sale within a certain period of time. In Cologne it was three days as far as the sales window was concerned and only for people living in Cologne. The men and exclusive right are first refusal for all Cologne residents, only then were the out of town traders allowed to pack up their goods, load them up and travel on. Furthermore, it was forbidden for foreign merchants in Cologne to trade with each other. If a Fleming wanted to sell something to a Hungarian, the farmer had to sell it first to Cologne merchant who was then allowed to sell it to the Hungarian. The Cologne merchants thus also became middlemen. In addition to all the other economic advantages that the rights of first refusal already brought with it, stay parried. Two complex or confusing for you, here's an example. A Fleming passes Cologne on his way to Frankfurt. He has to stop in the city with his goods. He pays taxes and duties here. He has now to unload his goods, in this case probably cloth and textiles. City officials inspected, measured, obeyed the goods and issued a certificate of quality. The Fleming merchant also paid for this. Some might think this was a harassment, yeah maybe, but those who survived the strict inspection Cologne and received a corresponding seal of quality had a great sales argument for increasing the price of their goods elsewhere. The so-called Kona Brands was particularly sought after for herring the fish. After all it was regarded as the seal of quality in the middle ages. Brands because the seal of quality was branded on the barrels in which the herring fish was stored. But it could also work the other way around. If the quality was poor, the city of Cologne reserved the right to burn or destroy the goods, without paying compensation. Sounds extreme, but even today's custom authorities are authorized to do this in certain cases. Once the quality inspection was over, the Fleming merchant was not allowed to leave the city. He now had to offer his unload goods for say for three days, but as I said, only to Cologne residents and not to other merchants travelling through. Once the three days were over, the Fleming merchant was allowed to move on. Of course he was free to do further business in Cologne as well, then also to other local merchants travelling through. So you see, the Staperite was a very powerful instrument in Cologne. It tends to establish enforcers Staperite in Cologne dates back to the 12th century. The people of Cologne sister-glyde and tried to enforce it again and again, but they were never able to really enforce it officially. Until now. On 7 May 1259, just a few weeks after Conrad had reorganised the collegiate of magistrates according to his will, Conrad von Hohstam confirmed that the city of Cologne held and was allowed to implement the Staperite. Conrad von Hohstam was therefore not granting a new right, but rather making a previously semi-legal and economic customary right of the city of Cologne legal as the supreme city ruler of Cologne. However, it was now official and Cologne would ensure that this privilege was strictly enforced for centuries to come. This made Conrad popular with everyone living in the city of Cologne, even with the petitions that were still there. As a middleman, they were now able to earn a golden nose as we say in German, so to earn a buck in the city as travelling merchants were only allowed to trade with Cologne merchants in the city according to the Staperite. But broad sections of Cologne also profited from this. Traveling merchants, naturally also left a lot of money in the city if they had to spend several days in Cologne, at the Bobbs, in the tavern, with city officials, at masses in church, with local merchants in general with harbor workers who loaded and unloaded their goods and even with ruffles or beggars in the city. With the Staperite, Conrad von Hohstam removed the other potential source of conflict that had previously threatened his rule for one of the complaints of their citizens in the Great Uppourtration had been that he, the Archbishop, had previously granted foreign merchants free passage through Cologne, both on the Rhine and Palant. The city and therefore the people of Cologne had lost a lot of money in their eyes and wealth as a result. Even though it has not yet been written down anywhere, they had probably already been developments to see this as an ancient ride of the city of Colonto Tax and Influence Passing Trade and the Archbishop complied with the cities recrest in the summer of 159 and issued Colont with documents to this effect. Shari read the document a little bit, of course translated from Latin into English. Quote and Be Aware, Medieval documents have lots of phrases in it, but let's continue. Quote Conrad by the grace of God, Archbishop of the Holy Church of Colont, Archchantzler of the Empire, in Italy to all who will take note of the foregoing and perpetual memory of the facts. Because we endeavour in our days to cherish the transitionary piece in the world, according to our powers, we and the other zealots for what is so good may hope for the piece of eternity. Moreover, we have realized that the more we are strengthened before the rest by the power of divine providence and the concession of grace, the more we are acknowledged to hold with the crozier, the power of temporal authority and the sword in view of the two do-cuts of our church. This double rule, both of the crozier and of the sword, we believe to be appropriate and rightful when we hold out the prospect to those near and far to natives and strangers and diligently direct parts of our attention to ensuring that they may possess theirs in peace and that neither these nor those may overstep the bounds or limits of their jurisdiction. Since in the arbitration between us and our church, on the one hand and our faithful the judges magistrates and all citizens of Cologne on the other hand concerning our rights by the honorable man and beloved in Christ and now he just counts up several citizen names blah blah blah blah. Under our zeal this year and signed by all parties, it is clearly stipulated that foreign merchants who come to Cologne and assemble there with the intention of trading shall not be permitted to do so. The city of Cologne has no intention of overstepping the boundaries that were established in the old days but in accordance with the old custom both our side and the citizens of Cologne should observe them unwaveringly because Cologneia will be adequately cared for according to the sound of its name by visiting merchants of any kind as long as the merchants and people of individual tribes obey the law laid down in ancient times and honored the city and conversely the same city leniently presents and guards its rights and anciently valid laws to merchants arriving from wherever. Therefore at the request and insistence of our foreset faithful citizens of Cologne after previous californian quarry as we are echoed the inform by the older and wise and trustworthy man through investigation we cause the set ancient boundaries together with certain other articles relating to the public benefit to be clearly expressed in the manner described below. That none of the merchants from Hungary, Bohemia, Poland, Bavaria, Suebia, Saxony, Thuringia, Hess and any other possible eastern region who come to the rine with any goods, penetrate beyond the city of Cologne except in the interest of a pilgrimage. There also no phlamish, obberbans or any other from beyond the muse or other regions down the rine according to the old and rightly to be followed custom while with the intention of trading shall penetrate further than Cologne and not to be not to the other bank of the rine nor up the rine further than the village of Hordenkirchen. Similarly, no of the merchants from the higher regions or satid diocese of Cologne will further than the lower tower of the city of Cologne or perhaps beyond the village called Riel for the purpose of trading. However, any of these merchants who are caught by any citizens of Cologne not acting or having acted accordingly or in the opposite direction can be arrested by the same citizen with impunity and legally and punished in the traditional manner which is called Hansen in the vernacular. The people of Cologne so that is now me talking not the document. The people of Cologne are also allowed to exercise justice independently and the text now continues. This is usually done in such a way that the citizens of Cologne tie up the merchant caught by him or them in such an offense with a wreath or rashes or any similar rope. If the merchant tries to untie or break this court against the will of the citizen, he shall for such an offense come under the control of the citizen who shall hold him fast and bind him in the aforementioned manner both with his person and his property. And if it should be necessary because of the the remains of the resistance we the archbishop and our successors or any judge of the place shall execute it at the request or complaint of the same citizen of Cologne so that it shall be done in the manner mentioned. Likewise, no foreign merchant wherever he may come from may stay in the city of Cologne for more than six consecutive weeks for the purpose of buying or selling. And each merchant shall not be permitted to do this more than three times in each year with the usual and customary intervals. And furthermore, no merchant may do through his business partner or his messenger or through any other person whatsoever what he is not permitted to do so personally in this respect excluding any fraud or deceit. And quote, so how about that dark medieval time where nothing was really written down or controlled. After that, the document goes on into much more detail about the sale or prohibition of several goods and to what extent but let's skip that that was already long enough. Well, you might think that's nice Cologne had the staperite but what so special about it Cologne was not the only place where staperite was granted in the middle ages because the staperite existed in many places and early modern times. There are several reasons why Cologne was able to implement the staperite more effectively than anyone else and became extremely rich as a result. Cologne is the largest city in the empire of the Alps in what is now Germany in the middle ages. As a long distance trader, you don't want to mess things up with such a trading partner who had the best relations in the known world at that time. Another thing is Cologne's location on the Rhine in the middle ages and even today the Rhine is the waterway which most goods are transported by ship. Until they were lorries and were developed roads, the waterways was the most effective way of transporting many goods at once at good speed from ancient times. As I said, the Rhine is not just a waterway but the waterway between northern Europe and Italy. Link in numerous regions in Europe along the way. You pass Cologne on the Rhine one way or the other and the staperite was waiting there. You couldn't get past it. The location on the Rhine, the city's location on the Rhine, is a double argument here. Cologne simply benefited immensely from the hydrographic conditions of the Rhine at this point. North of the city, the Rhine river was deeper and heavier and above all more bulbous ships so-called Dutchmen which were also sometimes seaworthy could navigate here. South of Cologne however, the navigation channel of the river became less deep. This meant that from here to what southern Germany and Italy, ships could only say with shallower hulls and less cargo, they were also not sea-worthy, so-called ubalindas. I will put pictures of them on my homepage. The history of Cologne.com. In other words, Cologne was the ideal harbor to carry out the necessary hydrographic reloading of ships. These points Cologne has the largest city in medieval Germany. Its location on the waterway of Europe and the natural conditions ensure that the ride of Staple would be realized so well by Cologne and the city as I said before became very rich as a result. Of course, some long-distance traders traveling through try to circumvent Cologne's Staple ride, they usually try to travel on the right bank of the Rhine, so on the opposite side of the river from Cologne. Deep through the territory of the Counts of Berg for example, today's Cologne district of Zündorf, which was only incorporated into Cologne in 1975 and its defense tower there, still bear witness to this today that people landed there and tried to circumvent the Saperide of Cologne. Shortly before Cologne on the right bank of the Rhine, everything had to be loaded onto carts and painstakingly transported overland past doits in Cologne in particular, but will be tied to you if you got caught. You have already read it in the origin text of the Staple ride. Anyone caught by the people of Cologne circumventing the Staple ride would be severely punished. Lots of all goods and penalties of honor. 1259 was therefore fed for for Yankelong. The Archbishop disempowered the previous bourgeois, patrician elite and Conrad von Horschtang granted Cologne the right of staple. But haven't we learned that the patrician families of Cologne had it all? Both economically and militarily? That's right. They did not accept their disempowerment without resistance. They were taken by surprise in 1259, yes, in 1260 however, some of them struck back. For example, at Easter 1261, violence is actually forbidden during public holidays, but so be it. The patrician Bruno Hardefust at the top whose family had been expelled from the college of magistrates and several other patrician families there to revolt in the city. A street battle broke out with butchers who belonged to Conrad's so-called alliance of discontent. The street battle ended without a clear winner, but in the end however, 16 Cologne citizens were dead. The College of magistrates, now loyal to the Archbishop and the Archbishop himself, take merciless advantage of their incident to once again take actions against the all patrician families. The result was a fine of 600 marks and they had to back bear foot for mercy in the Archbishop's palace. And four weeks later, another uprising failed by the patricians. The Archbishop and his allies of discontent were just too powerful. The leaders of this second uprising are skillfully arrested in the Archbishop's palace. Conrad had 20 of them imprisoned in castles in his surrounding countryside and placed on the house arrest. Now the Archbishop's almost complete rule over Cologne was finally established. One could put forward a thesis. What Archbishop Engelbert I had tried but failed to achieve at the beginning of the 13th century and was even murdered in the end for his quest for power, his successor Conrad von Horsztern had achieved. He was building a new Cologne cathedral, what Engelbert had in mind, and he had put down the power of the patrician families in Cologne as well. Cologne was once again firmly in the hands of the Cologne church. So was it now all over no patrician families ruling the city anymore? Well not quite. Conrad von Horsztern was now over 60 years old. He himself had ruled Cologne for almost a quarter of a century, two years after his revolution from Buff on 18th September 1261. Conrad von Horsztern died after ruling Cologne for 23 years. And even if the Archbishop was a permanent institution, the Middle Ages were a time of personal relationships and with Conrad's death, the cults in the city were we shuffled. But no Archbishop of Cologne was to become as powerful as Conrad again. Elepatrician families of Cologne were to be given that chance again, the omnipotence of the Archbishop's of Cologne was to be short-lived in the 13th century. Conrad von Horsztern left the lasting Marken Cologne both in architecture and in the memory of the city's inhabitants. His tomb is located in Cologne Cathedral in St. John's Chapel in the Choir Gallery. You can't read the missing one when you are there. Incidentally, Queen Ryshezza is also buried in the same chapel and we once featured how prominently in an episode. Conrad von Horsztern was also on in more recent times. For example, Stetsch was dedicated to him on Cologne's historical town hall tower alongside many other historical figures who have left their mark on our city. However, the medieval plinth on which Conrad's statue from 1991 stands is remarkable. The plinth shows a grotesque figure performing a obscene gesture. How can I say this in this podcast? He's doing a kind of auto-villageo. However, the fact that he's doing this, that the plinth is located right next to Conrad's underneath is pure coincidence. Before the Second World War, there were already statues of saints on this spot, which anthemsized the original religious character of the square. These figures were lost in the bombing of World War II, however, the plinth remained at the building. It was only after the war that the plinth was reused with today's unexpected depiction, which led to the curious combination with Conrad's statue. The beautiful mosaics that characterized the floor of Cologne Cathedral in the choir were created at the end of the 19th century. In addition to well-known personalities such as Hilderbolt, Conrad von Horsztern is also depicted in a mosaic in front of the Axial Chapel. Together were the floor plan of the cathedral in his hands. Let's leave it for today. Many thanks this time to Sylvia, Norbert, Christian, Antje, Verokrische, Anker and Stephen for your tips via PayPal. Thanks to Haiko for your now long-term support of this podcast via patreon.com. As always, I used Hurgüstei, Kampankarditma, Kern im Hochmittel Alters, Cologne in High Middle Ages. For a more manfrid grotesque, Köln in 13th century. Gunther Hirschfelder in Anja Ostrau, Witzki, with the analysis and translation of the text of the Kölner starpilecht, the Cologne's tape-write, in Quellen zur Geschichte der Stadt Köln-Voljum 1. So sources about Cologne's history, volume 1. And Bedeutende Bischüfe von Köln Ilensturzchenkontext, volume 3. So important are Bischüpes of Cologne concerning their historical context, volume 3. I think next time we should take another look at certain aspects of the city in the middle of the 13th century. The last few episodes were very eventful and we still have some catching up to do before we get into the hot face towards all the battles and wars that will shake not only Cologne, but also the north-west of the empire in the end. Becoming me further, to others, write the podcast in your favorite podcast app, and of Wee-Dazinn.