Era
Vol. 3: A 1077 usque ad 1209
Series
Date
1112
Regestum

Ulrich II of Weimar and Orlamünde dies heirless after having repudiated his wife Adelaide; his patrimony in Thuringia is claimed by Siegfried of Ballenstedt, the son of another Adelaide, the daughter of Otto I of Orlamünde, but Emperor Henry V refuses to acknowledge this hereditary right and confiscates the family patrimony as imperial possessions; a feud breaks out – the original House Weimar-Orlamünde, which included Ulrich I, the margrave of Carniola, Istria and Savinja, dies out in male line (a contemporary narrative account penned by Ekkehard of Aura).

Source
The universal chronicle penned by Ekkehard of Aura survives in several manuscript traditions; the earliest in extenso exemplar being the following:
B = Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, ms. lat. 4889, fol. 187v (or 180v according to older pagination); 12th century copy; digitized and available online for consultation here.
Previous Editions
Georg Waitz, (ed.), “Ekkehardi Uraugiensis chronica,” in Chronica et annales aevi Salici, Monumenta Germaniae historica, Scriptores 6 (Hannover 1844), p. 246.
FIM Edition
Diplomatic edition based on B.
Transcription

[sub anno 1112]

Moritur his temporibus quidam de Saxonię principibus nomine Ǒdalricus, Ludewici comitis dudum gener, sed iam propter eiusdem filię repudium invisus. Cuius possessiones predictus Sigifridus hereditaria sibi vendicabat successione; sed dominus imperator easdem in ius Regni conabatur attrahere. Quę causa recidivę discordię fomitem cępit ministrare.

Translation

During these times one of the Saxon princes by the name of Ulrich, once the son-in-law of Count Ludwig but now hated by him because he repudiated his daughter, died. The already mentioned Siegfried appropriated his possessions on the basis of hereditary rights, but the lord emperor attempted to claim them as legal possessions of the Empire. This matter began to fan the flames of recurring conflicts.

[trans. JB; Cf. T. J. H. McCarthy (trans.), Chronicles of the Investiture Conflict: Frutolf of Michelsberg and His Continuators (Manchester 2013) p. 243]

Medieval Recollections

1) [sub anno 1112] "Moritur eodem tempore quidam de Saxonie principibus Odalricus de Wimmar, Lodowici comitis de Thuringia dudum gener, sed iam propter eius filie repudium invisus. Cuius possessiones predictus palatinus comes Sigefridus hereditaria sibi vendicabat successione, sed domnus inperator easdem in ius Regni conabatur attrahere. Nam idem Sigefridus priores miseria[s] suas sequentibus exaggerans totam pene Saxoniam, suam videlicet patriam, tantis inplevit querimoniis, ut tam ducem Lotharium quam Rodolfum marchionem, Fridericum palatinum comitem, Wicbertum et Lodowicum comites nonnullosque alios ab obsequio retraheret inperatoris. Sed et Reinhardus Halberstadensis episcopus necnon Gertrudis, illa prepotens per Saxoniam vidua, violentiam se nichilominus pati ab inperatoris preiudiciis invasione prediorum suorum clamitabant. Hec et his similia scandalorum zezania murmur infinitum in nuper pacato Regno suscitant." - Annalista Saxo, Chronica (opus inter 1148-1152 confectum), ed. Klaus Nass, (ed.), Die Reichschronik des Annalista Saxo, Monumenta Germaniae historica, Scriptores 37 (Hannover 2006), p. 547.

2) "(SC) In nomine sanctae et individuę Trinitatis. Heinricus divina favente clementia quartus Romanorum imperator augustus. Omnibus Christi nostrique fidelibus tam futuris quam presentibus notum fieri volumus, qualiter nos, ego videlicet Heinricus quartus Romanorum imperator augustus, interventu et iusta petitione fidelium et principum nostrorum [om.] traditionem quam Ǒlricus bonę memorię de Winmar ęcclesię Maguntinę per manum Hervini comitis de Turingia fecit, Dietmarum videlicet quendam et filium suum etiam Dietmarum nominatum et Timonem nepotem illius et Bertam etiam filiam supradicti Tietmari cum filiis et filiabus suis supradictę ęcclesię perpetuo iure habendos tradidit, nos quoque, ad quos allodia supradicti Ǒlrici communi iudicio principum nostrorum devenerunt, eandem traditionem laudamus et proprio privilegio confirmamus. [om.] Data XVIII Kalendas maii, indictione VII, anno Dominicę incarnationis millesimo CXIIII, regnante Heinrico quinto rege Romanorum anno VIIII, imperante IIII. Actum est Warmacie. In Christo feliciter, amen." - Matthias Thiel, (ed.), Die Urkunden Heinrichs V. und der Königin Mathilde, Monumenta Germaniae historica. Diplomata regum et imperatorum Germaniae 7 (in interreti), doc. 130.

3) [sub mense maio:] "III idus: [om.] Odalricus comes. [om.]" – Necrologium monasterii Sancti Michaelis Luneburgensis, ed. Anton Christian Wedeking, Noten zu einigen Geschichtschreibern des deutschen Mittelalters (Hamburg 1836), p. 36."

Selected Bibliography
Gerold Meyer von Knonau, Jahrbücher des Deutschen Reiches unter Heinrich IV. und Heinrich V., vol. 6: 1106 bis 1116 (Leipzig 1907), pp. 256–58, 270.
Peter Lange, “Zur Geschichte der Grafschaft Weimar-Orlamünde,” in Thüringen im Mittelalter: Die Schwarzburger (Rudolstadt 1995), p. 187.
Ingrid Würth, “Die Grafen von Weimar-Orlamünde als Markgrafen von Krain und Istrien,” Zeitschrift des Vereins für Thüringische Geschichte 56 (2002): p. 127.
Josip Banic, “Marchionatus Istrie origo mythosque Wodalrici marchionis: (Re)interpreting the Genesis of the March of Istria and the Socio-Genealogical Background of Its First Margraves (c. 1060 – c. 1100),” in Mens acris in corpore commodo: Festschrift in Honour of the 70th Birthday of Ivan Matejčić, ed. Miljenko Jurković and Marijan Bradanović, Dissertationes et monographiae 17 (Zagreb 2021), pp. 189–217.
Editor's Notes

The death of Ulrich II of Weimar-Orlamünde signifies the end of the line that emerged in the 10th century as counts in Thuringia and became one of the most powerful noble houses of the Salian-era Holy Roman Empire, a line which included Ulrich I, the first imperial margrave of Istria.

The opinion that Ulrich II had surviving heirs with his estranged wife Adelaide (argued by Würth for example) is untenable: Henry V's charter reported above would not make any sense otherwise. Adelaide did have children, as Würth correctly noted, but these could not have come from her marriage to Ulrich II. Likewise, Poppo III had no male heirs as well (on all of this, see Banic, "Marchionatus Istrie origo").

It cannot be known when exactly (and if at all) Ulrich II returned from the northern Adriatic region to his ancestral Thrungia, but this putative trip must have happened after the November of 1102, his donation to the Church of Aquileia (see it here) and before 1112, the year of his death.

In any case, the patrimony of House Weimar-Orlamünde in Istria and Carniola followed a different path than the one in Thuringia which was eventually claimed by Siegried II of Ballenstedt: the Church of Aquileia and the Meinhardines were granted all the Istrian possessions by Ulrich II; House Andechs inherited large parts of the family's patrimonies in Carniola by way of the marriage between Sophie, the daughter of Poppo III and Richarda of Spanheim, and Berthold II of Andechs (Andrej Komac, Od mejne grofije do dežele: Ulrik III. Spanheim in Kranjska v 13. stoletju, Thesaurus memoriae: Dissertationes 5 (Ljubljana 2006), pp. 52–55).

How to Cite
First citation: Josip Banic (ed.), Fontes Istrie medievalis, vol. 3: A 1077 usque ad 1209, doc. 1112_EA, fontesistrie.eu/1112_EA (last access: date).
Subsequent citations: FIM, 3: doc. 1112_EA.
Facsimile
Image Source and Info

The image of ms. B comes from the official web pages of Bibliothèque nationale de France.

The editor has subsequently marked the image with a red line simply to denote the part of the manuscript hereby edited.

The image remains under the copyright of Bibliothèque nationale de France.