Emperor Henry IV:
Exchange of an Estate for a Forest, 1059
During the minority of Henry IV (of Germany) his mother Agnes was regent. In A.D.
1059 he was nine years old and his mother, following her late husband's policy, gave much
of the royal demesne away. After Henry came of age he took back much of the forest land
and enclosed it.
In the name of the Holy and Indivisible Trinity, Henry, by favor of the Divine
Clemency, King. Be it known to all those faithful to Christ and to us, both now and in the
future, that our predecessor and loving father, Henry, third king of that name and second
emperor, of worthy memory, gave a certain estate to the venerable Bishop Rudolph of the
holy church of Paderborn in exchange for a forest called Reginhereshuson belonging to that
church. This exchange was to remain valid for as long as either of them lived. After the
death of our lamented father, for the eternal rest of his soul, on the intercession of our
dearly beloved mother, the Empress Agnes, and because of the devotion and faithful service
of Immadus, worthy bishop of that church after Rudolph, we returned the forest. To the
altar of Mary the Mother of God, St. Kilian the Martyr, and St. Liborius the Confessor we
give and grant in full right this same estate, namely a domain called Puningun together
with three smaller ones, Sumersede, Bottesdorf, and Calinbinchi, which is commonly called
Vorawerch, with twenty-seven holdings belonging to these manors situated in the districts
of Westphalia and Traisen, in the lands of Duke Bernard, of Rotger, and of Count Bernard.
These I grant with all things pertaining thereto, namely serfs of both sexes, courts and
buildings, cultivated and uncultivated lands, fields, meadows, pastures, waste lands,
woods, hunting rights, streams and lakes, fishing rights, mills and mill-stones, income
and revenue, roads and toll-bars, investigations and inquiries, and all other rights and
customs which could in any way belong to them. Thus Immadus, bishop of the ancient see of
Paderborn, and his successors, may have power to hold henceforth in full freedom the said
manor, and to exchange, lease, or do whatever pleases him for the good of the church. In
order that this royal transaction of ours may remain secure and stable for all time, we
have ordered that this charter, as may be seen below, shall be signed with our hand and
confirmed with the impression of our seal.
Source:
N. Schaten, S.J., ed., Annales Paderbornenses, (Neuhaus, 1693), Vol. I, p. 553;
reprinted in Roy C. Cave & Herbert H. Coulson, A Source Book for Medieval Economic
History, (Milwaukee: The Bruce Publishing Co., 1936; reprint ed., New York: Biblo
& Tannen, 1965), pp. 317-318.
Scanned by Jerome S. Arkenberg, Cal. State Fullerton. The text has been modernized by
Prof. Arkenberg.
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© Paul Halsall, October 1998
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