- Philip I (Archbishop of Cologne)
Philip I ( _de. Philipp von Heinsberg; c. 1130 –
13 August 1191 ) was theArchbishop of Cologne andArchchancellor of Italy from 1167 to 1191.He was the son of Count
Goswin II of Heinsberg and Adelaide of Sommerschenburg. He received his ecclesiastic training inCologne andRheims , becoming dean of the cathedral chapter in Cologne and then provost ofLiège . In late Summer 1167, he was raised to the archchancery and the archdiocese of Cologne, where he was consecrated29 September 1168 . In that year, he entered and mediated into the controversy between France and England.As bishop, Philip continued the policies of his predecessors. He exceeded all of them, however, in his territorial expansions, buying up the lands of his vassals and selling many for a profit. Philip held his fief directly from the emperor and was the greatest of the imperial tenants-in-chief. By buying up his vassals' subvassals, he tied them closer to himself.
Frederick Barbarossa , however, saw a threat in the archbishop's pretensions and allied himself to the competing baronial factions of the region, especiallyHenry IV of Luxembourg , who had a hereditary claim to the Hainaut. Barbarossa also madeAachen andDuisburg royal cities with trade privileges in order to weaken Cologne economically.Despite this, Philip remained a supporter of Frederick. As archchancellor, he campaigned with him in
Italy on several occasions. He was present at the disastrousBattle of Legnano on29 May 1176 , where Barbarossa's Italian ambitions were left slain on the field. On13 April 1180 , Philip was createdDuke of Westphalia in the breakup of the oldDuchy of Saxony following the dispossession ofHenry the Lion . With Westphalia in his control, Philip was the most powerful lord of the north of the realm and threatened the power and influence of the emperor. At the great council atMainz in 1184, he raised Baldwin V of Hainault to margravial status. Philip responded by negotiating withPope Urban III , then at odds with Barbarossa, andCanute IV of Denmark . He also moved to support the old count of Luxembourg, who had claims to Hainault. The archbishop's wider attempts to align the German episcopate against the emperor failed, however.Around
Whitsuntide 1187, Philip defeated an imperial army on its way to opposePhilip II of France . At this, the emperor formally accused the archbishop of unfaithfulness. In March 1188, Philip was subjected to a council in Mainz under the emperor. He made peace the next year (1189). In 1190, Philip was again playing a political rôle, this time mediating between Barbarossa and Henry the Lion. Philip accompanied the newEmperor Henry VI into Italy, to seize theKingdom of Sicily in right of his wife Constance, in 1191 and died at the siege ofNaples during an epidemic — eitherbubonic plague ormalaria . His body was returned to Cologne.In 1180 he began construction on Cologne's city wall. Documents dated
27 July and18 August of the year attest to the beginning of work on what would become Europe's largest city wall until 1881. He also began the Shrine of the Three Kings, in which was found (1864) one of his coins.
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