Hartwig of Uthlede
| Hartwig II von Uthlede | |
|---|---|
| Prince-Archbishop of Bremen | |
| Church | Roman Catholic Church |
| See | Archdiocese of Bremen |
| In office | 1184/5–1207 |
| Predecessor | Siegfried |
| Successor | Burghard |
| Personal details | |
| Born | unknown Uthlede |
| Died | 3 November 1207 |
Hartwig of Uthlede (died 3 November 1207) was a German nobleman who – as Hartwig II – Prince-Archbishop of Bremen (1185–1190 and de facto again 1192–1207) and one of the originators of the Livonian Crusade.
Coming from a family of the Bremian Ministerialis at Uthlede, he was a canon of Bremen Cathedral and a clerk of Duke Henry the Lion of Saxony, House of Guelph, before becoming prince-archbishop in 1185. When the Bremian cathedral chapter elected him for prince-archbishop, due to the competitive politics within Kingdom of Germany at the time, this was regarded a Guelphic triumph.
A canon named Meinhard, originally from the Augustinian monastery at Segeberg (in Hartwig's diocese), was active at Üxküll among the pagan Livonians, apparently attempting to gain converts through preaching. In 1186, one year into Hartwig's episcopate, the prince-archbishop intervened and gave him the status of a bishop, in effect seizing control of missionary efforts there. The historian Eric Christiansen judged this to be part of Hartwig's attempt to resurrect his see's former glory, when it "had exercised authority over the entire Northern world". Papal records of 1188 indicate that the bishopric which had been established "in Russia" by Meinhard was recognised by the papacy as subordinate to the prince-archbishopric of Bremen. In Livonia, despite a further decade of activity, Bishop Meinhard had made little progress and died in 1196.
In 1186 Hartwig and his bailiff in Bremen confirmed the Gelnhausen Privilege, by which Frederick I Barbarossa granted the city of Bremen considerable privileges. The city was recognised as political entity of its own law. Property within the municipal boundaries could not be subjected to feudal overlordship, this was true also for serfs acquiring property, if they managed to live in the city for a year and a day, after which they were to be regarded as free persons. Property was to be freely inherited without feudal claims to reversion (allodification of real estate). This privilege laid the foundation for Bremen's later status of imperial immediacy.
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