Adalbold of Utrecht: Charta de Vassis

The Charta de Vassis is a charter issued in the name of Adalbold, bishop of Utrecht, recording the fiefs held from the church of Utrecht by its free vassals. In the preamble the bishop explains that when these vassals asked him for their fiefs, they showed him letters of his predecessors listing the properties they and their ancestors had held, and that he had the contents put in writing. The body of the document is a register of holdings: the duke of Brabant holds Tiel with its lands and dependants, the count of Cleves holds lands in the Betuwe on the Rhine, the count of Bentheim a burgraviate, and so on.

Lists of this kind are valuable for the history of feudal tenure and of the territorial power of the bishops of Utrecht. The document should, however, be read with care: some of the titles it uses, such as duke of Brabant and count of Cleves, are not attested in Adalbold’s lifetime in the early eleventh century, which suggests that the text in its present form was drawn up or revised later. Its formulaic lists of woods, waters, meadows and dependants are typical of medieval charter language.