Siegfried, Prince-Archbishop of Bremen

Siegfried of Anhalt (c. 113224 October 1184) was born as the third son of Sophie of Winzenburg and her husband Albert the Bear, then Count of Anhalt, of the House of Ascania. In 1168 he was elected Archbishop of Bremen. Afterward he became Prince-Bishop of Brandenburg (1173–1179) as Siegfried I. In 1179 he succeeded in getting it upgraded to a Prince-Archbishopric of imperial immediacy in 1180, thus becoming Prince-Archbishop of Bremen. He was a strong advocate of Ascanian clan interests. Before ascending the see Probably before 1147 Siegfried joined the in Magdeburg as a secular canon. His father's donations of rural possessions to the monastery in 1151 are probably related to providing Siegfried a princely livelihood within the monastery. Siegfried appears for the first time as a witness in a document of 19 September 1154 in Halle upon Saale alongside his father and brothers. They altogether testified, that Bremen's Archbishop Hartwig, Count of Stade confirmed to have received a donation of Siegfried's paternal grandmother Eilika in Paulinzell. In 1155 Siegfried, his parents, brothers and sisters attended the inauguration ceremony of the abbey of the monastery in Leitzkau. The following years he officiated as canon in Magdeburg. Historical background The Archdiocese of Bremen and its respective incumbent was one of the players in the struggle for feudal positions. The Archbishop had no princely rank under the emperor, but held all the possessions, privileges, etc., that belonged to the See as mediate tenant, meaning a vassal of the Duchy of Saxony, where the possessions were located, with the Duke himself being a vassal of the Emperor. Hartwig of Stade, as Hartwig I Archbishop of Bremen, was the last male representative of the comital family of Stade. When he died in 1168, the County of Stade was reverted. The Bremian Chapter, which had elected Hartwig for Archbishop in expectancy for the county, claimed it would be a fief of the Bremian See. Henry the Lion of the House of Guelph, replied with a twofold claim: (1) he would be the heir, giving some obscure arguments on his relation to Stade's comital family; (2) the then Archbishop Adalbero of Bremen allegedly had promised Henry's mother Wulfhild to enfeoff her with the county, a very dubious claim. In fact Henry, then 14 years old, simply wanted to increase his realm.