Johann Rode von Wale
[1][2] Being of successful bourgeois background the landed nobility in the prince-archbishopric considered Rode as a representative of urban commerce and economic interests and belittled him as a man of minor, shoemakers' descent.
John V had then made his son and heir apparent, Magnus, regent of Hadeln, situated at the Outer Elbe adjacent to the secular territory of the prince-archbishopric and underlying Bremen's archdiocesan competence.
In 1484, Hadeln's ambitious Regent Magnus, who aimed at increasing his local revenues, had reached out to conquer the rich Land of Wursten, a de facto autonomous region of free Frisian peasants in a North Sea marsh at the Weser estuary, but he failed.
Wursteners so far little disputed Bremen's claim, as long as the prince-archiepiscopal rule had remained a light financial burden without major interference in their internal and external affairs usually decided in autonomy.
[7] Rode's election rivals John and Otto were both sons of dynasties ruling neighbouring monarchies (Saxe-Lauenburgian exclave of Hadeln, Oldenburg), and had thus the smell of representing princely expansionism, entailing the weakening and belittlement of the prince-archbishopric.
[11][13] On 14 September, Emperor Maximilian I invested Rode, the confirmed and consecrated archbishop, with the princely regalia, which made him the secular ruler of the prince-archbishopric, holding a vote in the imperial diet and that of the Lower Saxon Circle.
[11] Since Rode's predecessor Henry II never pursued his papal confirmation as archbishop, he was never invested princely regalia with the prince-archbishopric thus being banned from exercising its privilege of a vote in the imperial diet.
Right at the start, when levying from the prince-archiepiscopal subjects the homage tax (German: Willkommen/Willkommschatzung) and from all the clergy within his archdiocese the donum charitativum (also called subsidium caritativum[14]) in order to recover the papal fees, Rode had to realise that a prince-archbishop lacking a local power base cannot assert himself.
[3] In fulfilment of his election capitulation, and in order to strengthen his position, Rode aimed at regaining and reassuring prince-archiepiscopal privileges and estates which had been pawned or alienated under Henry II.
[18] Rode had prepared for this, he and Hamburg's three burgomasters (upcoming, presiding, and outgoing), Johannes Huge, Hermen Langenbeck and Henning Buring had concluded a defensive alliance on 16 November.
[3] Then Rode appealed at the burghers of Bremen, Hamburg and Stade, which considered the areas downstream the rivers Elbe and Weser their own front yard existential for their free maritime trade connections.
By 20 November 1499, Magnus hired the so-called Great or Black Guard of ruthless and violent Dutch and East Frisian mercenaries, commanded by Thomas Slentz [de], prior operating in Oldenburg.
[23] Finally on Christmas Eve arriving downstream the Weser in Lehe the Black Guard tried to invade Wursten, however, the free peasants there repelled their attack near Weddewarden on 26 December.
[23][24] So the Guard turned northeastwards, looting Neuenwalde Nunnery underways, into Hadeln, repressing the joint forces of Rode and the cities – lacking support by Bremian knights and the Ditmarsians –, recapturing it for Magnus in early 1500.
[26] In return Rode had to offer appointing Henry's 12-year-old son Christopher [de] as his coadjutor, a position usually (as coadiutor cum iure succedendi), and in this case indeed, entailing the succession to the respective see.
By mid-January 1500 King John of Denmark hired the Guard and guaranteed for its safe conduct first southeastwards via Lunenburg-Cellean Winsen upon Luhe and Hoopte, crossing the Elbe by Zollenspieker Ferry to the Hamburg-Lübeckian bi-urban condominium (Beiderstädtischer Besitz) of Bergedorf and Vierlande.
[23] Hadeln was restored to Magnus, while the Wursteners rendered homage to Rode on 18 August, who in return had confirmed their autonomy, thus in fact little had changed as compared with the status quo ante.
[30] In the Vörde Register Rode states that cruelty and pressure of the prince-archiepiscopal bailiffs against the serfs drove many into flight leaving behind deserted villages and untilled land turning into wasteland.
[16] Rode and chapter had agreed to pay for Christopher's necessary papal dispensation from the canon-law age limit, he was too young to be coadjutor, while Duke Henry IV the Elder guaranteed military support for the prince-archbishopric.
[27] After Rode's appeal to the estates of the prince-archbishopric, meeting for Tohopesaten in Basdahl, they decided a onetime plough tax (Pflugschatz) on 23 April 1502, which amounted to 1,798 guilders collected by the chapter until 1503.
[33] Rode's attempt failed to reclaim alienated Bremian territory in Alt- and Neubruchhausen, in the course of the succession squarrels on the extinct comital line of Hoya Lower County.
[35] Rode tried to prevent the new fortified manor house from becoming a vassal stronghold against him, the liege lord, but in vain, the von der Lieths gradually usurped deserted villages and arable land and settled them with their serfs.
[24] In 1498, he had ordered to compile a register, Registrum bonorum et iurium ecclesiae Bremensis, also known as Johannes Rhodii Chronicon Bremense, of all the franchises and privileges pertaining to Vörde Castle, which was still in progress in 1510.
[41] It includes information about customary law, copies of deeds covering the time between 1160 and 1507, dealing with treaties, decisions, decrees, memoranda, comments and forms used in all three fields of Bremian administration, the religious archdiocese proper, the Ecclesiastical Province of Bremen, and the secular prince-archbishopric.
[24][27][43] With the comprehensive registration and listing of all privileges, estates and franchises Rode established a new office, the rent master (Rentmeister), first held by Matthäus von Hoya, in charge of collecting recurrent prince-archiepiscopal revenues.
[42][44] Rode also installed a chancery for the regular prince-archiepiscopal correspondence, and appointed a chancellor, Bertold Rese, a cleric from Mainz, recorded since 1509, thus establishing and stabilising a permanent bureaucracy.
[42][45] Rode further rationalised the office of the landdrost, with the new incumbent Hermann von Mandelsloh, appointed in consensus with the chapter ("mit weteme und willen des … Capittelss"[46]) and sworn to strict instructions in 1500.
[33] Dates and names following Schleif:[47] Rode's election capitulation became the blue print for those of his successors, repeating most of the contents and adding more restrictions developed from the experiences during the reigns of every deceased incumbent.
[3] It is also presented in the upper right and lower left quarters as given on the front page of the Missale secundum ritum ecclesie Bremense, which has been edited on Rode's instigation under his supervision, as shown on the right.
Rode's coat of arms shows in an azure (blue) field two wings in or (gold) flanking a modest Jousting helmet in or turned dexter (shield bearer's right, but viewer's left).
