Wolfger von Erla
Wolfger von Erla,[a] known in Italian as Volchero (c. 1140 – 23 January 1218), was the Bishop of Passau from 1191 until 1204 and Patriarch of Aquileia thereafter until his death.
He participated in the highest levels of the politics of the Holy Roman Empire, traveling frequently between Germany and Italy, where he served as imperial legate.
[1] In 1195, he was involved in negotiating the release of Richard the Lionheart, then imprisoned in Dürnstein under the care of Hadmar II of Kuenring.
The Emperor Henry VI selected him to negotiate with Pope Celestine III over the succession to the Kingdom of Sicily.
[1] During the German throne dispute that followed Henry VI's death in 1197, Wolfger remained loyal to the Staufer candidate, Philip of Swabia.
[1] Wolfger's episcopal travel accounts provide the only contemporary reference to the famous Minnesänger Walther von der Vogelweide outside of the Minnesang itself.
He may also have been the patron of the author of the Middle High German Nibelungenlied, since a fictional bishop of Passau plays a prominent role in it.
[1] Accused of involvement in the assassination of Philip, Margrave Henry II of Carniola and Istria was deprived of his fiefs by a diet at Frankfurt.
Although he governed Istria energetically, he does not seem to have exercised any actual power in Carniola, where Henry II remained in effective control.
In February 1214, Wolfger attended a diet of Frederick II in Augsburg to have the new king confirm Aquileia's privileges and fiefs and to have the castle of Monselice, which Otto had reclaimed, returned.
His last act of diplomacy was to arranged peace treaties to end the War of the Castle of Love between Padua, Treviso and Venice in April 1216.
