Wigbold von Holte

After the death of Archbishop Siegfried II von Westerburg in Bonn on 7 April 1297 the nobility and clergy gathered to select a new archbishop of Cologne in Neuss, as Cologne was still under an interdict.[1] King Adolf of Nassau was also present. Count Eberhard von der Mark urged the election of Wigbold, because Eberhard's son, Engelbert, was married to Wigbold's niece, Mechtilde von Aremberg.[1] When he was duly elected as archbishop of Cologne in May 1297 by the chapter of Cologne Cathedral, of which he was already a member as dean, he was already described as an old man ("senis confracti"). Adolf of Nassau however valued his diplomatic skill, and therefore supported his election.

In 1298 Wigbold received the pallium from Pope Boniface VIII.[1]

Well-schooled in worldly and intellectual studies, Wigbold was mostly occupied in minimising the political damage resulting from the defeat at the Battle of Worringen of his predecessor by the Counts of the Mark. He had the reputation of loving money above all else, and was suspected of simony.

He died on 26 March 1304 in Soest, where he is buried.

Wigbold's sister Beatrix von Holte was abbess of Essen Abbey.

• Hermann Keussen (1897), "Wigbold von Holte", Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB) (in German), 42, Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot, pp. 459–460