ABSTRACT
Wilbrand of Oldenburg’s account of his journey to the eastern Mediterranean in 1211-12 constitutes a significant source of information relating to the political, military and ecclesiastical state of affairs in the recently formed Christian kingdoms of Lesser Armenia and Cyprus and in those parts of the former Frankish-held territories in Syria and Palestine that remained divided between the Franks and the Ayyubids some two decades after the fall of the first kingdom of Jerusalem.1 Wilbrand was the son of Henry II, count of Oldenburg (1167-98), and of Beatrix of Hallermund. When he set out for the East in 1211 he was a canon of the church of Hildesheim; and following his return he was made prior in 1218. In 1225 he was appointed to the see of Paderborn and between 1226 and 1227 he also administered the sees of Münster and Osnabrück. In 1227 he became archbishop of Utrecht. He died in Zwolle in July 1233 and was buried in the abbey church of St. Servaas.2
