A letter from Aleide

Translated letter:

In the name of the holy and individual Trinity.  I, Theoderic, count of Holland, and I, countess Aleide, his wife,  to those in the present as well as the future in perpetuity.  We are admonished by the authority of sacred speech that we not fail to do good, to reap eternal life in its time.  By the grace of this thing we declared ourselves induced and urged to found an abbey of the Cistercian order to be sustained from our means on land in our possession.  But since a place suitable to our promise has not yet offered itself, nor the possibility of doing it, so that our desire may have at least some beginning, we have established that the title to a grange be made over to said order, so that with God as author, it can in some way grow into the abbey.  To constructing which grange we have assigned earth from our goods sufficient to one aratrum,* which is called Tempelveld; also the tithe occurring between that land and Dordrecht; also five pounds of money (denari) to be paid annually in Nieuwendijk (Novo Dicho); also the church in Dordrecht when it will first be vacant; also the fishpond lying in Oversliedrecht.  And I, count Theodoric, bound a hundred pounds to be paid within the year after my death for goods and [...] to be purchased. 

All these we have freely delivered to the monastery of the Valley of St. Peter (Sint-Pietersdal) situated in Stromberg.

Witnesses of this thing are count Otto of Bentheim and his son B[aldwin], Hugo of Voorne, Roger of Merheim, Walter Spierinck, Baldwin our brother, Margareta, our sister, and several others. 

Original letter:

In nomine sanctae et individuae Trinitatis. Ego Theodoricus comes Hollandiae et ego Aleydis comitissa, uxor eius, tam praesentibus quam futuris in perpetuum. Auctoritate sacri eloquii commonemur, ut bonum fa[c]ientes non deficiamus, tempore enim suo metentes vitam aeternam. Huius rei gratia nos inducti et compuncti decrevimus in fundo proprietatis nostrae fundare abbatiam Cisterciensis ordinis sustentandam de facultatibus nostris. Verum quia necdum votis nostris se obtulit locus idoneus vel faciendi possibilitas, ut saltem aliquod initium nostrum sortiretur desiderium, grangiam praefato ordini a[t]ti[t]ulandam  fieri statuimus, si forte Deo auctore quoquo modo in abbatiam coalescere posset. Cui grangiae construendae de bonis nostris assignavimus terram uni aratro sufficientem, quae Tempelvelt nominatur; item decimam inter eandem terram et Durdrecht occurrentem; item quinque libras denariorum in Novo Dicho annuatim solvendas; item ecclesiam in Durdrecht cum primum vacabit; item piscariam in Overslydrecht iacentem. Et ego Theo­doricus comes legavi centum mar[c]as, post obitum meum infra annum solvendas pro bonis et [...] comparandis.

Haec universa libere contradidimus [m]onasterio  Vallis sancti Petri in Stroberg sito.

Huius rei testes sunt comes Otto de Benthem et B. filius eius, Hugo de Voerne, Rutgerus de Merheym, Walterus Spierinck, Baldewinus frater noster, Marchguia soror nostra, et quamplures alii.

Actum est anno dominicae incarnationis M CC tertio.

Historical context:

The count and countess announce the transfer of title of a grange as the first step to founding an abbey of the Cistercian order.  The Marchguia who witnesses the document is probably Dirk's sister Margareta.

Scholarly notes:

*   An aratrum is as much land as can be ploughed by one plough, sometimes called a carrucata.

Printed source:

Oorkondenboek van Holland en Zeeland tot 1299, ed. A.C.F.Koch, 1.434-36, #261. 

Date: