County (Duchy) of Arenberg | |||||||||||||||
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1549–1810 | |||||||||||||||
Status | State of the Holy Roman Empire, then State of the Confederation of the Rhine | ||||||||||||||
Capital | Aremberg | ||||||||||||||
Common languages | Moselle Franconian | ||||||||||||||
Government | Principality | ||||||||||||||
Historical era | Middle Ages Early modern period | ||||||||||||||
• County established | c. 1117 | ||||||||||||||
• Gained Reichsfreiheit | 1549 | ||||||||||||||
• Raised to Princely county | 1576 | ||||||||||||||
• Joined Council of Princes | 1580 | ||||||||||||||
• Raised to Duchy | 1645 | ||||||||||||||
• Joined Confederation of the Rhine | 1806 | ||||||||||||||
1810 | |||||||||||||||
1815 | |||||||||||||||
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Arenberg, also spelled as Aremberg or Ahremberg, is a former county, principality and finally duchy that was located in what is now Germany. The Dukes of Arenberg remain a prominent Belgian noble family.
First mentioned in the 12th century, it was named after the village of Aremberg in the Ahr Hills, located in today's Rhineland-Palatinate region of Germany.
Aremberg was originally a county. It became an immediate (reichsunmittelbar) state of the Holy Roman Empire in 1549, was raised to a princely county in 1576, then became a duchy in 1645.
The territorial possessions of the Dukes of Arenberg varied through the ages. Around 1789, the duchy was located in the Eifel region on the west side of the Rhine and contained, amongst others, Aremberg, Schleiden and Kerpen.
However, although the duchy itself was in Germany, from the 15th century onward, the principal lands of the Dukes of Arenberg have been in what is now Belgium.
The pre-Napoleonic duchy had an area of 413 km2 (159 sq mi) and a population of 14,800. It belonged to the Electoral Rhenish Circle and was bordered by the Duchy of Jülich, the Electorate of Cologne, the Electorate of Trier, and the County of Blankenheim.
After the French occupation of the west bank of the Rhine around 1798 (see Treaty of Campo Formio and Treaty of Lunéville), the Duke of Arenberg received in 1803 new lands: the county of Vest Recklinghausen, the county of Meppen, and later the lordship of Dülmen.
Arenberg joined Napoleon's Confederation of the Rhine, although that did not prevent it from being mediatised in 1810, with France annexing Dülmen and Meppen, and the Grand Duchy of Berg annexing Recklinghausen.
After Napoleon's defeat in 1814 and the dissolution of the Confederation of the Rhine, the former Arenberg territories were divided between the Kingdom of Prussia and the Kingdom of Hanover. In both Prussia and Hanover, the dukes became local peers subordinate to the king.
In 1826, the Arenberg territory in Hanover was named the duchy of Arenberg-Meppen, and it had an area of 2,195 km2 (847 sq mi) and a population of 56,700. The county of Recklinghausen, in Prussia, had an area of 780 km2 (300 sq mi) and a population of 64,700.
The Dukes of Arenberg remain a prominent Belgian aristocratic family. The immediate family members of the dukes are called by the nominal title of Prince of Arenberg. The ducal family descends agnatically from the House of Ligne.
The Forest of Arenberg is located in northeastern France, and it is famous for its cobbled roads used in the classic road cycle race Paris–Roubaix. Its areas saw extensive mining in the past.
Partition into Arenberg and Rochefort
Mediatised 1810
Landkreis Emsland is a district in Lower Saxony, Germany named after the river Ems. It is bounded by the districts of Leer, Cloppenburg and Osnabrück, the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, the district of Bentheim in Lower Saxony, and the Netherlands.
Berg was a state—originally a county, later a duchy—in the Rhineland of Germany. Its capital was Düsseldorf. It existed as a distinct political entity from the early 12th to the 19th centuries. It was a member state of the Holy Roman Empire.
The County of Mark was a county and state of the Holy Roman Empire in the Lower Rhenish–Westphalian Circle. It lay south of Lippe river on both sides of the Ruhr river along the Volme and Lenne rivers.
Recklinghausen is the northernmost city in the Ruhr-Area and the capital of the Recklinghausen district. It borders the rural Münsterland and is characterized by large fields and farms in the north and industry in the south. Recklinghausen is the 60th-largest city in Germany and the 22nd-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia.
Meppen is a town in and the seat of the Emsland district of Lower Saxony, Germany, at the confluence of the Ems, Hase, and Nordradde rivers and the Dortmund–Ems Canal (DEK). The name stems from the word Mappe, meaning "delta".
The Duchy of Cleves was a state of the Holy Roman Empire which emerged from the medieval Hettergau. It was situated in the northern Rhineland on both sides of the Lower Rhine, around its capital Cleves and the towns of Wesel, Kalkar, Xanten, Emmerich, Rees and Duisburg bordering the lands of the Prince-Bishopric of Münster in the east and the Duchy of Brabant in the west. Its history is closely related to that of its southern neighbours: the Duchies of Jülich and Berg, as well as Guelders and the Westphalian county of Mark. The Duchy was archaically known as Cleveland in English.
Salm is the name of several historic countships and principalities in present Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg and France.
The County of Bentheim was a state of the Holy Roman Empire, located in the south-west corner of today's Lower Saxony, Germany. The county's borders corresponded largely to those of the modern administrative district (Landkreis) of Grafschaft Bentheim.
Stolberg may refer to:
The Duchy of Westphalia was a historic territory in the Holy Roman Empire, which existed from 1102 to 1803. It was located in the greater region of Westphalia, originally one of the three main regions in the German stem duchy of Saxony and today part of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The duchy was held by the archbishop-electors of Cologne until its secularization in 1803.
Vest Recklinghausen was an ecclesiastical territory in the Holy Roman Empire, located in the center of today's North Rhine-Westphalia. The rivers Emscher and Lippe formed the border with the County of Mark and Essen Abbey in the south, and to the Bishopric of Münster in the north. In the east, a fortification secured the border with Dortmund and in the west it was bordered by the Duchy of Cleves.
The House of La Marck was an ancient German noble family, which from about 1200 appeared as the Counts of Mark.
The House of Limburg-Stirum, which adopted its name in the 12th century from the immediate county of Limburg an der Lenne in what is now Germany, is one of the oldest families in Europe. It is the eldest and only surviving branch of the House of Berg, which was among the most powerful dynasties in the region of the lower Rhine during the Middle Ages. Some historians link them to an even older dynasty, the Ezzonen, going back to the 9th century.
Lähden is a municipality in the Emsland district, in Lower Saxony, Germany.
The House of Arenberg is an aristocratic lineage that is constituted by three successive families that took their name from Arenberg, a small territory of the Holy Roman Empire in the Eifel region. The inheritance of the House of Croÿ-Aarschot made the Arenbergs the wealthiest and most influential noble family of the Habsburg Netherlands. The family's Duchy of Arenberg was a Sovereign State until it was mediatized in 1810. As such, the Arenbergs belong to the small group of families that constitute the Hochadel.
The flag of the German State of North Rhine-Westphalia is a horizontal tricolor consisting of green, white and red.
Prosper Louis, 7th Duke of Arenberg was the Duke of Arenberg, a principality of the Holy Roman Empire. He was also the 13th Duke of Aarschot, 2nd Duke of Meppen and 2nd prince of Recklinghausen.
Louis Engelbert of Arenberg, nicknamed the blind duke, was between 1778 and 1801 the sixth Duke of Arenberg and 12th Duke of Aarschot. Between 1803 and 1810 he ruled a Duchy in North-western Germany also called Duchy of Arenberg.
The German Emperors after 1873 had a variety of titles and coats of arms, which in various compositions became the officially used titles and coats of arms. The title and coat of arms were last fixed in 1873, but the titles did not necessarily mean that the area was really dominated, and sometimes even several princes bore the same title.