The Barony of Westerburg (German : Herrschaft Westerburg), a small principality around the present day town of Westerburg in the Westerwald mountains of Germany, is first recorded in 1209. The eponymous castle, which had probably been built earlier than when it was mentioned for the first time in 1192, was the family seat of the lords of Westerburg, a branch of the lords of Runkel.
The lords of Westerburg go back to the House of Runkel, which had its main seat at Runkel Castle on the River Lahn. After this older branch died out, the lords of Westerburg inherited most of the estate rights of their Runkel cousins.
The House of Runkel is first mentioned in a deed dated 1 April 1159. At that time a Siegfried of Runkel was a witness, when the lords of Laurenburg, later the House of Nassau, were given Nassau Castle as a fief. It is possible that, even at that time, the main territorial estate of the House of Runkel was in the region of Westerburg. This is evinced by the fact that Runkel Castle had only a very small estate in its immediate vicinity.
Through his marriage to a countess from the House of Leiningen, Siegfried III of Runkel acquired both Westerburg as well as the Vogtei over Stift St. Severus in Gemünden and called himself henceforth Siegfried of Runkel and of Westerburg. Two of his sons inherited: Siegfried IV of Runkel, who resided in Westerburg, and Dietrich I of Runkel, who lived in Runkel. By around 1250 family disputes arose that, under Siegfried' grandchildren, finally led to the separation of the baronies of Runkel and Westerburg, at the latest in 1288. Dietrich's son, Siegfried V of Runkel, threatened his cousin, Henry from Runkel, and the latter, a son of Siegfried IV, called himself henceforth, Henry II of Westerburg. He underlined the enmity by building the Schadeck Castle, first recorded in 1288, on the north bank of the Lahn opposite Runkel. Through his marriage to Agnes, daughter of Gerhard of Limburg, Henry also came into the possession of the Barony of Schaumburg and one sixth of the Barony of Cleeburg. After Henry of Westerburg, seven generations of direct descendants followed him as lords of Westerburg:
Like the other small principalities between the rivers Rhine, Main and Sieg, the Barony was constantly under pressure from the Prince-Archbishopric of Trier and the expansive counts of Nassau, and the House of Westerburg thus sought to protect itself by marrying into the other noble families of the area. For example, they married into the houses of Isenburg Limburg, Solms, Merenberg, Sayn, Virneburg, Leiningen, Wied, Cronberg, Diez, Weilnau, Runkel and even Nassau-Wiesbaden.
On the death of Count Hesso of Leiningen-Dagsburg on 8 March 1467, the male line of this branch of the Leiningen counts died out. His sister, Margareta, who was married to Reinhard III of Westerburg, inherited the greater part of the estate of this older main line of the House of Leiningen, and the Westerburg family were then called Leiningen-Westerburg. When Countess Margareta died in 1470, her entire Westerburg and Leiningen estate fell to her grandson Reinhard IV who, with the imperial permission, named himself Count Reinhard I of Leiningen-Westerburg from 1475 onwards and moved his seat to the County of Leiningen. His son Cuno III. (died 1547) had three sons who founded the three lines of the family.
It was not until 1557 that Westerburg was once again the seat of secondary lines of the House of Leiningen, which was repeatedly divided. Under Reinhard's grandsons, the three branches of Leiningen-Leiningen, Leiningen-Westerburg and Leiningen-Schaumburg were established. Reinhard II of Leiningen-Westerburg (1530–1584) resided in Westerburg from 1557 onwards, but the Leiningen-Westerburg line ended in 1597 with the death of his sons Albert Philip (1567–1597) and John Louis (1572–1597). It was inherited by the Leiningen-Schaumburg line, which also continued to branch from 1695 and from which two secondary lines still exist today, Leiningen-Westerburg-Altleiningen and Leiningen-Westerburg-Neuleiningen.
In 1806, in the wake of the creation of the Confederation of the Rhine under Napoleon, Westerburg was added to the Grand Duchy of Berg, but by 1813/1815 it had passed to the Duchy of Nassau and in 1866, with annexation of Nassau, it went to Prussia. Since 1946, the area of the former Westerburg principality has belonged to the state of Rhineland-Palatinate.
The heraldic achievement of the Westerburgs comprises a gold cross on a red field, studded with 20 (4x 5 (2:1:2)) gold crosslets. On the helmet with its red and gold mantling a red or black vol, embellished with a red disc with a gold perimeter and a gold cross, studded with 5 (2:1:2) golden crosslets (one in each corner and one in the centre); the vol may also be decorated like the escutcheon. [1]
Westerburg is a small town of roughly 6,000 inhabitants in the Westerwaldkreis in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. The town is named after the castle built on a hill above the medieval town centre
The House of Leiningen is the name of an old German noble family whose lands lay principally in Alsace, Lorraine, Saarland, Rhineland, and the Palatinate. Various branches of this family developed over the centuries and ruled counties with Imperial immediacy.
Otto I of Nassau was Count of Nassau and is the ancestor of the Ottonian branch of the House of Nassau.
Runkel is a town on the river Lahn in Limburg-Weilburg district in Hesse, Germany.
The House of Lippe is the former reigning house of a number of small German states, two of which existed until the German Revolution of 1918–19, the Principality of Lippe and the Principality of Schaumburg-Lippe.
The County of Saarbrücken was an Imperial State in the Upper Lorraine region, with its capital at Saarbrücken. From 1381 it belonged to the Walram branch of the Rhenish House of Nassau.
Seck is an Ortsgemeinde – a community belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde – in the Westerwaldkreis in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.
Neuleiningen Castle is a ruin on the eastern edge of the Palatinate Forest in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate in Germany in the municipality of Neuleiningen in the Bad Dürkheim district. It was built in 1238-41 by Count Frederick III of Leiningen. The French destroyed it in 1690 and it has lain in ruins since that time.
The Countship of Isenburg-Limburg was a state of the Holy Roman Empire in the 13th and 14th centuries, based around the city of Limburg an der Lahn in modern Hesse, Germany.
Gerlach IV of Isenburg-Limburg, also known as Gerlach I of Limburg, was from 1258 Count of (Isenburg-)Limburg, ruling over the town of Limburg an der Lahn and some villages in its hinterlands. He was the founder of the short-lived House of Limburg.
John I of Isenburg-Limburg, "The blind Lord" was from 1289 Count of (Isenburg-) Limburg and the head of the House of Limburg. The core territory of the Lordship of Limburg consisted of the city of Limburg an der Lahn and several surrounding villages.
Gerlach V of Isenburg-Limburg, also called Gerlach II "the Elder" of Limburg, was Count of Isenburg-Limburg. He reigned between 1312 and 1355 as Lord of Limburg an der Lahn, and the head of the House of Limburg. The chronicler Tilemann Elhen von Wolfhagen describes him, in his pre-1402 Limburger Chronicle, as a virtuous nobleman and a bright poet in German and Latin.
SiegfriedII of Westerburg was Archbishop of Cologne from 1275 to 1297.
The County of Leiningen consists on a group of counties, which were ruled by the Leiningen family.
Louis, Count Leiningen-Westerburg (1557–1622) was a German nobleman. He was a member of the House of Leiningen and was the ruling count of Leiningen-Leiningen from 1597 until his death.
Runkel Castle, a ruined hill castle from the High Middle Ages, is located in the city of Runkel in the Landkreis of Limburg-Weilburg in the state of Hesse.
Altleiningen is a castle in the Palatinate Forest in Germany. It lies in the parish of Altleiningen in the county of Bad Dürkheim in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate.
The Leiningerland is an historic landscape in the Palatinate region in the German federal state of Rhineland-Palatinate. It is named after an aristocratic family that used to be the most important in the region, the House of Leiningen.
Johanna Walpurgis of Leiningen-Westerburg, was a German noblewoman member of the House of Runkel and by marriage Duchess of Saxe-Weissenfels.
Schloss Westerburg, first recorded in 1192, but probably built earlier, is situated in the town of Westerburg in the forested hills of the Westerwald and is on the site of an older castle dating to the 12th century. The latter belonged to the counts of Leiningen but was transferred to the House of Runkel as the result of the marriage of Siegfried III of Runkel to a daughter of the House of Leiningen in the early 13th century. In the first half of the 13th century the castle was the seat of the lords of Westerburg, who had split off from the House of Runkel by 1288 with Henry I of Westerburg.
