The House of Hohenzollern is a formerly royal German dynasty whose members were variously princes, electors, kings and emperors of Hohenzollern, Brandenburg, Prussia, the German Empire, and Romania. The family came from the area around the town of Hechingen in Swabia during the late 11th century and took their name from Hohenzollern Castle. The first ancestors of the Hohenzollerns were mentioned in 1061.
Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen was a principality in southwestern Germany. Its rulers belonged to the senior Swabian branch of the House of Hohenzollern. The Swabian Hohenzollerns were elevated to princes in 1623. The small sovereign state with the capital city of Sigmaringen was annexed to the Kingdom of Prussia in 1850 following the abdication of its sovereign in the wake of the revolutions of 1848, then became part of the newly created Province of Hohenzollern.
Humbert I, better known as Humbert the White-Handed or Humbert Whitehand, was the count of Savoy from 1032 until his death and the founder of the House of Savoy.
Conrad I of Nuremberg was a Burgrave of Nuremberg of the House of Hohenzollern. He was the elder son of Frederick I of Nuremberg and Sophie of Raabs.
Friedrich I of Nuremberg, the first Burgrave of Nuremberg from the House of Hohenzollern. He was the younger son of Count Friedrich II of Zollern, and became Count of Zollern as Friedrich III after the death of his other male relatives.
Henry II "the Rich" of Nassau was Count of Nassau. He distinguished himself in particular by his chivalrous and devout spirit. He was charitable and made great donations to the church, so that the monasteries and prayer houses in the area of present-day Nassau experienced the most significant bloom in his time. The greatest favour was the Teutonic Order to enjoy, to which he donated especially for the renunciation of his brother's, upon his entry into the order. Henry participated in the Sixth Crusade. He was the builder of the castles Sonnenberg, Ginsburg and Dillenburg.
Hohenzollern Castle is the ancestral seat of the imperial House of Hohenzollern. The third of three hilltop castles built on the site, it is located atop Mount Hohenzollern, above and south of Hechingen, on the edge of the Swabian Jura of central Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The name derives from Söller (terrace) from Latin solarium.
Adolf I, Count de la Mark, until 1226 also known as Adolf I, Count of Altena-Mark. He was son of Frederick I, Count of Berg-Altena and Alveradis of Krickenbeck, daughter of Reiner of Krieckenbeck-Millendonk.
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.
The Lords of Thannhausen are an old and still existing German noble family with the rank of Freiherr (Baron). They were members of the German nobility and achieved the status of Imperial Knights. Their ancestral seat is in the Swabian municipality of Tannhausen near Ellwangen.
Theodoric I was a nobleman in the Duchy of Saxony, and the oldest traceable member of the House of Wettin.
Frederick William of Brandenburg-Schwedt was a German nobleman. In his lifetime, from 1711 to 1771, he held the titles Prince in Prussia and Margrave of Brandenburg, with the style Royal Highness. He was made a knight of the Order of the Black Eagle.
The House of Oettingen was a high-ranking noble Franconian and Swabian family. It ruled various estates that composed the County of Oettingen between the 12th century and the beginning of the 19th century. In 1674 the house was raised to the rank of prince for the first time. Despite the annexation of their lands following the German mediatisation of 1806, the family retained their titles and still have representatives today.
Frederick II, Count of Zollern was the eldest son of Frederick I, Count of Zollern, and became Count of Zollern after his father's death around 1125.
Stephen I, Count of Sponheim is the patriarch of the Rhenish branch of the House of Sponheim, which ruled over the County of Sponheim. He was closely related to Siegfried I, Count of Sponheim, patriarch of the Carinthian Sponheimish branch, but the exact relationship between the two dynasts is disputed. Johannes Trithemius credits a Count Eberhard of Sponheim as founder of the Abbey of Sponheim and dates the founding to 1044, a position questioned by Johannes Mötsch. The Genealogia Sponhemica presents Count Eberhardus as son of Countess Hedwig and father of a single Count Stephenus I/II of Sponheim. Donald C. Jackman considers Stephen I a son of Siegfried I. Both Jackman and Josef Heinzelmann consider Stephen as being identical to Stephen, Vogt of Worms documented with his brother Markward in 1068. Heinzelmann however casts doubt on a male lineage relationship of Stephen and Siegfried and sees Stephen I of Sponheim as being Lord of Sponheim but not a Count, notices that Stephen I of Sponheim is documented in 1075 as "S(igna) Stepheni de Spanheim" with his seal in a document of Udo, Archbishop of Trier, and proposes Stephen to have married into the House of Sponheim. In another work Heinzelmann considers the Stephen mentioned in 1075 to be Stephen II, or maybe a single Stephen, mentions a Mainzer ministerialis Stephen, the son of Embricho (Emich) and nephew of Archbishop Ruthard, who lived later, as a possible relation, and puts forward that the documented Stephen and Markward belong to the House of the Counts of Metz/Lunéville, which later provided the Vogts of Worms:
"Identisch kann er sein mit einem Wormser Vogt Stephen (1068) [239 UB Stadt Worms I, Nr. 55], der mit seinem Bruder Markwart zu den Grafen von Lunéville/Metz zu gehören scheint, die mit den de Meti später die Wormser Vögte stellen."
The County Palatine of Tübingen was a state of the Holy Roman Empire in the medieval period. The dynasty, originally based in Nagold, managed to acquire extensive holdings over the course of their time in power, distinguishing themselves by founding a large number monasteries in their territories. By the time of the High Middle Ages, several factors contributed to their economic decline, including the expenses of keeping court and extravagant donations to the monasteries they founded. The line itself experienced fragmentation into numerous cadet branches, the longest-lasting of which were the Counts of Tübingen-Lichteneck and the Counts of Montfort (1787).
Count Otto II of Nassau-Siegen, German: Otto II. Graf von Nassau-Siegen, was since 1343 Count of Nassau-Siegen. He descended from the Ottonian Line of the House of Nassau.
Frederick I, Count of Zollern, was often cited as a powerful Swabian Count and supporter of the imperial party of Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor.
The Counts of Dillingen were a Swabian comital family of the Hupaldinger (Hucpaldinger) dynasty during AD 955–1286.
The House of Schlüsselberg was a Franconian aristocratic family which was a member of the high nobility. Until it died out in 1347, the family was able to establish itself firmly in the region of Franconian Switzerland and turned out to be unwelcome competition for the bishops of Bamberg. The Schlüsselbergs founded inter alia the town of a number of Schlüsselfeld in 1336 as well as Schlüsselau Abbey.
