Initially, Waldeck was a fief of the Electorate of Mainz. In 1379, it became the County of Reichslehen.[2] After the death of Count Henry VI in 1397, the family split into two lines: the senior Landau line founded by Adolph III and the junior Waldeck line founded by Henry VII, which sometimes feuded with one another. The two lines came under the sovereignty of the Landgraviate of Hesse in 1431 and 1438 respectively, due to financial difficulties and the final victory of the Landgraviate over Mainz in 1427, which led to the transfer of the County of Ziegenhain[de] to Hesse. The Landgraves levied tribute on the Counts of Waldeck in exchange for forgiving their debts to them and taking on all their debts to others.[3]
After the death of Henry VIII in 1486, the Waldeck line split once more, into the Waldeck-Wildungen and Waldeck-Eisenberg lines. The senior Landau line ended with the death of Otto IV in 1495 and its possessions passed to the Wildungen and Eisenberg lines. In 1526 and 1529, Philip IV of Waldeck-Wildungen and Philip III of Waldeck-Eisenberg converted their respective principalities to Lutheranism. Several partitions led to the creation of further lines, but these were reunited by the new Wildung line in 1692.
In 1626, the family also inherited the County of Pyrmont[de] and thereafter called themselves "Counts of Waldeck and Pyrmont." The two counties of Waldeck and Pyrmont were physically separated and were not united into a single legal entity until the 19th century.
In 1639, Count Philip Dietrich of Waldeck from the new Eisenberg line, inherited the County of Culemborg in Gelderland along with the counties of Werth (Isselburg)[de] in Münsterland, Pallandt[de], and Wittem. The Lordship of Tonna in Thüringen, a fief of the Dukes of Saxe-Altenburg was inherited by Waldeck-Pyrmont in 1640, but sold to Duke Frederick I of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg in 1677. Waldeck remained the main residence of the county until 1655, when the residence was shifted from Waldeck to Arolsen. Philip Dietrich was succeeded in 1664 by his brother Count George Frederick, whose full title was "Count and Lord of Waldeck, Pyrmont, and Cuylenburg, Lord of Tonna, Paland, Wittem, Werth." In 1682, he was promoted by Emperor Leopold I to the status of "Prince of Waldeck", with Imperial immediacy. His four sons all predeceased him, so on 12 June 1685, he made a contract with his cousin, Christian Louis of the new Wildung line, to transfer the whole Waldeck patrimony to him and for it to be inherited by primogeniture thereafter. This agreement was confirmed by Emperor Leopold in 1697. After George Frederick's death in 1692, Christian Louis became the sole ruler of the entire principality.
The County of Cuylenburg and the Lordship of Werth were lost in 1714, owing to the marriage of George Frederick's second daughter, Sophia Henriette (1662-1702) to Ernest of Saxe-Hildeburghausen.
The principality was caught up in the Napoleonic Wars and in 1807 it joined the Confederation of the Rhine,[4] but not the Napoleonic Kingdom of Westphalia. Waldeck was required to guarantee equal rights of worship to its Catholic citizens and supply 400 soldiers in case of a campaign. For a brief period, from 1806 until 1812, Pyrmont was a separate principality as a result of the partition of the territory between the brothers Frederick and George, but the territories were reunited after Frederick's death.
The independence of the principality was confirmed in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna, and Waldeck and Pyrmont became a member of the German Confederation. In 1832 it joined the Zollverein. In 1847, on Prussian initiative, the sovereignty of Hesse-Kassel over Waldeck (and Schaumburg-Lippe) was finally revoked by the Federal Convention of the Confederation. This had been the case de facto since Waldeck joined the Confederation of the Rhine in 1807, but the ruling meant that Hesse-Kassel lost the right to claim the territory in escheat.
Principality of Waldeck-Pyrmont (1849-1918)
Since 1645, Waldeck had been in a personal union with the County (later Principality) of Pyrmont[de]. Beginning in 1813, the prince strove to unite the two territories legally into the Principality of Waldeck-Pyrmont. However, political opposition meant that this did not take place until 1849. Even after the unification, Pyrmont retained its own tiny Landtag for budgetary matters until 1863/64. In 1849-1850, Waldeck was divided into three districts: the District of the Eder[de], the of Eisenberg[de] and the District of the Twiste[de].
Fundamental law of the Principality of Waldeck and Pyrmont, 23 May 1849 (excerpts)Waldeck in 1905
On 1 August 1862, Waldeck-Pyrmont concluded a military convention with Prussia. As a result, Waldeck-Pyrmont fought on the Prussian side in the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 and thus avoided annexation at the war's end - unlike the neighbouring Electorate of Hesse. However, the small, cash-strapped principality could not afford to pay its contributions to the new North German Confederation, so the principality's Landtag unanimously voted to reject the North German Constitution in order to pressure the prince into signing an accession treaty Prussia. Bismarck had previously ruled out unification with Prussia on grounds of prestige. Therefore, under the treaty that Waldeck-Pyrmont and Prussia signed in October 1867, the principality remained nominally independent and retained its legislative sovereignty, but from 1 January 1868 Prussian took control of the principality's state deficit, internal administration, judiciary, and schools. Thereafter, Prussia appointed a State Director formally with the agreement of the prince. Appellate jurisdiction for Waldeck was exercised by the Prussian state court (Landgericht) in Kassel and for Pyrmont by the state court in Hannover. The prince retained control over the administration of the church, the prerogative of mercy, and the right of veto over new laws. He also continued to receive the income from his domains.[5] Prussian administration served to reduce administrative costs for the small state and was based on a ten-year contract that was repeatedly renewed for the duration of its existence. The situation continued in 1871, when the principality became a constituent state of the new German Empire. In 1905, Waldeck and Pyrmont had an area of 1121km2 and a population of 59,000.
The princely house of Waldeck and Pyrmont is closely related to the royal family of the Netherlands. The last ruling prince, Frederick, was the brother of Queen ConsortEmma of the Netherlands.
On 13 November 1918, at the end of World War I, during the German Revolution that resulted in the fall of all the German monarchies, a representative of the revolutionary workers' and soldiers' council of Kassel came to Waldeck and declared that the monarchy was abolished. The principality became the Free State of Waldeck-Pyrmont within the Weimar Republic. However, no new constitution was produced, so the monarchical constitution of 1849/1852 remained in force de jure until 1929.[6] The terms of the treaty with Prussia also remained in force. Following a referendum, Pyrmont was separated from Waldeck on 30 November 1921 and joined Prussia, becoming part of the new Hameln-Pyrmont district of the Province of Hanover.[7] After this, the territory was simply the Free State of Waldeck.
The remaining territory continued to be governed according to the 1867 treaty with Prussia until it was cancelled in 1926. On 9 April 1927, the federal Financial Equalisation act (Finanzausgleichsgesetz) was amended. For Waldeck, this meant that its allocation of federal tax income was reduced by almost 600,000 Reichsmarks. Without a massive rise in local taxes, the Free State was no longer financially viable. Therefore on 1 April 1929, the state was abolished and became part of the Prussian province of Hesse-Nassau. This marked the end of Waldeck's existence as a sovereign state.
Developments since 1929
When Waldeck joined Prussia in 1929, the three districts into which Waldeck had been divided in 1849-1850 (Eder, Eisenberg, and Twiste) were initially retained. Additionally, Höringhausen and Eimelrod, which had been exclaves of Prussia surrounded by Waldeck since 1866, were joined to Eisenberg district. In 1932, the federal government merged Eder and Eisenberg districts. The district of the Twiste was to be merged with the neighbouring district of Wolfhagen on 1 April 1934, but this was delayed after the Nazi seizure of power in 1933. A law of 28 February 1934 reversed the merger of Eder and Eisenberg and definitively cancelled the planned merger of Twiste and Wolfhagen.
On 1 February 1942, the three districts of Waldeck were merged into the new Waldeck district[de], which had its capital at Korbach. This new district had roughly the same borders as the old Free State. It was made part of Greater Hesse in 1945, which became the state of Hesse in the modern Federal Republic of Germany in 1946. On 1 August 1972, the city of Volkmarsen was separated from the district of Wolfhagen and reassigned to Waldeck. During the reform of the districts of Hesse in 1974, Waldeck was merged with the neighbouring district of Frankeberg to from the new district of Waldeck-Frankenberg, while the city of Züschen became a suburb of Fritzlar in Schwalm-Eder-Kreis.
Military
Waldeck had raised a battalion of infantry in 1681 but for much of the subsequent history leading up to the Napoleonic Wars, Waldeckers generally served as what is commonly described as 'mercenaries', but was actually 'auxiliaries' hired out by the rulers of Waldeck for foreign service. Such was the demand that the single battalion became two in 1740 (the 1st Regiment), three battalions in 1744, four in 1767 (forming a 2nd Regiment). Most notably the foreign service was with the Dutch (the 1st and 2nd Regiments) and British (after an agreement was signed with Great Britain in 1776 to supply troops for the American War of Independence, the 3rd Waldeck Regiment, of a single battalion, was raised). The 3rd Waldeck Regiment thus served in America, where they were known under the 'umbrella term' used during that conflict for all Germans—'Hessians'. The regiment, which was made up of 4 'Battalion companies', a 'Grenadier' company, staff and a detachment of artillery, was captured by French and Spanish troops supporting the Americans and only a small number returned to Germany, where some formed part of a newly raised 5th Battalion (1784).
By the time of Napoleon's conquest of Germany, the Waldeck regiments in Dutch service had been dissolved when, as the Batavian Republic, the country was made into a kingdom ruled by Napoleon's brother Louis. Reduced to battalion strength, they now formed the 3rd battalions of the 1st and 2nd Infantry Regiments of the Kingdom of Holland. The 5th Battalion was disbanded, and Waldeck was now also obliged to provide two companies to the II Battalion, 6th German Confederation (i.e., Confederation of the Rhine) Regiment (along with two companies from Reuß) in the service of the French Empire. As with all French infantry, they were referred to as 'Fusiliers'. They served mainly in the Peninsular War against the Duke of Wellington. In 1812, the 6th Confederation Regiment was re-formed, with three companies from Waldeck and one from Reuß again forming the II Battalion. By the time of the downfall of the French Empire in 1814 the battalions in Dutch service had disappeared, but Waldeck now supplied three Infantry and one Jäger Companies to the newly formed German Confederation.
By 1866, the Waldeck contingent was styled Fürstlisches Waldecksches Füselier-Bataillon, and in the Austro-Prussian War of that year Waldeck (already in a military convention with Prussia from 1862) allied with the Prussians; however the battalion saw no action. Joining the North German Confederation after 1867, under Prussian leadership, the Waldeck Fusilier Battalion became the III (Fusilier) Battalion of the Prussian Infantry Regiment von Wittich (3rd Electoral Hessian) No. 83, and as such it remained until 1918. The position of regimental 'Chef' (an honorary title) was held by the Prince of Waldeck and Pyrmont.
The regiment saw action in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 (where it acquired the nickname Das Eiserne Regiment), and during the First World War—as part of the 22nd Division—fought mainly on the Eastern Front.
Elder children of Volkwin III, divided the land. Widekind didn't have children and his part was inherited by his younger brothers, while Henry I ruled independently at Sternberg and passed it to his own descendants.
Abdicated in 1276 to his brother Otto, after a dispute with him and his other brothers on who would marry Sophia of Hesse, daughter of Henry I, Landgrave of Hesse, which Otto won, resulting in Adolph's resignation. Entering in clergy, Adolph eventually became Bishop of Liège (1301-1302).
Children of Philip III, divided the land, by mediation of Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse: the elder children kept Waldeck, while the younger ones inherited Landau. For the children who are usually said that did not reign (Otto, Philip and Francis), they are sometimes treated as Waldeck-Eisenberg (for Otto) and Waldeck-Landau (for Philip V and Francis), which are the parts the called reigning brothers actually ruled. This may imply a level of co-regency between each group of brothers.
In 1682, he received the title of Prince. Left no surviving male heirs. The principality was inherited by Wildungen, which was kept as a county until a few years later.
Eisenberg (except Culemborg) was definitely annexed to Wildungen
Kept the lordship of Culemborg. As she survived all her children, the lordship was inherited, after her death, by her nephew, Ernest, Duke of Saxe-Hildburghausen.
Children of Christian Louis. Frederick Anton was elevated in 1712 to hereditary prince by Emperor Charles VI. On 30 September 1695, their father had changed the primogeniture house law of the Waldeck house, which he had enacted in 1685 and modified in 1687, insofar as he issued a paragium under the established suzerainty of the ruling line of the house, consisting of the three villages of Bergheim, Königshagen and Welle. This paragium, or vassal line, was inherited by Christian Louis' second son, Josias I.
Waldeck-Frankenberg is a Kreis (district) in the north of Hesse, Germany. Neighbouring districts are Höxter, Kassel, Schwalm-Eder, Marburg-Biedenkopf, Siegen-Wittgenstein, Hochsauerland.
Waldeck may refer to:
Bad Pyrmont is a town in the district of Hamelin-Pyrmont, in Lower Saxony, Germany, with a population close to 19,000. It is located on the river Emmer, about 10 km (6.2 mi) west of the Weser. Bad Pyrmont is a popular spa resort that gained its reputation as a fashionable place for princely vacations in the 17th and 18th centuries. The town is also the center of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in Germany.
Waldeck is a small town in Waldeck-Frankenberg district in northwestern Hesse, Germany. Its located near the Edersee, which is a popular destination for tourists and locals alike.
Friedrich, Prince of Waldeck and Pyrmont was the last reigning Prince of Waldeck and Pyrmont from 12 May 1893 to 13 November 1918.
Adolphus I, Prince of Schaumburg-Lippe was a ruler of the Principality of Schaumburg-Lippe.
Lippe was a state in Germany, ruled by the House of Lippe. It was located between the Weser river and the southeast part of the Teutoburg Forest. It originated as a state during the Holy Roman Empire, and was promoted to the status of principality in 1789. During this period the ruling house split into a number of branches, with the main line residing at Detmold. During the Reformation, Lippe had converted to Lutheranism in 1538 and then to Calvinism in 1604.
Friedrich August, Duke of Nassau, Prince of Nassau-Usingen was the last Prince of Nassau-Usingen and, jointly with his cousin, Friedrich Wilhelm of Nassau-Weilburg, first Duke of Nassau. He died without surviving male issue and was succeeded by his cousin's son, Wilhelm.
Count Simon VI of Lippe was an imperial count and ruler of the County of Lippe from 1563 until his death.
Count Philip IV of Waldeck was Count of Waldeck-Wildungen from 1513 to 1574. In 1526, he and his uncle Philip III of Waldeck-Eisenberg led the Lutheran Reformation in the county of Waldeck.
Count Christian Louis of Waldeck was from 1645 Count of Waldeck-Wildungen and from 1692 Count of Waldeck and Pyrmont.
Count Wolrad II 'the Scholar' of Waldeck-Eisenberg, German: Wolrad II. 'der Gelehrte' Graf von Waldeck-Eisenberg, was since 1539 Count of Waldeck-Eisenberg.
Count Philip VII of Waldeck-Wildungen, German: Philip VII. Graf von Waldeck-Wildungen, official titles: Graf zu Waldeck und Pyrmont, Herr zu Tonna, was since 1638 Count of Waldeck-Wildungen.
Count Wolrad IV 'the Pious' of Waldeck-Eisenberg, German: Wolrad IV. 'der Fromme' Graf von Waldeck-Eisenberg, official titles: Graf zu Waldeck und Pyrmont, was since 1588 Count of Waldeck-Eisenberg. He founded of the new line of Waldeck-Eisenberg.
Count Christian of Waldeck-Wildungen, German: Christian Graf von Waldeck-Wildungen, official titles: Graf zu Waldeck und Pyrmont, was since 1588 Count of Waldeck-Eisenberg and after the division with his brother in 1607 Count of Waldeck-Wildungen. He founded the new cadet branch of Waldeck-Wildungen and is the progenitor of the princes of Waldeck and Pyrmont.
Count Josias I of Waldeck-Eisenberg was a German nobleman who was Count of Waldeck-Eisenberg from 1578 until his death.
Count Josias II of Waldeck-Wildungen, German: Josias II. Graf von Waldeck-Wildungen, official titles: Graf zu Waldeck und Pyrmont, Herr zu Tonna, was since 1660 Count of Waldeck-Wildungen. However, he was primarily a military man.
Count John I 'the Pious' of Waldeck-Landau, German: Johann I. 'der Fromme' Graf von Waldeck-Landau, was since 1539 Count of Waldeck-Landau. He was the founder of the younger cadet branch of Waldeck-Landau.
The principality, or county of Waldeck-Eisenberg was a principality in the Holy Roman Empire that belonged to the Upper Rhenish Circle.
Countess Wilhelmine Christine of Nassau-Siegen, German: Wilhelmine Christine Gräfin von Nassau-Siegen, official titles: Gräfin zu Nassau, Katzenelnbogen, Vianden und Diez, Frau zu Beilstein, was a countess from the House of Nassau-Siegen, a cadet branch of the Ottonian Line of the House of Nassau, and through marriage Countess of Waldeck-Wildungen.
References
↑ A Pictorial Geography of the World: Comprising a System of Universal Geography, Popular and Scientific. Boston: C.D. Strong. 1848. p.762.
↑ Johann Adolph Theodor Ludwig Varnhagen: Grundlagen der Waldeckischen Regentengeschichte, vol. 1. Göttingen 1824, No. 88.
↑ Numbered III because, despite being the second ruler named Henry, traditional genealogies numbered another Henry, son of Count Henry I, and a canon at Paderborn (1211-1288) as Henry II. This Henry II never ruled.
↑ This numbering takes in account Henry I, Count of Sternberg as Henry I of Schwalenberg
↑ Numbered VI because, despite being the fourth ruler named Henry, traditional genealogies numbered another Henry, son of Count Henry IV, and a dean at Minden (d.1349) as Henry V. This Henry V never ruled.
↑ Despite never missing any number from this point on, the numbering of the Henrys is irredeemably compromised (because of Henry II and Henry V, who never ruled). So, despite the total counting of 9 Henrys, only 7 actually ruled. Henry VII was the fifth ruler named Henry.
↑ Despite succeeding first, he was numbered IV, probably because he was born after the then-still-heir Philip III of Eisenberg
↑ Otto joined the Order of St. John in 1539, and abdicated in the same year of his father's death, which seems to imply that he reigned in that year. See Haarmann (2014), p.21.
↑ Philip V, like Otto, may have reigned, even if for only a few months, in Landau, together with his brother John I. Also, at the time of the division, Philip was not exercising any clerical position (was canon at Mainz in 1530, and then reappears as canon in Cologne in 1544), which would possibly extend a co-rulership that ended with Philip resuming his religious life at Cologne. See Haarmann (2014), p.21; and Blankertz, Wilhelm, Schloß Hückeswagen Sonderdruck einer Artikelserie des „Bergischer Volksbote" (Burscheider Zeitung) July 1940, PDF, retrieved 14 December 2014.
↑ Counted II because Francis I was a son of Count Philip II, and counted as I, despite never ruling, and that was bishop of Münster and Osnabrück (r.1532-1553).
↑ He was taken by Anne of Cleves to England in 1540. Given that he is documented starting his religious career only in 1549, nothing seems to oppose a brief co-rulership of Francis in 1539–40, before his trip to England.
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