Jülich-Cleves-Berg

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Jülich-Cleves-Berg was a combination of states of the Holy Roman Empire. In 1423 the duchies of Jülich and Berg were united, and in 1521 they united with the duchy of Cleves and the county of Mark to form Jülich-Cleves-Berg.

Upon the childless death of John William, Duke of Julich-Cleves-Berg in 1609, his inheritance became quarreled between heirs of his two eldest sisters: the heir of the eldest sister was the then Electress of Brandenburg, a protestant. The heir of the second sister was the then Count Palatine of Neuburg, a catholic. The disputes of the epoch between protestants and catholics, soon escalated to Thirty Years War, was a background how the succession dispute became a part of the warring. Ultimately, Brandenburg received Cleves-Mark and Neuburg received Julich-Berg. Neuburg soon became Elector Palatine, but later Prussia again took over in Julich-Berg. In 1701 the Electors of Brandenburg, to whom Cleves-Mark was their first possession in Western Germany, the seminal point of the future Prussian Rhineland, became Kings of Prussia.

In 1815, after the Congress of Vienna, it all became a province of the Kingdom of Prussia: Province of Jülich-Cleves-Berg. In 1822 it was united with the Grand Duchy of the Lower Rhine to form the Rhine Province.