Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt

The Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt (German: Landgrafschaft Hessen-Darmstadt) was a member state of the Holy Roman Empire. It was formed in 1567 following the division of the estates of Philip I, the last Landgrave of Hesse, between his four sons. The capital of this new state was Darmstadt, hence the name. As a result of the Napoleonic wars, the landgraviate was elevated to grand duchy following the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806.

[edit] History

The Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt came into existence in 1567, as the portion of George, youngest of the four sons of Landgrave Philip I of Hesse. With the extinction of the Hesse-Marburg and Hesse-Rheinfels lines by 1604, Hesse-Darmstadt, along with Hesse-Kassel, became one of the two Hessian states. While Hesse-Kassel converted to Calvinism and became one of the most zealous exponents of the Protestant cause in the Thirty Years' War, Landgrave George II remained a strict Lutheran and maintained a close alliance with Saxony, which resulted in a pro-Habsburg policy after 1635.

Hesse-Darmstadt gained a great deal of territory by the secularizations and mediatizations authorized by the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss of 1803. Most notable was the acquisition of the Duchy of Westphalia, formerly owned by the Archbishop of Cologne, as well as territories from the Archbishop of Mainz and the Bishop of Worms. In 1806, upon the dissolution of the Reich and the dispossession of his cousin, the Elector of Hesse-Kassel, the Landgrave took the title of Grand Duke of Hesse.