County of Zweibrücken

County of Zweibrücken
Grafschaft Zweibrücken
State of the Holy Roman Empire
 
1182/90 – 1394
 
 

Coat of arms of the Counts of Zweibrücken

Counties of Zweibrücken (dark green) and Zweibrücken-Bitsch (pink) about 1400
Capital Zweibrücken
Government County
Historical era Middle Ages
 - Partitioned from
    Saarbrücken
  1182
 - Partitioned in twain between 1295 and 1333
 - Fell to
    Electoral Palatinate
  1394

The County of Zweibrücken (German:Grafschaft Zweibrücken) was a territory in the Holy Roman Empire named for Zweibrücken in the contemporary Land Rhineland-Palatinate. It was created in between 1182 and 1190 from an inheritance division of the county of Saarbrücken and lasted until 1394.

Contents

Creation

The counts of Saarbrücken ranked in the beginning of the 12th century amongst the most prominent families in southwestern Germany with major landholdings in present-day Lorraine, Alsace, Saarland and Rhineland-Palatinate and prominent patronages. Their power ist best characterized by the fact that members of the family twice in the 12th century held the position of archbishop of Mainz. Seemingly soon after 1100 they gained patronage over the monastery of Hornbach with large landholdings between Blies and Palatinate forest.

Here, at the crossing over the Schwarzbach, and probably about 1150, the water castle of Zweibrücken was built. With an inheritance division in the Saarbrücken counts family, Zweibrücken fell to the younger son Heinrich I, who founded the line of counts of Zweibrücken. Around the castle, a town formed and received city rights in 1352 together with Hornbach.

Geography

The initial allowance of the county of Zweibrücken, in order to name here some relevant constituents, consisted in fiefs, i.e. from the Empire half of Landeck castle with eleven villages around Bergzabern, from the bishopric of Metz rights over their serfs, the so-called "Stephan's people", from the bishopric of Verdun half of Liebenberg castle near Namborn, in patronages the important patronage over the monastery of Hornbach, other patronages over the nuns cloister Altenmünster in Mainz and over several holdings of the ecclesiastical foundations saint Alban in Mainz and of the Liebfrauen there, finally allods between Rhine and Mosel, amongst those Zweibrücken castle, Lemberg castle built after 1198 by count Heinrich I, and shares of Marimont-lès-Bénestroff, Lindre-Haute and Sarreguemines.[1]

Evolution

The primogeniture right (oldest son as first or single heir) had not yet come into common use and the ongoing inheritance partitions in Southwestern Germany affected many territories and led to their decay. This also holds true for the county of Zweibrücken. Count Heinrich I, around 1237, was succeeded by his son count Heinrich II. Of the latter's sons, left behind in 1282, Eberhard I. und Walram I. started a common government of the county. For this was not always possible in harmony, they decided upon a division after 1286. Eberhard I. received the bailiwick of Lemberg, Walram I. the bailiwick of Zweibrücken. This division was further refined in 1295 and solidified in 1333 with the division of the last shared properties, resulting in the formation of two independent counties.

County of Zweibrücken-Zweibrücken

The western part of the former county, consisting of the territory around Zweibrücken and some other parts, fell in the division to Walram I and remained with his descendants. The last count of the Walramide line, Eberhard II, without children and impoverished by numerous feuds, pledged it in 1385 to the Counts Palatine from the palatine line of the House of Wittelsbach. After his death in 1394 they entered their new properties and thus entered for the first time in the Western Palatinate. After unification with the County of Veldenz in the year 1444, the principality of Pfalz-Zweibrücken emerged.

County of Zweibrücken-Bitsch

The eastern part of the Zweibrücken lands, the bailiwick of Lemberg, fell to Eberhard I. In 1297 count Eberhard I exchanged some of his towns with duke Friedrich III of Lorraine and received in exchange from the latter the castle and dominion of Bitsch as fief. He founded the line of counts of Zweibrücken-Bitsch that reigned the bailiwick of Lemberg and the dominion of Bitsch until the male line became extinct in 1570.

Counts of Zweibrücken

Walramides (1182-1394)

of the line of the counts of Saarbrücken

References

  1. ^ Hans-Walter Herrmann: Die Grafschaft Zweibrücken. In: Geschichtliche Landeskunde des Saarlandes, vol. 2, Saarbrücken 1977, p. 316-322