| (Princely) County of Henneberg (Gefürstete) Grafschaft Henneberg (de) |
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| State of the Holy Roman Empire | ||||
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Coat of arms |
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| County of Henneberg around 1350 | ||||
| Capital | Henneberg Schleusingen Römhild |
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| Government | Principality | |||
| Historical era | Middle Ages, Renaissance | |||
| - Poppo I, first count | c. 1037 | |||
| - Internally divided | 1274 | |||
| - Raised to principality | 1310 | |||
| - Joined Franconian Circle |
1500 | |||
| - Schleusingen branch extinct |
1583 | |||
| - Divided | 1660 | |||
The House of Henneberg was a cadet branch of the medieval House of Babenberg, which was very powerful in northern Franconia particularly in the 11th, 12th and 13th century. Upon the extinction of the line in the 16th century, most of its territory was inherited by the Saxon House of Wettin and subsequently incorporated into the Thuringian estates of the Ernestine branch.
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In the 11th century, the dynasty's estates around the ancestral seat Henneberg Castle belonged to the German stem duchy of Franconia, located southwest of the Rennsteig ridge, then forming the border with the possessions held by the Landgraves of Thuringia. Upon the death of Landgrave Henry Raspe in 1247, the Counts of Henneberg at Schleusingen acquired the Thuringian lordship of Schmalkalden, and after the extinction of the Counts of Andechs inherited the Franconian lordship of Coburg (later Saxe-Coburg) in 1260. In 1343 they also purchased the Thuringian town of Ilmenau.
After the Imperial reform of 1500, the County of Henneberg formed the northernmost part of the Franconian Circle, bordering on the Upper Saxon Ernestine duchies and the lands of the Upper Rhenish prince-abbacy of Fulda. A thorn in the side remained the enclave of Meiningen, a fief held by the Bishops of Würzburg, which was not acquired by the counts until 1542.
| Country | Franconia, Thüringia |
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| Ancestral house | House of Babenberg in turn from the Robertian Dynasty |
| Titles | Princely Count of Henneberg |
The distant origins of this family are speculative yet seem to originate in the Rhine Valley, east of modern-day France. Charibert, a nobleman in Neustria is the earliest recorded ancestor of the family, dating before 636. Five generations pass between Charibert and the next descendant of note, Rutpert (Robert) I, Count of Rheingau and Wormsgau. Both the Capetian dynasty and the Babenberger (or Popponen) are direct male lineal descendants of Count Robert I and therefore referred to as Robertians.
Noblemen in Neustria and their descendants (dates uncertain):
Counts (comes) in the Rheingau and Wormsgau:
Counts in Saalgau.
The denotion Babenberger, named after the castle of Bamberg (Babenberch), was established in the 12th century by Otto of Freising, himself a member of the Babenberg family. The later House of Babenberg, which ruled what became the Duchy of Austria, claimed to come of the Popponen dynasty. However, the descendance of the first margrave Leopold I of Austria († 994) remains uncertain.
The progenitor Poppo adopted the name in reference to his fortress, Henneberg Castle. A supporter of King Henry IV against Rudolf of Swabia, he died at the 1078 Battle of Mellrichstadt. His successors were:
In 1274 Heinrich's sons divided the county forming the cadet branches:
Whereas the male line of the House of Babenberg became extinct in 1246, the Counts of Henneberg lived on until 1583. In 1554 William IV of Henneberg-Schleusingen had signed a treaty of inheritance with Duke John Frederick II of Saxony. However, when the last Count George Ernest of Henneberg died, both the Ernestine and the Albertine branch of the Wettin dynasty claimed his estates, that were finally divided in 1660 among the Ernestine duchies of Saxe-Weimar and Saxe-Gotha and the Albertine duke Maurice of Saxe-Zeitz. After the 1815 Congress of Vienna the former Albertine parts around Schleusingen and Suhl fell to the Prussian province of Saxony. King Frederick William III of Prussia assumed the title of a Princely Count of Henneberg, which his successors from the House of Hohenzollern bear ever since.
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