Nassau-Saarbrücken

Nassau-Saarbrücken was a county of the Holy Roman Empire in the Upper Rhenish Circle. It belonged to the Walram branch of the House of Nassau.

County of Saarbrücken

Around the year 1080 Count Sigibert in the Franconian Saargau was vested with the whole possessions of the bishop of Metz along the Saar river, the Rhine and in Alsace as a fiefdom. In 1123 his son uses the title of "Count of Saarbrücken". In 1180 the county was divided into two parts, when the territories along the Rhine were separated to form the basis of the County of Zweibrücken. The Alsatian possessions had been lost already around 1120.

About 1240 Count Simon III of Saarbrücken died without male heirs, however his daughter Mathilda managed to secure her right of succession by marrying Count Simon of Commercy who from 1271 called himself Count of Saarbrücken-Commercy. With the death of Count John II in 1381 the male line ended again. As his daughter Johanna had married Count John I of Nassau-Weilburg in 1353, their son Philipp I inherited the County of Saarbrücken.

County of Nassau-Saarbrücken

Philipp I ruled both Nassau-Saarbrücken and Nassau-Weilburg and in 1393 inherited through his wife Johanna of Hohenlohe the lordships Kirchheimbolanden and Stauf. He also received half of Nassau-Ottweiler in 1393 and other territories later during his reign. After his death in 1429 the territories around Saarbrücken and along the Lahn were kept united until 1442, when they were again divided among his sons into the lines Nassau-Saarbrücken (west of the Rhine) and Nassau-Weilburg (east of the Rhine), the so called Younger line of Nassau-Weilburg.

In 1507 Count John Ludwig I significantly enlarged his territory by marrying Catharine, the daughter of the last Count of Moers-Saarwerden and in 1527 inherited the County of Sarrewerden including the lordship of Lahr. Though after his death in 1544 the county was split into three parts, the three lines (Ottweiler, Saarbrücken proper and Kirchheim) were all extinct in 1574 and all of the Nassau-Saarbrücken was united with Nassau-Weilburg until the year 1629. This new division however was not executed until the Thirty Years War was over and in 1651 three counties were established: Nassau-Idstein, Nassau-Weilburg and Nassau-Saarbrücken.

Only eight years later, Nassau-Saarbrücken was again divided into:

• Nassau-Saarbrücken proper, fell to Nassau-Ottweiler in 1723
• Nassau-Ottweiler, fell to Nassau-Usingen in 1728
• Nassau-Usingen

By 1728 Nassau-Saarbrücken was united with Nassau-Usingen which had inherited Nassau-Ottweiler and Nassau-Idstein. In 1735 Nassau-Usingen was divided again into Nassau-Usingen and Nassau-Saarbrücken. In 1797 Nassau-Usingen finally inherited Nassau-Saarbrücken, it was (re-)unified with Nassau-Weilburg and raised to the Duchy of Nassau in 1806. The first Duke of Nassau was Frederick August of Nassau-Usingen who died in 1816. Wilhelm, Duke of Nassau-Weilburg inherits the Duchy of Nassau.

The coat of arms combined the lion of the counts of the Saargau with the crosses of the house of Commercy, and was used when the coat of arms of Saarland was created.

Rulers

See also

• House of Nassau
• Nassau (state)
• House of Nassau-Weilburg

Sources

• The Dutch Nassau-Saarbrücken and the German Nassau-Saarbrücken Wikipedia articles
• The divisions of the House of Nassau chart
• Sante, Wilhelm. Geschichte der Deutschen Länder - Territorien-Ploetz. Würzburg 1964.
• Köbler, Gerhard. Historisches Lexikon der Deutschen Länder. München 1988.