County of Dagsburg

The County of Dagsburg with its capital Dagsburg (now Dabo in France) existed in Lorraine from 11th to 18th centuries when the area was still part of Holy Roman Empire.

The ancestral castle in Dabo, the Dagsburg Castle in Lorraine, was acquired by the Etichonids shortly before the year 1000 through the marriage of Hugo VI, Count of Nordgau and Count of Egisheim, with Heilwig of Dagsburg (d. 1046).

The Etichonids built another Dagsburg Castle in Upper Alsace in 1150. The male members of the family used the title of Count of Dagsburg and Count of Egisheim at this time; later they added the County of Metz. Among their possessions were numerous manors in the upper Saar area, Moha and Waleffe and High justice in the Diocese of Metz.

The Etichonids died out in 1225. Gertrude of Dagsburg, the last member of the family, left behind eleven castles (including the Château de Guirbaden) and the vogtei over nine monasteries. The possessions around Dabo fell to the House of Leiningen in 1241. Another part of the inheritance went to the House of Zähringen, who at times left some of their rights to the archbishopric of Strasbourg, with whom they had territorial disputes. The Bishop of Metz decided that the fiefs of Moha and Waleffe had fallen vacant, and gave them to the Prince-Bishop of Liège.

A branch called Dagsburg-Leiningen existed within the House of Leiningen from 1317 to 1797.

Counts of Dagsburg

• Hugo VI., Count and Count in Nordgau Egisheim to 1000, married Heilwig of Dagsburg
• Hugo VII, Count of Dagsburg, died 1046 or 1049, son of Hugo VI.
• Henry I, Count of Egisheim and Dagsburg, died probably in 1065, son of Hugh VII
• Hugh VIII of Egisheim, from 1074 Earl of Dagsburg, died 1089, son of Henry I.
• Albert I of Egisheim, from 1089 Earl of Dagsburg, died 1098, brother in law of Hugo VIII
• Hugo IX, from 1103 Earl of Dagsburg, attested in 1130 and 1137, son of Albert I
• Hugo X, attested 1137 and 1178, Count of Dagsburg and Metz, son of Hugh IX.
• Albert II, from 1175 Count of Dagsburg, died 1212, son of Hugh X, married Gertrud of Baden
  • Gertrude of Dagsburg, died 1225, daughter of Albert II, married:
    • (I) in 1215 Theobald I, from 1213 Duke of Lorraine, from 1216 Earl of Dagsburg and Metz, died 1217
    • (II) in 1217 Theobald IV of Champagne, King of Navarre, divorced 1223
    • (III) in 1224 Simon of Leiningen, Count of Dagsburg from 1234, died 1234 or 1236, had issue

References and sources

• Gerhard Köbler: Historisches Lexikon der deutschen Länder, 1992
• Detlev Schwennicke: Europäische Stammtafeln, vol. I.2, 1999, table 200b