The Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt (german: Landgrafschaft Hessen-Darmstadt) was a

State State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * '' Our ...

of the

Holy Roman Empire The Holy Roman Empire was a political entity in Western, Central, and Southern Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its dissolution in 1806 during the Napoleonic Wars. From the accession of Otto I in 962 un ...

, ruled by a younger branch of the

House of Hesse The House of Hesse is a European dynasty, directly descended from the House of Brabant. They ruled the region of Hesse, one branch as prince-electors until 1866, and another branch as grand dukes until 1918. Burke's Royal Families of the World ...

. It was formed in 1567 following the division of the

Landgraviate of Hesse The Landgraviate of Hesse (german: Landgrafschaft Hessen) was a principality of the Holy Roman Empire. It existed as a single entity from 1264 to 1567, when it was divided among the sons of Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse. History In the early Mid ...

between the four sons of

Landgrave Landgrave (german: Landgraf, nl, landgraaf, sv, lantgreve, french: landgrave; la, comes magnus, ', ', ', ', ') was a noble title used in the Holy Roman Empire, and later on in its former territories. The German titles of ', ' ("margrave"), a ...

Philip I Philip(p) I may refer to: * Philip I of Macedon (7th century BC) * Philip I Philadelphus (between 124 and 109 BC–83 or 75 BC) * Philip the Arab (c. 204–249), Roman Emperor * Philip I of France (1052–1108) * Philip I (archbishop of Cologne) ...

. The residence of the landgraves was in

Darmstadt Darmstadt () is a city in the state of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Rhine-Main-Area (Frankfurt Metropolitan Region). Darmstadt has around 160,000 inhabitants, making it the fourth largest city in the state of Hesse a ...

, hence the name. As a result of the

Napoleonic Wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...

, the landgraviate was elevated to the Grand Duchy of Hesse following the Empire's dissolution in 1806.

Geography

The landgraviate comprised the southern

Starkenburg Starkenburg is an historical region in the State of Hesse, Germany, comprising the area south of the Main River and east of the Rhine, around the regional capital Darmstadt. Geography The region is named after Starkenburg Castle, above Hep ...

territory with the Darmstadt residence and the northern province of

Upper Hesse The term Upper Hesse (german: Provinz Oberhessen) originally referred to the southern possessions of the Landgraviate of Hesse, which were initially geographically separated from the more northerly Lower Hesse by the . Later, it became the name of ...

with

Alsfeld Alsfeld () is a town in the center of Hesse, in Germany. Located about north of Frankfurt, Alsfeld is in the center of Hesse and part of the densely populated Frankfurt Rhine-Main Metropolitan Region. It is well known for its well-preserved old ...

Giessen Giessen, spelled Gießen in German (), is a town in the German state (''Bundesland'') of Hesse, capital of both the district of Giessen and the administrative region of Giessen. The population is approximately 90,000, with roughly 37,000 univer ...

, Grünberg, the northwestern ''

hinterland Hinterland is a German word meaning "the land behind" (a city, a port, or similar). Its use in English was first documented by the geographer George Chisholm in his ''Handbook of Commercial Geography'' (1888). Originally the term was associated ...

'' estates around

Gladenbach Gladenbach [] is a town in Hesse, Germany, in the west of Marburg-Biedenkopf district. Geography Location The town of Gladenbach lies on the eastern edge of the Westerwald in the Hessian Highland (''Bergland''). This part of the Lahn-Dill Highlan ...

Biedenkopf Biedenkopf () is a spa town in western Hesse, Germany with a population of 13,491 (2020). Geography Location The town of Biedenkopf lies in the west of Marburg-Biedenkopf district. Ringed by mountains reaching up to above sea level – the ...

and Battenberg as well as the exclave of

Vöhl Vöhl is a municipality in Waldeck-Frankenberg in Hesse, Germany, not far southwest of Kassel. Geography Location Vöhl lies in the northern part of the Kellerwald-Edersee Nature Park on the Edersee, a man-made lake. It is located 40 kilometers ...

Lower Hesse Lower Hesse is a historic designation for an area in northern Hesse, Germany. The term Lower Hesse originated in the Middle Ages for the so-called "lower principality" of Hesse, which was separated until 1450 from the so-called "upper principali ...

History

The Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt came into existence in 1567, when

George George may refer to: People * George (given name) * George (surname) * George (singer), American-Canadian singer George Nozuka, known by the mononym George * George Washington, First President of the United States * George W. Bush, 43rd Presiden ...

, youngest of the four sons of Landgrave Philip I "the Magnanimous", received the Hessian lands in the former upper

County of Katzenelnbogen The County of Katzenelnbogen was an immediate state of the Holy Roman Empire. Chatti Melibokus is a very old tribe who stayed on a high hill in the Bergstraße region of Hesse (the part that lies south), in Germany. It existed between 10 ...

. His eldest brother

William IV William IV (William Henry; 21 August 1765 – 20 June 1837) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and King of Hanover from 26 June 1830 until his death in 1837. The third son of George III, William succeeded ...

received the

Landgraviate of Hesse-Kassel The Landgraviate of Hesse-Kassel (german: Landgrafschaft Hessen-Kassel), spelled Hesse-Cassel during its entire existence, was a state in the Holy Roman Empire that was directly subject to the Emperor. The state was created in 1567 when the Lan ...

, while the second son Louis IV obtained

Hesse-Marburg The Landgraviate of Hesse-Marburg (german: Landgrafschaft Hessen-Marburg) was a German landgraviate, and independent principality, within the Holy Roman Empire, that existed between 1458 and 1500, and between 1567 and 1604/1650. It consisted o ...

, and the third Philipp II became Landgrave of

Hesse-Rheinfels Hesse-Rheinfels was created as a cadet line of Hesse for Philip II, Landgrave of Hesse-Rheinfels (1541–1583), landgrave from 1567 until 1583, and as a cadet line of Hesse-Kassel for Ernest, Landgrave of Hesse-Rheinfels (1623–1693), landgrave fr ...

Hessian War

The Hesse-Rheinfels line became extinct on Philip's death in 1583. When, in 1604, the childless Landgrave Louis IV of Hesse-Marburg died at

Marburg Castle The Marburger Schloss (or ''Marburg castle''), also known as Landgrafenschloss Marburg, is a castle in Marburg, Hesse, Germany, located on top of Schlossberg (287 m NAP). Built in the 11th century as a fort, it became the first residence of ...

, a succession dispute to his lands, along with the sectarian differences between

Calvinist Calvinism (also called the Reformed Tradition, Reformed Protestantism, Reformed Christianity, or simply Reformed) is a major branch of Protestantism that follows the theological tradition and forms of Christian practice set down by John Cal ...

Hesse-Kassel and

Lutheran Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched th ...

Hesse-Darmstadt, led to a bitter, decades-long rivalry. Because the

University of Marburg The Philipps University of Marburg (german: Philipps-Universität Marburg) was founded in 1527 by Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse, which makes it one of Germany's oldest universities and the oldest still operating Protestant university in the worl ...

had become Calvinist under the rule of Landgrave Maurice of Hesse-Kassel, his cousin Louis V of Hesse-Darmstadt founded the Lutheran

University of Giessen University of Giessen, official name Justus Liebig University Giessen (german: Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen), is a large public research university in Giessen, Hesse, Germany. It is named after its most famous faculty member, Justus von ...

in 1607. The inheritance conflict was continued in the broader contest of the

Thirty Years' War The Thirty Years' War was one of the longest and List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, most destructive conflicts in History of Europe, European history, lasting from 1618 to 1648. Fought primarily in Central Europe, an es ...

, in which Hesse-Kassel sided with the Protestant estates and Hesse-Darmstadt sided with the Habsburg emperor. The

Hesse-Homburg Hesse-Homburg was formed into a separate landgraviate in 1622 by the landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt; it was to be ruled by his son, although it did not become independent of Hesse-Darmstadt until 1668. It was briefly divided into Hesse-Homburg and ...

and

Hesse-Rotenburg Hesse-Rotenburg is a former German landgraviate created from the landgraviate of Hesse-Cassel in 1627. Its independence ended in 1834 when the estates not bequeathed to princes Victor and Chlodwig of Hohenlohe-Waldenburg-Schillingsfürst were reuni ...

estates seceded from the opponents in 1622 and 1627. Though Hesse-Darmstadt and Hesse-Kassel reached an agreement in 1627, the quarrels rekindled, resulting ''inter alia'' in the Siege of Dorsten and culminating in a series of open battles from 1645, when the Kassel Landgravine Amalie Elisabeth besieged Marburg. The conflict was finally settled on the eve of the 1648

Peace of Westphalia The Peace of Westphalia (german: Westfälischer Friede, ) is the collective name for two peace treaties signed in October 1648 in the Westphalian cities of Osnabrück and Münster. They ended the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) and brought pe ...

, more than eighty years after the division of the estates. Large parts of the disputed

territory including Marburg fell to the elder Kassel line, while Hesse-Darmstadt retained

and

18th-19th centuries

In 1736, the Landgraves of Hesse-Darmstadt inherited the estates of the extinct Counts of

Hanau-Lichtenberg The County of Hanau-Lichtenberg was a territory in the Holy Roman Empire. It emerged between 1456 and 1480 from a part of the County of Hanau and one half of the Barony of Lichtenberg. Following the extinction of the counts of Hanau-Lichtenberg i ...

, again contested by their Kassel cousins. Hesse-Darmstadt gained a great deal of territory by the secularizations and mediatizations authorized by the ''

Reichsdeputationshauptschluss The ' (formally the ', or "Principal Conclusion of the Extraordinary Imperial Delegation"), sometimes referred to in English as the Final Recess or the Imperial Recess of 1803, was a resolution passed by the ' (Imperial Diet) of the Holy Roman Em ...

'' of 1803. Most notable was the acquisition of the

Duchy of Westphalia The Duchy of Westphalia (german: Herzogtum Westfalen) was a historic territory in the Holy Roman Empire, which existed from 1102 to 1803. It was located in the greater region of Westphalia, originally one of the three main regions in the Germ ...

, formerly owned by the Prince-Archbishop of Cologne, as well as territories from the Prince-Archbishop of Mainz and the Prince-Bishop of Worms. In 1806, upon the dissolution of the

and the dispossession of his cousin, Elector William I of Hesse-Kassel, Landgrave

Louis X Louis X may refer to: * Louis X of France, "the Quarreller" (1289–1316). * Louis X, Duke of Bavaria (1495–1545) * Louis I, Grand Duke of Hesse (1753–1830). * Louis Farrakhan Louis Farrakhan (; born Louis Eugene Walcott, May 11, 1933) ...

joined the Napoleonic

Confederation of the Rhine The Confederated States of the Rhine, simply known as the Confederation of the Rhine, also known as Napoleonic Germany, was a confederation of German client states established at the behest of Napoleon some months after he defeated Austria a ...

and took the title of Grand Duke of Hesse.

Gallery

file:Flag of Hesse-Darmstadt Reiment during the Seven Years War (1756-1763).svg, Military regiment banner used during the

Seven Years' War The Seven Years' War (1756–1763) was a global conflict that involved most of the European Great Powers, and was fought primarily in Europe, the Americas, and Asia-Pacific. Other concurrent conflicts include the French and Indian War (1754– ...

file:Arms of the house of Hesse-Darmstadt (2).svg, Coat of arms (1736)

Bibliography

* Piotr Napierała, ''Hesja-Darmstadt w XVIII stuleciu. Wielcy władcy małego państwa'', Wydawnictwo Naukowe UAM, Poznań 2009.

External links

Map of Hesse in 1789 - Northern Part

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hesse-Darmstadt, Landgraviate of 1567 establishments in the Holy Roman Empire 1806 disestablishments in the Holy Roman Empire States and territories established in 1567 States and territories disestablished in 1806 Darmstadt Early Modern history of Germany Counties of the Holy Roman Empire Upper Rhenish Circle Former countries Former monarchies of Europe