The Rau von Holzhausen are a noble family whose seat was located in

Hesse Hesse (, , ) or Hessia (, ; german: Hessen ), officially the State of Hessen (german: links=no, Land Hessen), is a States of Germany, state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt. Two other major histor ...

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. The head of the house of Rau was styled the "Freiherr

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Rau von und zu Holzhausen," although they held several other titles, including an order from the Kaiser that their title, since it was ancient, was to be styled a level higher, thus giving it the title Graf (Count) Rau von Holzhausen. The family was connected to upper nobility and royalty through a variety of marriages and alliances, most notably through the mother of

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of the

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. They first received recognition by the

Frankish Frankish may refer to: * Franks, a Germanic tribe and their culture ** Frankish language or its modern descendants, Franconian languages * Francia, a post-Roman state in France and Germany * East Francia, the successor state to Francia in Germany ...

ruler

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, and were granted a

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. This honor was in respect of the unwillingness to surrender of a member of the family (since being considered the first lord) during the Frankish ruler's wars eastward through what is now Germany, notably against the Saxons. Although the Rau family became a well-landed family in Hesse, with their seat at Rauischholzhausen, other estates such as the baronies of Nordeck and Frauenberg, and lands in

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became properties to the noble Lords. Rauischholzhausen was acquired in the early 14th century, and was in the hands of the family until the 1880s, when it was sold to the Stumm industrial family. The last Lord Rau von Holzhausen sold much of his property after German unification, and moved out of Germany shortly thereafter, although branches of the family remained influential in Germany for the next century.

References

{{Germany-noble-stub Hessian noble families