The County of Moers (, ) was a historical princely territory on the left bank of the

Lower Rhine Lower Rhine (, ; kilometres 660 to 1,033 of the Rhine) is the section of the Rhine between Bonn in Germany and the North Sea at Hook of Holland in the Netherlands, including the '' Nederrijn'' () within the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta; alternat ...

that included the towns of

Moers Moers (; older form: ''Mörs''; Dutch language, Dutch: ''Murse'', ''Murs'' or ''Meurs'') is a German List of cities and towns in Germany, city on the western bank of the Rhine, close to Duisburg. Moers belongs to the district of Wesel (distric ...

and

Krefeld Krefeld ( , ; ), also spelled Crefeld until 1925 (though the spelling was still being used in British papers throughout the Second World War), is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, in western Germany. It is located northwest of Düsseldorf, its c ...

as well as the surrounding villages and regions.

History

The House of Moers went extinct in 1578, after which the county was claimed by the

House of Orange-Nassau The House of Orange-Nassau (, ), also known as the House of Orange because of the prestige of the princely title of Orange, also referred to as the Fourth House of Orange in comparison with the other noble houses that held the Principality of Or ...

as well as the

Duchy of Cleves The Duchy of Cleves (; ) was a state of the Holy Roman Empire which emerged from the medieval . It was situated in the northern Rhineland on both sides of the Lower Rhine, around its capital Cleves and the towns of Wesel, Kalkar, Xanten, Emme ...

. On the extinction of Orange-Nassau in 1702, the County of Moers was acquired by the

Kingdom of Prussia The Kingdom of Prussia (, ) was a German state that existed from 1701 to 1918.Marriott, J. A. R., and Charles Grant Robertson. ''The Evolution of Prussia, the Making of an Empire''. Rev. ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1946. It played a signif ...

, and elevated to a principality on 6 May 1705. Although the county was legally dissolved as far back as 1797/1801, the names of communal institutions and local firms often incorporate the word ''Grafschafter'' ("comital") which harks back to the County of Moers.

Footnotes

References

Literature

* Hermann Altgelt
''Geschichte der Grafen und Herren von Moers.''
Düsseldorf, 1845. * Karl Hirschberg: ''Historische Reise durch die Grafschaft Moers von der Römerzeit bis zur Jahrhundertwende'', Verlag Steiger, Moers, 1975 * Gerhard Köbler: ''Historisches Lexikon der deutschen Länder. Die deutschen Territorien vom Mittelalter bis zur Gegenwart.'' Beck, Munich, 1995, . * Theodor Joseph Lacomblet
''Urkundenbuch für die Geschichte des Niederrheins oder des Erzstifts Cöln, der Fürstenthümer Jülich und Berg, Geldern, Meurs, Cleve und Mark, und der Reichsstifte Elten, Essen und Werden.''
From sources in the Royal Provincial Archives of Düsseldorf and in the Church and Municipal Archives of the Province, Vol. 4, J. Wolf, 1858. * Guido Rotthoff: ''Zu den frühen Generationen der Herren und Grafen von Moers.'' In: ''Annalen des Historischen Vereins für den Niederrhein.'' (AnnHVNdrh) 200, 1997, pp. 9–22. * Margret Wensky: ''Moers Die Geschichte der Stadt von der Frühzeit bis zur Gegenwart.'' In: ''Von der preußischen Zeit bis zur Gegenwart.'' 2. Band, 2000, Böhlau Verlag, Cologne, Weimar, Vienna. . * Irmgard Hantsche: ''Preußen am Rhein. Kleiner kommentierter Atlas zur Territorialgeschichte Brandenburg-Preußens am Rhein'', Essen, 2002. * Joachim Daebel: ''Die Reformation in der Grafschaft Moers 1527–1581. Jubiläumsschrift zur offiziellen Einführung der Reformation in der Grafschaft Moers vor 450 Jahren (1561–2011)'', Neukirchen-Vluyn, 2011. * Margret Wensky (ed.): ''400 Jahre oranische Befestigung von Schloss und Stadt Moers 1620–2020'', Moers, 2020. * Horst Carl: ''Das 18. Jahrhundert (1701-1814) – Rheinland und Westfalen im preußischen Staat von der Königskrönung bis zur „Franzosenzeit“''. In: Georg Mölich, Veit Veltzke, Bernd Walter (eds.): ''Rheinland, Westfalen und Preußen. Eine Beziehungsgeschichte'', 2nd ed., Münster, 2023, pp. 51–118. * Martin Früh'': “Pour avoir toujours libre accès”: Die DFG-geförderte Digitalisierung der Territorialarchive Geldern und Moers als Beitrag des Landesarchivs Nordrhein-Westfalen zur Erforschung der Rheinischen Landesgeschichte''. In: ''Rheinische Vierteljahrsblätter'' 88 (2024), pp. 207-224.

External links

Moers town history
, short table
Moers Municipal Archives

nbn-resolving.de
Digitalised edition of the History of the County of Moers (''Geschichte der Grafschaft Moers'') by Carl Hirschberg
Comital Museum (''Grafschafter Museum'')
{{coord missing, North Rhine-Westphalia

History of the Rhineland ! Lower Rhenish-Westphalian Circle