The Lords of Eppstein () were a family of German nobility in the Middle Ages. From the 12th century they ruled extensive territories in the Rhine Main area from their

castle A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word ''castle'', but usually consider it to be the private fortified r ...

Eppstein Eppstein is a town in the Main-Taunus-Kreis, in Hesse, Germany. Eppstein lies west of Frankfurt am Main, around 12 km north east of the state capital Wiesbaden, and is at the edge of the Taunus mountains. The ruins of the Eppstein castle is ...

, northwest of Frankfurt, Germany.

History

Between 1180 and 1190, the Archbishop of Mainz

enfeoffed In the Middle Ages, especially under the European feudal system, feoffment or enfeoffment was the deed by which a person was given land in exchange for a pledge of service. This mechanism was later used to avoid restrictions on the passage of ti ...

Eppstein Castle, along with neighboring district courts and villages to Gerhard III of Hainhausen. Gerhard changed his name to Eppstein and already having control of the present-day district of Offenbach, became the first in the line which was soon to become one of the most influential families in the Rhine Main area. Four of the seven Archbishops of Mainz and Electoral Princes in the 13th century were of the house of Eppstein. They raised the Electorate to considerable power and played a significant role in the politics of the

Holy Roman Empire The Holy Roman Empire was a Polity, political entity in Western Europe, Western, Central Europe, Central, and Southern Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its Dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire, dissolution i ...

. In the struggle between the Emperor and the Pope, Archbishop Siegfried III took sides with the anti-

Staufer The Hohenstaufen dynasty (, , ), also known as the Staufer, was a noble family of unclear origin that rose to rule the Duchy of Swabia from 1079, and to royal rule in the Holy Roman Empire during the Middle Ages from 1138 until 1254. The dynasty ...

group which played an important part in the beginnings of German federalism. The secular Eppsteiners, by purchase, marriage and enfeoffment, acquired extensive territories and rights between

Middle Rhine Between Bingen and Bonn, Germany, the river Rhine flows as the Middle Rhine (german: Mittelrhein) through the Rhine Gorge, a formation created by erosion, which happened at about the same rate as an uplift in the region, leaving the river a ...

to the

Vogelsberg The is a large volcanic mountain range in the German Central Uplands in the state of Hesse, separated from the Rhön Mountains by the Fulda river valley. Emerging approximately 19 million years ago, the Vogelsberg is Central Europe's largest ...

hills and between the

Lahn The Lahn is a , right (or eastern) tributary of the Rhine in Germany. Its course passes through the federal states of North Rhine-Westphalia (23.0 km), Hesse (165.6 km), and Rhineland-Palatinate (57.0 km). It has its source in t ...

River to the Odenwald. The realm of the Lords of Eppstein was divided in 1433 between brothers Gottfried VII (Eppstein-Münzenberg) and Eberhard II (Eppstein-Königstein). The last of these branches became extinct in 1535 and Eppstein was passed mostly to the

Landgraves 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 Midd ...

and the Ecclesiastical Principality of Mainz.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Eppstein Lordships of the Holy Roman Empire Taunus

History

See also

Further reading

References