County of Mark

The County of Mark arose from the division of the County of Altena in 1180. One of the resulting entities built Mark castle near Hamm and adopted the Mark name for the county seated there. Mark absorbed the territory of Altena in 1262. In 1391, it entered into a personal union with the County of Cleves. Cleves was elevated to a Duchy in 1417, but Mark, despite being the core of the dynasty, remained a county. When Soest and its surrounding “Börde” broke away from the Duchy of Westphalia in 1445, it associated itself with Mark, while retaining considerable autonomy. I treat Soest as a subdivision of the County of Mark.

 

In 1521, the Cleves-Mark union expanded with the addition of the Duchies of Jülich and Berg and the County of Ravensberg. I start the database for Mark at that point. Historians occasionally treat the five-way personal union as a distinct country called the United Duchies of Jülich-Cleves-Berg, but I treat all five entities as separate countries. The Markian line died out in 1609, resulting in a succession dispute between the houses of Hohenzollern and Wittelsbach. In 1614, Mark (and Cleves and Ravensberg) were assigned to the Hohenzollerns, entering into a personal union with the Electorate of Brandenburg, while Jülich and Berg were assigned to the Wittelsbachs. Thus, when the Elector of Brandenburg established the Kingdom of Prussia in 1701, Mark became a subdivision thereof. (Keep in mind that my convention is to recognize the Kingdom of Prussia as a nation, not a country. Thus, Mark retains its status as a country after 1701.)

 

The county was subdivided into multiple Ämter and many of those Ämter were further subdivided into Gerichte. Furthermore, there were Gerichte that were not associated with any Amt. Over time, some Ämter split into multiple units and others spun off new Amtsfrei Gerichte. In 1753, the Prussia grouped all of the Ämter and Gerichte into four Kreise, which were stable until the end of the database.