County of Bentheim

 

This page covers the geographic County of Bentheim, which dates to the 12th century and corresponds closely to the modern Kreis Grafschaft Bentheim in southwestern Lower Saxony. It was occasionally combined with the County of Steinfurt. That was the case beginning in 1544, when an heiress of the Bentheim line (the male line having gone extinct in 1530) married into the Steinfurt line and the combined country was ruled from Steinfurt (hence the addition of “Steinfurt” to the simplified name. After the two lines split again in 1643, Bentheim was ruled by the new Bentheim line until 1693, after which it was ruled by the new Steinfurt line. I ignore those lineages in the simplified name. Bentheim was administered by the Electorate of Hannover after 1753.

 

  • Simplified country name:
    • Bentheim-Steinfurt (1544-1643)
    • Bentheim (1643-1753)
    • Bentheim-Hannover (1753-1803)
  • Nation: Bentheimian Germany
  • Chronology
    • 1182: Created as a county that included Tecklenburg, but not Steinfurt
    • 1328: Surrenders Tecklenburg to Schwerin
    • 1421: Acquired by the Götterswyk family, which adopts the Bentheim name and combines it in personal union with Steinfurt
    • 1454: Independence restored upon the partition of Bentheim & Steinfurt
    • 1486: Achieves imperial immediacy
    • 1544: Again enters into personal union with Steinfurt/beginning of database
    • 1643: Assigned to Bentheim-Bentheim upon the repartition of Bentheim and Steinfurt
    • 1693: Assigned to Bentheim-Steinfurt as part of a trade between the two lines
    • 1753: Administrative rights shift to the Electorate of Hannover
    • 1803: Occupied by Napoleonic France/end of database
  • Personal unions
  • Outsourcing to
    • Electorate of Hannover (1753-1803)

 

Subdivisions of the County of Bentheim