Duchy of Berg

 

• Simplified country names
  • Berg (1521-1614)
  • Berg-Neuburg (1614-1685)
  • Berg-Palatinate (1685-1777)
  • Berg-Bavaria (1777-1806)
• Nations
  • Markian Germany (1521-1614)
  • Wittelsbachian Germany (1614-1806)
• Chronology
  • ~1050: Created as a county based in Altenberg (now part of Odenthal)
  • 1225: Acquired by the House of Limburg
  • 1348: Acquired, upon the extinction of the Limburg line, by the County of Jülich (including Ravensberg), with which it enters into a personal union
  • 1380: Promoted to a duchy
  • 1521: Acquired, upon the extinction of the Jülich line, by the County of Mark (including Cleves), with which it enters into a personal union/beginning of database (1)
  • 1604: Resolved a long-standing dispute between Amt Windeck of Berg and Herrschaft Homburg of the County of Sayn-Wittgenstein (2)
  • 1614: Entered into a personal union with Palatinate-Neuburg (along with Jülich and Ravensberg, but not Cleves or Mark) upon the extinction of the Mark line in 1609 and resolution of a succession dispute with Brandenburg
  • 1676: Acquired sovereignty over Vogtei Siegburg, which it had previously administered on behalf of the Abbacy of the same name.
  • 1685: Acquired by Electoral Palatinate in personal union when it was inherited by the Neuburg line
  • 1710: Acquired sovereignty over Güterbezirk Hugenpoet from the Abbacy of Werden.
  • 1777: Acquired by Bavaria in personal union when it was inherited by the Palatinate line
  • 1806: Terminated upon the demise of the Holy Roman Empire/end of database
• Personal unions
  • as secondary
    • Duchy of Cleves (1521-1614)
    • Duchy of Palatinate-Zweibrücken-Neuburg (1614-1685)
    • Palatinate Electorate (1685-1777)
    • Electorate of Palatinate-Bavaria (1777-1806)

 

(1) 1510, the duke’s daughter married the son of the Duke of Cleves (pursuant to a 1496 contract entered into while the principals were still minors). Thus, when both of the contracting dukes were dead (1521), the existing Cleves-Mark union expanded to include Jülich, Berg, and Ravensberg. 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.

 

(2) Documentation of the boundary before that date does not permit me to assign villages to one country or the other, so for those two areas, I delay the start of the database until actually the following year, when the Wittgenstein lands were partitioned.

 

The list of subdivisions below includes only those that were both under Berg sovereignty and administration. Subdivisions that were administered by entities not subject to the Berg dukes, were part of condominiums, or where sovereignty was disputed can be found here.