Freier Grund condominium
This page covers the Freier Grund condominium, in which, from its creation in 1478 until 1799, sovereignty was split equally between a Nassuvian (Ottonian line) participant and a Sayn-Wittgensteinian participant. At the administrative level, however, equality was manifested differently, in that the Nassuvian participant selected the administrator of one Vogtei (Burbach) and the Sayn-Wittgensteinian participant appointed the administrator of the other (Neunkirchen).
The territory was never a coherent country, but it warrants country-level treatment to capture the different participants in the condominium over time. I present the country names of the participants below with the Nassuvian participant first (because the entire condominium ended up Nassuvian eventually). Note, however, that at the subdivision level, I render the country names in the order of administrative primacy. To keep the fully-specified names from becoming too unwieldy, I drop terms that I think are expendable. The dropped terms are rendered in gray for the first country in which they appear, then omitted altogether in later countries.
Index of simplified country names with which the Freier Grund condominium was associated (earliest to latest)
- Vogtei Burbach Vogtei Neunkirchen
- Dillenburg\Sayn Sayn\Dillenburg
- Dillenburg\[Wittgenstein-]Sayn [Wittgenstein-]Sayn\Dillenburg
- Dillenburg-Beilstein\[Wittgenstein-]Sayn [Wittgenstein-]Sayn\Dillenburg-Beilstein
- Dillenburg-Dillenburg\[Wittgenstein-]Sayn [Wittgenstein-]Sayn\Dillenburg-Dillenburg
- Dillenburg-Dillenburg\Sayn-Hachenburg Sayn-Hachenburg\Dillenburg-Dillenburg
- Orange-Nassau\Sayn-Hachenburg Sayn-Hachenburg\Orange-Nassau
Condo. btw. Co. of [Nassau-]Dillenburg & Co. of Sayn-Sayn
- Simplified country names
- Dillenburg\Sayn (in Vogtei Burbach)
- Sayn\Dillenburg (in Vogtei Neunkirchen)
- Nation: Jointly-Ruled Germany
- Chronology
- 1561: Created upon the unification of all Ottonian Nassuvian territory in the County of Dillenburg/beginning of database
- 1606: County of Sayn-Sayn terminated
- Successor: Condo btw. Co. of Dillenburg & Co. of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn
Condo. btw. Co. of Dillenburg & Co. of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn
- Simplified country names
- Dillenburg\[Wittgenstein-]Sayn (in Vogtei Burbach)
- [Wittgenstein-]Sayn\Dillenburg (in Vogtei Neunkirchen)
- Nation: Jointly-Ruled Germany
- Predecessor: Condo btw. Co. of Dillenburg & Co. of Sayn-Sayn
- Chronology
- 1606: Created upon assignment of Sayn-Wittgensteinian share to Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn
- 1607: County of Dillenburg partitioned
- Successor: Condo btw. Co. of Dillenburg-Beilstein & Co. of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn
Condo. btw. Co. of Dillenburg-Beilstein & Co. of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn
- Simplified country names
- Dillenburg-Beilstein\Sayn (in Vogtei Burbach)
- Sayn\Dillenburg-Beilstein (in Vogtei Neunkirchen)
- Nation: Jointly-Ruled Germany
- Predecessor: Condo btw. Co. of Dillenburg & Co. of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn
- Chronology
- 1607: Created upon assignment of (Ottonian) Nassuvian share to Dillenburg-Beilstein
- 1620: County of Dillenburg-Beilstein terminated
- Successor: Condo btw. Co. of Dillenburg-Dillenburg & Co. of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn
Condo. btw. Co. of Dillenburg-Dillenburg & Co. of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn
- Simplified country names
- Dillenburg-Dillenburg\Sayn (in Vogtei Burbach)
- Sayn\Dillenburg-Dillenburg (in Vogtei Neunkirchen)
- Nation: Jointly-Ruled Germany
- Predecessor: Condo btw. Co. of Dillenburg-Beilstein & Co. of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn
- Chronology
- 1620: Created upon assignment of Ottonian Nassuvian share to Dillenburg-Dillenburg
- 1652: County of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn partitioned
- Successor: Condo btw. Co. of Dillenburg-Dillenburg & Co. of Sayn-Hachenburg
Condo. btw. Co./Princ. of Dillenburg-Dillenburg & Co. of Sayn-Hachenburg
- Simplified country names
- Dillenburg-Dillenburg\Sayn-Hachenburg (in Vogtei Burbach)
- Sayn-Hachenburg\Dillenburg-Dillenburg (in Vogtei Neunkirchen)
- Nation: Jointly-Ruled Germany
- Predecessor: Condo btw. Co. of Dillenburg-Dillenburg & Co. of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn
- Chronology
- 1652: Created upon assignment of Sayn-Wittgensteinian share to Sayn-Hachenberg (1)
- 1654: County of Dillenburg-Dillenburg promoted to a principality
- 1743: All Ottonian Nassuvian territory united by Diez under the name Principality of Orange-Nassau
- Successor: Condo. btw. Princ. of Orange-Nassau & Co. of Sayn-Hachenberg
- Personal unions
- Sayn-Hachenberg as secondary
- County of Manderscheid-Blankenheim (1652-1714)
- Burggraviate of Kirchberg (1714-1743)
- Sayn-Hachenberg as secondary
(1) Technically, Sayn-Hachenburg was no longer a Sayn-Wittgensteinian entity, because the female heiress had married a Manderscheidian.
Condo. btw. Princ. of Orange-Nassau & Co. of Sayn-Hachenberg
- Simplified country names
- Orange-Nassau\Sayn-Hachenburg (in Vogtei Burbach)
- Sayn-Hachenburg\Orange-Nassau (in Vogtei Neunkirchen)
- Nation
- Jointly-Ruled Germany (1743-1799)
- Nassuvian Germany (1799-1806)
- Predecessor: Condo btw. Co. of Dillenburg-Dillenburg & Co. of Sayn-Hachenburg
- Chronology
- 1743: Created upon assignment of the Nassuvian share to Orange-Nassau
- 1799: Sayn-Hachenburg acquired by Saarbrücken-Weilburg, a Walmarian Nassuvian entity, thereby shifting Freier Grund to Nassuvian Germany
- 1806: Terminated upon the demise of the Holy Roman Empire/end of database
- Successor: Duchy of Nassau (a Napoleonic client)
- Personal unions
- Sayn-Hachenberg as secondary
- Burggraviate of Kirchberg (1743-1799)
- Principality of Nassau-Saarbrücken-Weilburg (1799-1806)
- Sayn-Hachenberg as secondary
:
- Each simplified country name listed in the Index is linked to one of the country combinations that made up the condominium at some point in time. Once you reach the selected combinations, however, the listed simplified country name contains separate links to each of the participating countries mentioned in the name.
- To visit any other country in one of the nations mentioned on this page, click on that nation’s name, where you will find a list of countries.
- To visit a country in a nation not mentioned on this page, go to Index of Nations.
