Limburgian Germany

The name “Limburg” pops up in multiple places in western Germany over the centuries and it is not at all obvious how those places relate to what I call “Limburgian Germany”. (Spoiler alert: None of them were in Limburgian Germany during the period covered by the database.) To clarify that, I begin with an inventory of all the various Limburgs and link them to one or more nations.

 

The oldest Limburg is the castle built in modern Belgium in the early 11th century. The Duchy of Limburg grew up around that castle, the territory of which extended into modern Germany after 1155. Based on the location of its seat and the vast majority of its territory, I would have assigned the Duchy to Limburgian Netherlands, not Limburgian Germany, had the data base extended back that far. That Limburg Iine died out in 1280. By the time the database covering the German territory of the Duchy begins in 1555, it was part of the Spanish Netherlands.

 

Another Limburg lies on the Lahn River in the modern state of Hesse. The city is older than the one in Belgium, but it did not become the seat of a Lordship until the mid-13th century. The Lords of Limburg constituted a branch of the Isenburg family and I would have characterized the Lordship as part of Isenburgian Germany had the database extended back that far. That Limburg line died out in 1406 and its territory was absorbed into the Electorate of Trier.

 

In 1242, the son of Sophie of Limburg (the one in Belgium) and Frederick of Isenberg (unrelated to the Isenburgs ruling the Lordship in Hesse) built Hohenlimburg castle, so named in honor of his mother, on the Lenne River within the modern city of Hagen. That became the seat of the County of Limburg (although the Count himself continued to use the Isenberg name), which gave birth to what I call Limburgian Germany. The county was forced to move its seat to Styrum (in modern Mülheim an der Ruhr) in 1289. Over the next century, the Limburg line split between Limburg-Styrum, Limburg-Hohenlimburg, and Limburg-Broich. The male lines of the latter two died out in the early 16th century—1511 in the case of Hohenlimburg and 1508 in the case of Broich—and their territories passed to Daunian Germany. Thus, during the period covered by the database, Limburgian Germany consisted solely of the territory controlled by the Styrum line. That territory including the following countries:

 

 

The Styrum line was also sovereign over the Lordships of Borculo, Bronkhorst, Wisch, Wildenborch, and Lichtenvoorde, but those are excluded from the database because they were located in the modern Netherlands or Belgium. It also controlled the Lordship of Linnip (near Ratingen) between 1461 and 1582, but that Lordship was extremely small and I ignore it.