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Landgraviate of HesseLandgrafschaft Hessen (German)
1264–1567
Flag Coat of arms
Landgraviate of Hesse (blue), about 1400
Status	State of the Holy Roman Empire
Capital	Marburg, Gudensberg, Kassel (from 1277)
Religion	Catholicism, Reformed
Government	Feudal monarchy
Landgrave
• 1264–1308	Henry I the Child
• 1509–1567	Philip I the Magnanimous
Historical era	Middle Ages, Reformation
• Partitioned from     Duchy of Thuringia	1264
• Raised to     Principality	1292
• Partitioned in twain	1458–1487
• Reformation	1526
• Partitioned in four	1567
Preceded by Succeeded by Duchy of Thuringia Landgraviate of Hesse-Kassel Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt Hesse-Marburg Hesse-Rheinfels

The Landgraviate of Hesse (German: Landgrafschaft Hessen) was a principality of the Holy Roman Empire. It existed as a single entity from 1264 to 1567, when it was divided among the sons of Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse.

History

In the early Middle Ages, the territory of Hessengau, named after the Germanic Chatti tribes, formed the northern part of the German stem duchy of Franconia, along with the adjacent Lahngau. Upon the extinction of the ducal Conradines, these Rhenish Franconian counties were gradually acquired by Landgrave Louis I of Thuringia and his successors.

After the War of the Thuringian Succession upon the death of Landgrave Henry Raspe in 1247, his niece Duchess Sophia of Brabant secured the Hessian possessions for her minor son Henry the Child. In 1264 he became the first Landgrave of Hesse and the founder of the House of Hesse. The remaining Thuringian landgraviate fell to the Wettin's Henry III, Margrave of Meissen. Henry I of Hesse was raised to the status of prince by King Adolf of Germany in 1292.

From 1308 to 1311, and again from 1458, the landgraviate was divided into Upper Hesse and Lower Hesse. Hesse was re-unified under Landgrave William II in 1500. The Landgraviate rose to primary importance under his son Philip I, also called Philip the Magnanimous, who embraced Protestantism following the 1526 Synod of Homberg and then took steps to create a protective alliance of Protestant princes and powers against the Catholic emperor Charles V. When Philip I died in 1567, Hesse was divided between his sons from his first marriage, which decisively enfeebled its importance.

The new Hessian territories were:

• Hesse-Kassel (or Hesse-Cassel, the Electorate of Hesse from 1803, which was eventually incorporated into the Prussian province of Hesse-Nassau in 1866) to William IV;
• Hesse-Marburg (whose line became extinct in 1604, and was then incorporated into Hesse-Kassel and Hesse-Darmstadt) to Louis IV;
• Hesse-Rheinfels (whose line became extinct in 1583, and was then incorporated into Hesse-Kassel) to Philip II;
• the Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt (known as the Grand Duchy of Hesse from 1806 and the People's State of Hesse from 1918) to George I

The Hessian territories were not re-united until the formation of Greater Hesse (though without Rhenish Hesse) as part of Allied-occupied Germany in 1945.

See also

• Rulers of Hesse

External links

• Map of the Landgraviate of Hesse under Philip I the Magnanimous

v t e Swabian League
History	Swabian War Knights' War Franconian War Peasants' War
Members	Aalen Augsburg Baden Bavaria Bayreuth Biberach Bopfingen Brandenburg-Ansbach Dinkelsbühl Donauwörth Esslingen Giengen Heilbronn Hesse Isny Kaufbeuren Kempten Leutkirch Lindau Mainz Memmingen Nördlingen Palatinate Pfullendorf Ravensburg Reutlingen Schwäbisch Gmünd Schwäbisch Hall Trier Überlingen Ulm Wangen Weil Wimpfen Württemberg
Category Commons

v t e Upper Rhenish Circle (1500–1806) of the Holy Roman Empire
Ecclesiastical	Basel Fulda Hersfeld Metz Odenheim–Bruchsal Prüm Speyer Straßburg Toul Verdun Weißenburg Worms
Secular	Bar Heitersheim Hersfeld Hesse Darmstadt Homburg Kassel Marburg Rheinfels Isenburg-Birstein Lautern Lorraine Nassau Idstein Ottweiler Saarbrücken Usingen Weilburg Salm Kyrburg Salm Savoy Simmern Solms-Braunfels Sponheim Veldenz Waldeck Zweibrücken
Counts / Lords	With Imp. Diet seats Hanau Lichtenberg Münzenberg Isenburg Birstein Büdingen Büdingen-Birstein Königstein Mainz Stolberg Kriechingen Leiningen Dagsburg Hardenburg Westerburg Salm Grehweiler Grumbach Solms Hohensolms Laubach Lich Rödelheim Wetterau Wittgenstein Berleburg Wittgenstein Without Bretzenheim Dagstuhl Falkenstein Isenburg Meerholz Wächtersbach Mensfelden Olbrück Reipoltskirchen Salm-Dhaun Wartenberg
Cities	Décapole Colmar Hagenau Kaisersberg Landau Mülhausen Münster im Elsaß Oberehnheim Rosheim Schlettstadt Türkheim Weißenburg Others Frankfurt Friedberg Metz Speyer Straßburg Toul Verdun Wetzlar Worms
Part of the Three Bishoprics.    Nomeny after 1737.    without Reichstag seat.    until 1736.    Joined Swiss Confederacy in 1515. Circles est. 1500: Bavarian, Swabian, Upper Rhenish, Lower Rhenish–Westphalian, Franconian, (Lower) Saxon Circles est. 1512: Austrian, Burgundian, Upper Saxon, Electoral Rhenish     ·     Unencircled territories

• Medieval history of Germany
• Counties of the Holy Roman Empire
• Upper Rhenish Circle
• History of Hesse
• House of Hesse
• States and territories established in 1264
• States and territories disestablished in 1567
• 1260s establishments in the Holy Roman Empire
• 1264 establishments in Europe
• 1567 disestablishments in the Holy Roman Empire
• Former monarchies of Europe