Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt Landgrafschaft Hessen-Darmstadt (German) | |||||||||
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| 1567–1806 | |||||||||
.svg) Military banner (1756–1763) .svg) Coat of arms (1736–1804) | |||||||||
 Hesse-Darmstadt (HD) and Hesse-Kassel (HK) in 1789 | |||||||||
| Status | State of theHoly Roman Empire | ||||||||
| Capital | Darmstadt | ||||||||
| Common languages | Hessian | ||||||||
| Religion | Lutheran | ||||||||
| Government | Monarchy | ||||||||
| Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt | |||||||||
• 1567–1596 | George I | ||||||||
• 1596–1626 | Louis V | ||||||||
• 1626–1661 | George II | ||||||||
• 1661–1678 | Louis VI | ||||||||
• 1678 | Louis VII | ||||||||
• 1678–1739 | Ernest Louis | ||||||||
• 1739–1768 | Louis VIII | ||||||||
• 1768–1790 | Louis IX | ||||||||
• 1790–1806 | Louis X | ||||||||
| Historical era | Napoleonic Wars | ||||||||
• Established | 1567 | ||||||||
| 1806 | |||||||||
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TheLandgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt (German:Landgrafschaft Hessen-Darmstadt) was aState of theHoly Roman Empire, ruled by a younger branch of theHouse of Hesse. It was formed in 1567 following the division of theLandgraviate of Hesse among the four sons ofLandgravePhilip I.
The residence of the landgraves was inDarmstadt, hence the name. As a result of theNapoleonic Wars, the landgraviate was elevated to theGrand Duchy of Hesse following the Empire's dissolution in 1806.
Like many petty German states, the landgraviate comprised a number of disconnected pockets of land (exclaves). These included the southernStarkenburg territory with the Darmstadt residence and the northern province ofUpper Hesse withAlsfeld,Giessen,Grünberg, the northwesternhinterland estates aroundGladenbach,Biedenkopf andBattenberg as well as the exclave ofVöhl inLower Hesse.
The Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt came into existence in 1567, whenGeorge, youngest of the four sons of Landgrave Philip I "the Magnanimous", received the Hessian lands in the former upperCounty of Katzenelnbogen. His eldest brotherWilliam IV received theLandgraviate of Hesse-Kassel, while the second sonLouis IV obtainedHesse-Marburg, and the thirdPhilipp II became Landgrave ofHesse-Rheinfels.
The Hesse-Rheinfels line became extinct on Philip's death in 1583. When, in 1604, the childless Landgrave Louis IV of Hesse-Marburg died atMarburg Castle, a succession dispute to his lands, along with the sectarian differences betweenCalvinist Hesse-Kassel andLutheran Hesse-Darmstadt, led to a bitter, decades-long rivalry. Because theUniversity of Marburg had become Calvinist under the rule of LandgraveMaurice of Hesse-Kassel, his cousinLouis V of Hesse-Darmstadt founded the LutheranUniversity of Giessen in 1607.
The inheritance conflict was continued in the broader context of theThirty Years' War, in which Hesse-Kassel sided with the Protestant estates and Hesse-Darmstadt sided with theHabsburg emperor. TheHesse-Homburg andHesse-Rotenburg estates seceded from the opponents in 1622 and 1627. Though Hesse-Darmstadt and Hesse-Kassel reached an agreement in 1627, the quarrels rekindled, resultinginter alia in theSiege of Dorsten and culminating in a series of open battles from 1645, when the Kassel LandgravineAmalie Elisabeth besieged Marburg. The conflict was finally settled on the eve of the 1648Peace of Westphalia, more than eighty years after the division of the estates. Large parts of the disputedUpper Hesse territory, including Marburg, fell to the elder Kassel line, while Hesse-Darmstadt retainedGiessen andBiedenkopf.
In 1736, the Landgraves of Hesse-Darmstadt inherited the estates of the extinct Counts ofHanau-Lichtenberg, again contested by their Kassel cousins. Hesse-Darmstadt gained a great deal of territory by the secularizations and mediatizations authorized by theReichsdeputationshauptschluss of 1803. Most notable was the acquisition of theDuchy of Westphalia, formerly owned by thePrince-Archbishop of Cologne, as well as territories from thePrince-Archbishop of Mainz and thePrince-Bishop of Worms.
In 1806, upon the dissolution of theHoly Roman Empire and the dispossession of his cousin, ElectorWilliam I of Hesse-Kassel, LandgraveLouis X joined the NapoleonicConfederation of the Rhine and took the title ofGrand Duke of Hesse.
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1 Part of theThree Bishoprics. 2Nomeny after 1737. 3 withoutReichstag seat. 4 until 1736. 5 JoinedSwiss 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 | |||||
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