Landgraviate of Hesse-Rotenburg

Hesse-Rotenburg is a former German landgraviate which was broken up in 1834.

In 1627 Ernest (1623-1693), a younger son of Maurice, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel (or Hesse-Cassel), received Rheinfels and lower Katzenelnbogen as his inheritance, and some years later, on the deaths of two of his brothers, he added Eschwege, Rotenburg, Wanfried and other districts to his possessions. Ernest, who was a convert to the Roman Catholic Church, was a great traveller and a voluminous writer. About 1700 his two sons, William (d. 1725) and Charles (d. 1711), divided their territories, and founded the families of Hesse-Rotenburg and Hesse-Wanfried. The latter family died out in 1755, when William's grandson, Constantine (d. 1778), reunited the lands except Rheinfels, which had been acquired by Hesse-Kassel in 1735, and ruled them as landgrave of Hesse-Rotenburg.

At the peace of Lunéville in 1801 the part of the landgraviate on the left bank of the Rhine was surrendered to France, and in 1815 other parts were ceded to Prussia, the landgrave Victor Amadeus being compensated by the abbey of Corvey and the Silesian duchy of Ratibor. Victor was the last male member of his family, so, with the consent of Prussia, he bequeathed his allodial estates to his nephews the princes Victor and Chlodwig of Hohenlohe-Waldenburg-Schillingsfurst. When the landgrave died on 12 November 1834 the remaining parts of Hesse-Rotenburg were united with Hesse-Kassel according to the arrangement of 1627. It may be noted that Hesse-Rotenburg was never completely independent of Hesse-Kassel. Perhaps the most famous member of this family was Charles Constantine (1752-1821), a younger son of the landgrave Constantine, who was called Citoyen Hesse, and who took part in the French Revolution.

List of landgraves

*Herman, Landgrave of Hesse-Rotenburg 1627-1658
*Ernest, Landgrave of Hesse-Rotenburg 1683-1693
*William, Landgrave of Hesse-Rotenburg 1693-1725
*Ernest Leopold, Landgrave of Hesse-Rotenburg 1725-1749
*Constantine, Landgrave of Hesse-Rotenburg 1749-1778
*Karl Emanuel, Landgrave of Hesse-Rotenburg 1778-1812
*Victor Amadeus, Landgrave of Hesse-Rotenburg 1812-1834

References

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