County of Mark
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The County of Mark (German: Grafschaft Mark, colloquially known as Die Mark) was a county of the Holy Roman Empire in the Lower Rhenish-Westphalian Circle. It lay on both sides of the Ruhr River along the Volme and Lenne Rivers.
The Counts of the Mark were some of the most powerful and influential Westphalian lords in the Holy Roman Empire. The name Mark is recalled in the Märkischer Kreis, a district in lands north of the Ruhr River in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The northern portion (north of the Lippe River) is still called Hohe Mark ("Higher Mark"). The former "Lower Mark" (between the Ruhr and Lippe Rivers) is — for the most part — the present Ruhr area and is no longer called "Mark".
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[edit] Geography
The County of the Mark enclosed an area of approximately 3,000 km² and extended between the Lippe and Agger Rivers (north-south) and between Gelsenkirchen and Bad Sassendorf (west-east) for about 75 km.
The east-west flowing Ruhr separated the county in two different regions: the northern, fertile lowlands of Hellweg-Börde; and the southern hills of the Süderbergland (Sauerland). In the south-north direction the southern part of the county was crossed by the Lenne. In the region of the Lower Lenne was the County of Limburg (1243-1808), a fiefdom of Berg.
The seat of the Counts of the Mark was originally the Burg Altena in Sauerland, but they moved to Burg Mark near Hamm in the 1220s. The county was bordered by Vest Recklinghausen, the County of Dortmund, the Bishopric of Münster, the County of Limburg, Werden Abbey, and Essen Abbey.
[edit] Coat of arms
The coat of arms of the county was a red and white checkered fess of three rows on a gold field. These arms are used today by the city of Hamm. Many other places in the area include the red and white checkered fess in their arms as a reference to the county.
[edit] History
Originally belonging to a collateral line of the counts of Berg, the territory emerged under the name of Berg-Altena in 1160. The Counts of Altena then purchased Burg Mark ("Oberhof Mark") near Hamm from the Counts of Rüdenberg and made it the residence of the new "Counts of the Mark". The town of Hamm near Burg Mark was founded by Count Adolf I in 1226 and was soon the most important town of the county. Mark was the German word for a border march.
In the Battle of Worringen (1288), Count Eberhard I fought on the side of the Duchy of Brabant and the County of Berg. He fought against his liege, Archbishop Sigfried II von Westerburg (in his capacity as Duke of Westphalia). Because Brabant and its allies were victorious, the County of Mark gained supremacy in southern Westphalia and became independent of the Archbishopric of Cologne. The territory of Mark was for long restricted to the lands between the Ruhr and Lippe rivers ("Lower Mark"). New territories in the north ("Higher Mark") were gained during the 14th century in wars against the Prince-bishops of Münster.
Count Adolf III, the son of Adolf II married Margarete of Cleves, acquired the Duchy of Cleves on the western banks of the Rhine in 1368 and united it with Mark as "Cleves-Mark" in 1394.
The heir to the throne of Cleves-Mark married the daughter of the Duke of Berg in 1510, resulting in a personal union of Cleves-Mark and Berg (1521). Almost all of present North Rhine-Westphalia (except for the clerical states) was then ruled by the dukes. The ducal dynasty became extinct in 1609, when the insane last duke had died. A long dispute about the succession followed, before the territory was granted to Elector John Sigismund of Brandenburg in the 1614 Treaty of Xanten (generally accepted in 1666). It then became part of the Kingdom of Prussia after 1701.
In 1807 the County of the Mark passed from Prussia to France in the Treaties of Tilsit. In 1808 Napoleon then gave Mark to the elevated Grand Duchy of Berg, which was divided into four departments along the lines of Napoleonic France. Mark was in the Ruhr Department until the collapse of French power in 1813, when it returned to Prussia.
The Prussian administrative reform of 30 April 1815 placed Mark within Regierungsbezirk Arnsberg, Province of Westphalia. The Hohenzollern Prussian sovereigns remained Counts of the "Prussian County of the Mark" until 1918. The "County of the Mark" has no official meaning anymore, but is used to informally refer to the region in North Rhine-Westphalia.
[edit] Rulers of Mark
[edit] Altena-Mark
- 1160-1180 Eberhard IV of Berg, count of Altena
- 1180-1198 Friedrich I count of Altena
[edit] Mark
- 1198-1249 Adolf I
- 1249-1277 Engelbert I
- 1277-1308 Eberhard II
- 1308-1328 Engelbert II
- 1328-1347 Adolf II
- 1347-1391 Engelbert III
- 1391-1394 Adolf III
- 1394-1398 Dietrich
[edit] Cleves-Mark
- 1398-1417 Adolph IV
- 1417-1461 Gerhard
- 1461-1481 John I
- 1481-1521 John II "The Pious"
[edit] Cleves-Mark-Jülich-Berg-Ravensberg
- 1511-1539 John III "the Peaceful"
- 1539-1592 William "the Rich"
- 1592-1609 John William
[edit] References
This article incorporates text translated from the corresponding German Wikipedia article as of January 23, 2007.
[edit] External links
- Edicts of the Duchy of Berg and the County of Mark, 1418-1816 online
- Map of the County of Mark in 1789
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