County of Sayn Grafschaft Sayn | |||||||||||||
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11th century–1605 | |||||||||||||
![]() Sayn c. 1450 | |||||||||||||
Status | State of the Holy Roman Empire | ||||||||||||
Capital | Sayn (in German) | ||||||||||||
Government | Principality | ||||||||||||
Historical era | Middle Ages | ||||||||||||
• Established | before 1139 11th century | ||||||||||||
• To Counts of Sponheim | 1247 | ||||||||||||
1294 | |||||||||||||
1605 | |||||||||||||
1648 | |||||||||||||
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Today part of | Germany |
Sayn was a small German county of the Holy Roman Empire which, during the Middle Ages, existed within what is today Rheinland-Pfalz.
There have been two Counties of Sayn. The first emerged in 1139 and became closely associated with the County of Sponheim early in its existence. Count Henry II was notable for being accused of satanic orgies by the Church's German Grand Inquisitor, Conrad von Marburg, in 1233. Henry was acquitted by an assembly of bishops in Mainz, but Conrad refused to accept the verdict and left Mainz. It is unknown whether it was Henry's Knights who killed Conrad on his return to Thuringia, but investigation was foregone due to the cruelty of Conrad, despite Pope Gregory IX ordering his murderers to be punished. With the death of Henry in 1246, the County passed to the Counts of Sponheim-Eberstein and thence to Sponheim-Sayn in 1261.
The second County of Sayn emerged as a partition of Sponheim-Sayn in 1283 (the other partition being Sayn-Homburg). It was notable for its numerous co-reigns, and it endured until 1608 when it was inherited by the Counts of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn. A lack of clear heirs of William III of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn led to the temporary annexation of the comital territories by the Archbishop of Cologne until the succession was decided. In 1648 following the Thirty Years' War, the County was divided between Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn-Altenkirchen and Sayn-Wittgenstein-Hachenburg.
Territory and possessions
[edit]The county of Sayn was located in the area of today's state of Rhineland-Palatinate. The ancestral land, lost in 1605, was on the right bank of the Middle Rhine around Sayn Castle, now part of the town of Bendorf. The much larger territories were in the northern Westerwald and in the middle Sieg Valley. The county had as neighbours:
- in the north, the Lordship of Humburg
- in the east, the County of Nassau-Dillenburg,
- in the south, the County of Wied,
- south of the exclave of Bendorf, the Electorate of Trier,
- north of the exclave of Bendorf, the County of Isenburg
- in the west, the Electorate of Cologne.
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Ruins of the Sayn Castle
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Former Premonstratensian Abbey of Sayn, Hauskloster und Grablege[1]
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Hachenburg Castle
Rulers of Sayn
[edit]House of Sayn
[edit]County of Sayn (1139-1701) (Homburg branch since 1608) |
County of Homburg (1st creation) (1284-1384) renamed County of Wittgenstein (1st creation) (1384-1605) | |||||||
County of Kirschgartshausen (1623-1719) |
County of Homburg (2nd creation) (1631-1743) |
County of Berleburg (1605-1806) | ||||||
County of Wittgenstein (2nd creation) (1605-1647) renamed County of Hohnstein (1647-1806) |
County of Vallendar (1657-1775) | |||||||
County of Karlsburg (1694-1806) |
County of Ludwigsburg (1694-1806) | |||||||
Hachenburg annexed to Manderscheid family; Altenkirchen annexed to Saxony |
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County of Neumagen (1623-1806) |
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Mediatised to the Landgraviate of Hesse (from 1806) |
Table of rulers
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See also
[edit]- Sayn-Homburg
- Sayn-Wittgenstein
- Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg
- Sayn-Wittgenstein-Hachenburg
- Sayn-Wittgenstein-Hohenstein
- Sayn-Wittgenstein-Karlsburg
- Sayn-Wittgenstein-Ludwigsburg
- Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn
- Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn-Altenkirchen
- Sayn-Wittgenstein-Vallendar
- Sponheim-Sayn
References
[edit]- ^ Archived (Date missing) at landeshauptarchiv.de (Error: unknown archive URL) bei Landeshauptarchiv Koblenz.
- ^ Hennes, Johann Heinrich (1845). Codex Diplomaticus Ordinis Sanctae Mariae Theutonicorum: Urkundenbuch zur Geschichte des Deutschen Ordens, insbesondre der Ballei Coblenz. Mainz: Franz Kirchheim. pp. charters 265, 284.