Gronsveld county

The county of Gronsveld (also spelled Gronsfeld ) (initially a rule, since 1498 a barony and since the 16th century a county) was a territory in the Holy Roman Empire southwest of Maastricht . It existed until it was occupied by French troops in 1794.

history

Kasteel Gronsveld around 1827

Located within the Duchy of Limburg , the rule of Gronsveld developed from the 11th century. At the beginning of the 14th century, the Richold rule split off from her. The area has since consisted of only two church villages, Gronsveld and Honthem.

In 1498 the Roman-German King Maximilian I raised the area to a barony . Between 1576 and 1588, Gronsveld was made a county . The territory belonged to the Lower Rhine-Westphalian Imperial Circle . In addition, the counts were members of the Lower Rhine-Westphalian Imperial Counts College .

After the Gronsveld family died out, the area fell to the Bronkhorst-Batenburg family . In 1719 it became the property of the Counts of Törring-Jettenbach . The independence ends with the French occupation in 1794. Later it belonged to the province of Limburg in the Netherlands .

literature

• Gerhard Köbler : Historical lexicon of the German countries. The German territories from the Middle Ages to the present. 7th, completely revised edition. C. H. Beck, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-406-54986-1 , p. 234 f. ( limited preview in Google Book search).
• Alfred Bruns: Gronsveld. In: Gerhard Taddey (Hrsg.): Lexicon of German history . People, events, institutions. From the turn of the times to the end of the 2nd World War. 2nd, revised edition. Kröner, Stuttgart 1983, ISBN 3-520-80002-0 , p. 480.