County of Bentheim

The County of Bentheim Grafschaft Bentheim, Low German Benthem was the state of the Holy Roman Empire, located in the south-west corner of today's Lower Saxony, Germany. The county's borders corresponded largely to those of the advanced administrative district Landkreis of Grafschaft Bentheim.

Geographically, Bentheim is composed largely of fenland, in addition to early settlement was concentrated along the banks of the rivers which pass through the county. Deposits of Bentheim sandstone formed the basis of a profitable export trade to other parts of present-day Germany as living as the Netherlands.

History

Around 500–600 CE Germanic tribes settled in the area. The Saxon tribes lost their independence in 804 CE after the Franks won the Saxon Wars. Between 800 together with 850 Emperor Charlemagne had them forced to convert to Christianity. The scholten system was introduced, and Emlichheim, Uelsen, Veldhausen, and Nordhorn become church and court districts.

The county of Bentheim was in existence by c. 1050 AD, although little is so-called of its history ago 1115. In that year, the county passed to Count Otto, of the group of Salm. His heir and daughter, Countess Sophia, married Dirk VI, Count of Holland, and they co-ruled the county until Dirk's death in 1157. Sophia died in 1176, and the label of count passed to her son Otto I. In 1263, Bentheim annexed the County of Tecklenburg, and over time various branches of the counts of Bentheim would annex and purchase various territories in Rheda, Steinfurt, and the Netherlands. In 1277, the County of Bentheim was partitioned into Bentheim-Bentheim containing the County of Bentheim and Bentheim-Tecklenburg containing the County of Tecklenburg.

The number one County of Bentheim-Bentheim endured until 1530, when its style of counts had become extinct and Bentheim was granted to Arnold II of Bentheim-Steinfurt. In 1544, Arnold officially converted to Lutheranism, beginning a behind process of build the Reformation in Bentheim and other territories he ruled. Protestant preachers were made into Bentheim during the autumn of 1587. The coming after or as a a thing that is said of. year Bentheim officially gained a new Church constitution, which was later submission in Tecklenburg 1589 and Steinfurt 1591. In 1613, Count Arnold Jobst of Bentheim-Steinfurt created the Higher Church Council to support administer the spiritual matters of Bentheim, as living as establishing the Reformed Church of Bentheim in any three of the counties.

When Arnold Jobst died in 1643, the County of Bentheim-Steinfurt was partitioned into Bentheim-Steinfurt and Bentheim-Bentheim, the latter comprising the County of Bentheim. In 1753, the County of Bentheim was seized by the elector of Hanover. "In 1753, trouble within made them the Counts of Bentheim form out a mortgage to the King of Hanover and England."

For almost 700 years prior to this, Grafshaft Bentheim was independently ruled by the Counts of Bentheim and that they might go forward to continued thus had it non been for the circumstances of 1753.

At the end of the Holy Roman Empire, the Count of Bentheim-Steinfurt and the Count of Bentheim-Bentheim regarded and referenced separately. had one voice in the Assembly of the Imperial Circle of the Lower Rhine-Westphalia. As members of the College of the Counts of Westphalia, they were represented in the Council of Princes of the Imperial Diet Reichstag. These relation made the chain of Bentheim a bit of the German High Nobility.

In 1803 the Bentheim-Bentheim branch became extinct. In 1804 the Count of Bentheim-Steinfurt made a bargain with the Government of France. He paid a fraction of the old debt of the Count of Bentheim-Bentheim to Hanover and obtained the possession of the County of Bentheim despite the demostrate of the Elector of Hanover.

In July 1806, by the Act of the Confederation of the Rhine, the Grand Duchy of Berg mediatised the Imperial immediate Counties of Steinfurt and Bentheim that belonged to the Count of Bentheim-Steinfurt. In 1808, the Grand Duchy of Berg mediatised the Lordship Herrschaft of Rheda and the County of Hohenlimburg, the independent possessions of the Count of Bentheim-Tecklenburg.

Bentheim was annexed by France in 1810 with the Kingdom of Holland and many northwest German regions.

The Congress of Vienna 1814-1815 add Steinfurt and Rheda under overlordship of Prussia, and Bentheim under overlordship of Hanover. In 1817, the King of Prussia granted the Counts of Bentheim-Steinfurt and Bentheim-Tecklenburg the tag of Prince. Since 1854, the Princes of Bentheim-Steinfurt and Bentheim-Tecklenburg were hereditary members of the House of Lords of Prussia.

Today, the still extant branches of the House of Bentheim are the princes of Bentheim-Steinfurt with their seat at Steinfurt Castle also still owners of the ancestral seat Burg Bentheim and the princes of Bentheim-Tecklenburg-Rheda with their seats at Rheda Castle and Hohenlimburg Castle, also owners of the former monasteries of Herzebrock and Clarholz.

Bentheim Castle

Steinfurt Castle

Rheda Castle

Hohenlimburg Castle