The
County of 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 south 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".
Geography
County of the Mark and Ravensberg, 1645.
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.
Coat of arms
Coat of arms
The
coat of arms of the county was
"Or a fess
chequy Gules and Argent of three".
These arms
have been`used by the city of Hamm since
1226. Many other places in the area include the red and
white checkered fess in their arms as a reference to the county and
often to their founders.
History
County of Mark in 1681.
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
Edelherren 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
and often used as residence. Mark is the old 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
Siegfried II of
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.
A contemporaneous map of the County of
Mark in 1791.
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.
Rulers of Mark
Altena-Mark
Mark
Cleves-Mark
Cleves-Mark-Jülich-Berg-Ravensberg
See also
- de la Marck (French spelling of the
family name which is often used in English)
References
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