Ascent The Counts of Berg emerged in 1101 as a junior line of the dynasty of the
Ezzonen, which traced its roots back to the 9th-century
Kingdom of Lotharingia, and in the 11th century became the most powerful dynasty in the region of the lower Rhine. In 1160, the territory split into two portions, one of them later becoming the
County of the Mark, which returned to the possession of the family line in the 16th century. The most powerful of the early rulers of Berg,
Engelbert II of Berg died in an assassination on November 7, 1225. In 1280 the counts moved their court from
Schloss Burg on the
Wupper river to the town of
Düsseldorf. Count
Adolf VIII of Berg fought on the winning side in the
Battle of Worringen against
Guelders in 1288. The power of Berg grew further in the 14th century. The
County of Jülich united with the County of Berg in 1348, and in 1380 the Emperor
Wenceslaus elevated the counts of Berg to the rank of dukes, thus originating the Duchy of Jülich-Berg.
Problems of succession around 1540 In 1509,
John III, Duke of Cleves, made a strategic marriage to
Maria von Geldern, daughter of
William IV, Duke of Jülich-Berg, who became heiress to her father's estates:
Jülich,
Berg and the
County of Ravensberg, which under the
Salic laws of the
Holy Roman Empire caused the properties to pass to the husband of the female heir (women could not hold property except through a husband or a guardian). With the death of her father in 1511 the Dukes of Jülich-Berg became extinct, and the estate thus came under the rule of John III, Duke of Cleves — along with his personal territories, the
County of the Mark and the
Duchy of Cleves (
Kleve) in a personal union. As a result of this union the dukes of the
United Duchies of Jülich-Cleves-Berg controlled much of present-day
North Rhine-Westphalia, with the exception of the clerical states of the
Archbishop of Cologne and of the
Bishop of Münster.
William the Rich was the second duke of the united Julich-Cleves-Berg. He introduced the
Gregorian Calendar into the duchies. However, the new ducal dynasty also became extinct in 1609, when the
last duke died insane. This led to a
lengthy dispute over succession to the various territories before the
partition of 1614: the
Count Palatine of Neuburg, who had converted to Catholicism, annexed
Jülich and Berg; while Cleves and Mark fell to
John Sigismund, Elector of Brandenburg, who subsequently also became
Duke of Prussia.
Wittelsbach Rule Wolfgang Wilhelm, Count Palatine of Neuburg, became duke. He was a member of the powerful
House of Wittelsbach, which ruled
Bavaria and the
Electoral Palatinate. During his reign, Düsseldorf served as his center of court on occasion. During the
Thirty Years' War, even though there were no significant battles around Berg, the territories still had to deal with the stresses of war. At the end of the Thirty Years' War, Wolfgang Wilhelm tried to spread Catholicism in the duchies.
Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg, still claimed the Duchy of Berg, and declared war, claiming to be the defender of protestants in Berg. This led to the
Düsseldorf Cow War. In the following years however, tension over Berg between Neuburg and Brandenburg greatly decreased. Upon the extinction of the senior Wittelsbach dynasty ruling the
Electorate of the Palatinate in 1685, the Neuburg line inherited the
electorate and generally made Düsseldorf its capital.
Elector Charles III Philipp disliked Düsseldorf, because the estates there did not want to grant the funds he demanded. As such, he moved his capital from Düsseldorf to
Mannheim, where it remained until the Elector Palatine,
Charles Theodore, inherited the
Electorate of Bavaria in 1777. In the 17th and 18th centuries, the Duchy of Berg became an early centre of continental industrialisation, with
Elberfeld and
Barmen developing into a proto-industrial hub of textile production, while
Solingen and
Remscheid specialised in ironmongery, particularly in the manufacture of blades.
French revolution, Grand Duchy of Berg , 1798 copper engraving by
Laurenz Janscha. The palace burnt down in 1872. The French occupation (1794–1801) and annexation (1801) of Jülich (French: Juliers) during the
French revolutionary wars separated the two duchies of Jülich and Berg, and in 1803 Berg separated from the other Bavarian territories and came under the rule of a junior branch of the
Wittelsbachs. In 1806, in the reorganization of the German lands occasioned by the end of the
Holy Roman Empire, Berg became the
Grand Duchy of Berg, under the rule of Napoleon's brother-in-law,
Joachim Murat. Murat's arms combined the red lion of Berg with the arms of the
Duchy of Cleves. The anchor and the batons came to the party due to Murat's positions as Grand Admiral and as
Marshal of the Empire. As the husband of Napoleon's sister
Caroline Bonaparte, Murat also had the right to use the imperial eagle. In 1809, one year after Murat's promotion from Grand Duke of Berg to
King of Naples, Napoleon's young nephew, Prince
Napoleon Louis Bonaparte (1804–1831, elder son of Napoleon's brother
Louis Bonaparte, King of Holland) became the Grand Duke of Berg; French bureaucrats administered the territory in the name of the child. The Grand Duchy's short existence came to an end with Napoleon's defeat in 1813 and the peace settlements that followed.
Province of Jülich-Cleves-Berg In 1815, after the
Congress of Vienna, Berg became part of a
province of the
Kingdom of Prussia: the
Province of Jülich-Cleves-Berg. In 1822 this province united with the
Grand Duchy of the Lower Rhine to form the
Rhine Province. ==Rulers of Berg==