Upon the revolt instigated by the
Wettin margrave
Dedi I in 1069, Emperor
Henry IV appointed the loyal House of Mansfeld counts (
Grafen) in the Saxon
Hassegau at
Eisleben. The family progenitor, Count Hoyer I of Mansfeld, also known as Hoyer the Great, was a field marshal in the service of Emperor
Henry V. He was killed at the
Battle of Welfesholz on 11 February 1115, fighting the rebellious Saxon forces under Count
Lothair of Supplinburg. The Mansfelds held extended fiefs both in the
Archbishopric of Magdeburg and the
Bishopric of Halberstadt. The male line became extinct for the first time upon the death of Count Burchard of Mansfeld in 1229; his daughter Sophia married a scion of the Lords of
Querfurt, who assumed the comital title. In the 15th century, the primary house divided into cadet branches: Hinterort, Mittelort, and Vorderort, while their County of Mansfeld in 1512 joined the
Upper Saxon Circle as an
immediate Imperial estate. File:Mansfeld 1650.jpg|Mansfeld in 1650 File:Mansfeld1.jpg|
Mansfeld Castle File:Mansfeld.PNG|Mansfeld coat of arms until 1229 File:Wapen Mansfeld.svg|Mansfeld coat of arms from 1481 Things worsened with the
Protestant Reformation: While Count Hoyer VI of Mansfeld-Vorderort (1477-1540) remained a loyal supporter of the
Catholic faith, the Mittelort and Hinterort branches sided with
Martin Luther. When the county was devastated during the
German Peasants' War, Count
Albert VII of Mansfeld-Hinterort (1480-1560) not only fought with the Imperial troops in the 1525
Battle of Frankenhausen, but also signed the Protestant
Augsburg Confession in 1530 and joined the
Schmalkaldic League, wherefore he was
banned by Emperor
Charles V after the 1547
Battle of Mühlberg. , which would name the branches who kept each:
Vorderort (Outer Castle and line),
Mittelort (Middle Castle and line) and
Hinterort (Inner Castle and line. To settle the enormous debts of the Counts of Mansfeld, their mighty neighbour Elector
Augustus of Saxony urged Emperor
Maximilian II to appoint a committee. On 15 March 1574, and again on 5 July 1574, in
Leipzig and
Halle, respectively, the surviving counts Hans Hoyer, Hans Georg, Hans Albrecht and Bruno concluded an agreement for the repayment of debts incurred by Counts
Peter Ernst I von Mansfeld-Vorderort, Hans Ernst and Bruno von Mansfeld. The family's assets were confiscated in 1579, whereafter Imperial immediacy was lost and mediatized between the Electorate of Saxony and the Archbishopric of Magdeburg. The Mittelort and Hinterort branches died out in 1602 and 1666. The male Mansfeld-Vorderort line finally became extinct in 1780 with the death of Josef Wenzel Nepomuk, Prince of
Fondi in Italy, and their fiefs fell back to the
Electorate of Saxony and the Prussian
Duchy of Magdeburg. Josef Wenzel's half-sister and heiress Maria Isabella was only able to retain the
Bohemian possessions. In 1771 she had married Prince Franz de Paula Gundaker von
Colloredo (1731–1807), last Vice Chancellor of the
Holy Roman Empire from 1789, thereby establishing the House of
Colloredo-Mansfeld, which claimed headship over the family after the
German mediatization. ==Possessions==