In the
early Middle Ages, the territory of
Hessengau, named after the Germanic
Chatti tribes, formed the northern part of the German stem duchy of
Franconia, along with the adjacent
Lahngau. Upon the extinction of the ducal
Conradines, these
Rhenish Franconian counties were gradually acquired by
Landgrave Louis I of Thuringia and his successors. After the
War of the Thuringian Succession upon the death of Landgrave
Henry Raspe in 1247, his niece Duchess
Sophia of Brabant secured the Hessian possessions for her minor son
Henry the Child. In 1264 he became the first Landgrave of Hesse and the founder of the
House of Hesse. The remaining Thuringian landgraviate fell to the
Wettin's
Henry III, Margrave of Meissen. Henry I of Hesse was raised to the status of
prince by King
Adolf of Germany in 1292. From 1308 to 1311, and again from 1458, the landgraviate was divided into
Upper Hesse and
Lower Hesse. Hesse was re-unified under Landgrave
William II in 1500. The Landgraviate rose to primary importance under his son
Philip I, also called Philip the Magnanimous, who embraced
Protestantism following the 1526
Synod of Homberg and then took steps to create a protective alliance of Protestant princes and powers against the
Catholic emperor
Charles V. When Philip I died in 1567, Hesse was divided between his sons from his first marriage, which decisively enfeebled its importance. The new Hessian territories were: •
Hesse-Kassel (or Hesse-Cassel, the
Electorate of Hesse from 1803, which was eventually incorporated into the
Prussian province of
Hesse-Nassau in 1866) to
William IV; •
Hesse-Marburg (whose line became extinct in 1604, and was then incorporated into Hesse-Kassel and Hesse-Darmstadt) to
Louis IV; •
Hesse-Rheinfels (whose line became extinct in 1583, and was then incorporated into Hesse-Kassel) to
Philip II; • the
Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt (known as the
Grand Duchy of Hesse from 1806 and the
People's State of Hesse from 1918) to
George I The Hessian territories were not re-united until the formation of
Greater Hesse (though without
Rhenish Hesse) as part of
Allied-occupied Germany in 1945. ==See also==