In the early Middle Ages the
Hessengau territory (named after the Germanic
Chatti tribes) formed the northern parts 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, who would become the first landgrave of Hesse and founder of the
House of Hesse in 1246. The remaining Thuringian landgraviate fell to the
Wettin margrave
Henry III of Meissen. Henry I of Hesse was raised to
princely status by King
Adolf of Germany in 1292. ==Rulers of Hesse==