Löwenstein-Wertheim

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Löwenstein-Wertheim was a county of the Holy Roman Empire, part of the Franconian Circle. It was formed from the counties of Löwenstein (based in the town of Löwenstein) and Wertheim (based in the town of Wertheim am Main) and from 1488 until 1806 ruled by the House of Löwenstein-Wertheim who are morganatic descendants (and the most senior line) of the Palatinate branch of the House of Wittelsbach.

History

The County of Löwenstein belonged to a branch of the family of the counts of

The family lost Löwenstein to Ulrich, Duke of Württemberg, but Louis III, Count of Löwenstein, through his marriage to Anna, heiress of the Count of Wertheim, obtained that territory.^{[citation needed]} Louis III left two sons: Christopher Louis, a Lutheran, and John Dietrich, who remained a Catholic, so the family was divided in two: Löwenstein-Wertheim-Freudenberg, a Lutheran branch, and Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rosenberg, a Catholic one. The heads of the two branches, into which the older and Protestant line was afterwards divided, were made princes by the king of Bavaria in 1812 and by the king of Württemberg in 1813; the head of the younger, or Roman Catholic line, was made a prince of the Empire in 1711.^[1]

With the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806,^[1] the county was mediatized and its territory was split among Bavaria, Baden, Württemberg, and Hesse. Under the protocol of Frankfurt on 20 July 1819 all the family lands were mediatised.^{[citation needed]} The area of the County of Löwenstein was about 140 square kilometres (53 sq mi).^[1]

The current monarchs of Belgium, Luxembourg, and Liechtenstein, as well as the pretenders to the thrones of Portugal, the Two Sicilies, Bavaria, and Austria-Hungary are descended (not in the male line) from the Rosenberg branch. Rupert zu Löwenstein, the longtime financial manager of the Rolling Stones, was a member of the Freudenberg branch.

Rulers of Löwenstein

Counts of Löwenstein (1494–1571)