Dietrich I, Graf von Altena, Isenberg und Limburg

Footnotes:

Sources: l'Allemagne Dynastique Tome III by Michel Huberty, Alain Giraud and F. & B. Magdelaine and Genealogie van het Vorstenhuis Nassau by A.W.E. Dek. With special thanks to Brigitte Gastel Lloyd and Netty Leistra. Back to:

Genealogies of Royal Families. Royal Families in Europe. The Royal Family of the Netherlands.

Ruling Counts of Limburg Counts of Limburg 1242–1400: Dietrich | Eberhard I. | Dietrich III. | Dietrich IV.

Counts of Limburg-Broich 1400–1508: Dietrich V. | Wilhelm I. | Wilhelm II. | Dietrich VI. | Heinrich | Johann

Count of Daun-Falkenstein 1508–1546: Wirich V.

Count of Neuenahr 1442–1610: Gumprecht II. | Gumprecht III. | Gumprecht IV. | Hermann (regency) | Adolf | Amalia | Magdalena

Counts of Bentheim-Tecklenburg 1610–1817: Konrad Gumprecht | Johannetta Elisabeth of Nassau-Dillenburg (Regency) | Moritz | Johann Adolf | Friedrich Moritz | Moritz Casimir I. | Moritz Casimir II. | Moritz Casimir III. | Emil Friedrich I.

Count Dietrich von Altena-Isenberg (* around 1215; † 1301, according to other information around 1299), originally Diderik, was the son and heir to Count Friedrich von Isenberg.

He came from the family of the Counts of Isenberg. Even before his father was executed on November 14, 1226 because of the "murder" of Archbishop Engelbert von Berg, which was presumably a manslaughter after the failed attempt at capture, the ancestral castle of Isenburg near Hattingen was razed and the extensive family property was razed by the Archbishops of Cologne and the Count von der Mark, who was closely related to the Count House of Isenberg, was drafted.

Count Dietrich grew up at the court of his uncle, Duke Heinrich IV of Limburg, who was also Count von Berg. This is where his mother Sophie, Duke Heinrich's sister, fled with her siblings in 1225. Countess Sophie died in 1226 with the youngest child.

Since 1232 there are some sources, according to which the Archbishop of Cologne complained to the Pope that he was molested by the relatives and descendants of Count Friedrich II von Altena-Isenberg. Further information on the type and scope of these events can not be found in the sources.

Around 1240 there were military disputes between Count Friedrich von Isenberg's legacy, the Isenberg Troubles, and Count Dietrich von Isenberg, on the other. Dietrich was supported in his approach and in the political enforcement of his inheritance claims by his uncle Heinrich IV of Limburg. Dietrich reclaimed the entire territory, the rest of the property and the rights of his father.

Before 1242 Dietrich appeared with numerous troops in the area of ​​the lower Lenne and built a fortified base. It is often assumed that he initially used a hill fort that might already exist at the time, which is now known as the Seven Trenches. In their protection he had the stone Limburg built, which today still exists as Hohenlimburg Castle near Hagen. Castle research today assumes that the current location of Limburg Castle was identical to the place where the castle was founded in the 13th century.

On July 13, 1242, Dietrich transferred the castle to his uncle and received it back from him as a Bergisches fief. The peace treaty between Count Dietrich and Count Adolf I von der Mark followed on May 1, 1243. Dietrich was temporarily also lord of the castle of the New Isenburg in Essen, built around 1241, which he had to do without in 1248.

In 1243, Count Dietrich was given high and Goger jurisdiction for part of the former father's property in the area of ​​the lower Lenne. The jurisdiction proved to be a decisive prerequisite for the development of the territory of the County of Limburg in the area between the Ruhr, Lenne and Volme, which was in the middle of the County of Mark and bordered the Duchy of Westphalia in the east.

In the Limburg succession dispute and the resulting Battle of Worringen in 1288, Dietrich was on the side of Archbishop of Cologne Siegfried von Westerburg. The victor of the battle, Duke Johann I von Brabant, stormed the Hohenlimburg in retrospect and forced Dietrich and his family to flee to Styrum, where he laid the foundation stone of Styrum Castle on the existing estate.

Count Dietrich founded the Count House Limburg, but still called himself Count von Isenberg until his death. At the beginning of the 14th century, the Count's House split into the main lines Limburg (older line) and Styrum. The Count House Broich split off from the Limburg line in the middle of the second half of the 14th century. While the House of Styrum still exists today, the Limburg and Broich lines died out in the 15th and 16th centuries.

Marriage and offspring Dietrich was married to Adelheid von Sayn († 1297), daughter of Count Johann I von Sponheim-Starkenburg and Sayn. Your children were:

Heinrich Johann (* before 1246, † before 1277) ∞ Agnes von Wildenberg Eberhard (* 1252; † June 17, 1304) ∞ around 1289 Agnes zu Limburg (* 1273 Limbourg; † 1297), daughter of Walram von Limburg Elisabeth (* before 1253; † 1311) ∞ Heinrich von Wildenburg Sophie (* before 1253) ∞ Bertold VI. von Büren (* before 1284, † after 1320) Adelheid (* before 1253, † after 1266) ∞ Albert II of Hoerde (* before 1226, † after 1266)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dietrich_I_of_Isenberg

With the death of Friedrich, the county of Hövel, whose last heir was Friedrich, also became extinct.

His son Count Dietrich von Isenberg and his relatives fought for part of his father's property in the Isenberg turmoil. Dietrich founded the Count House Limburg and the County of Limburg near Hohenlimburg.