Katzenelnbogen

Katzenelnbogen was an immediate county of the Holy Roman Empire, around Katzenelnbogen Castle and Darmstadt. In 1337 its territories were divided between two comital lines.

The counts completed Burg Katz on the Rhine in 1371. Johann IV reunited the county in 1402 and planted Riesling at Rüsselsheim in 1435, its first recorded mention. When Philipp died without male heirs in 1479, his daughter Anna’s inheritance passed to Hesse, prompting war with Nassau-Siegen from 1500 to 1557. France annexed the county in 1806; the Congress of Vienna assigned it to Nassau in 1815.