Riedesel

The Riedesels were a Hessian knightly family and vassals of the landgraves of Hesse. In 1337 they had not yet acquired the later lordship around Lauterbach.

After the lords of Eisenbach died out in 1428, Hermann II took their offices and his son married their last lord's daughter, securing castles at Eisenbach and Lauterbach. Hermann IV introduced the Reformation in 1527. Fulda seized Lauterbach in 1548, but the family retook it in 1552; a 1684 treaty recognised them as independent lords of Lauterbach. The Grand Duchy of Hesse absorbed the lordship in 1806.