Tecklenburg

Tecklenburg was a Westphalian county of the Holy Roman Empire, seated at Tecklenburg castle. In 1337 Count Nicholas of the Schwerin dynasty ruled it.

The counts took Rheda in 1365 but lost Cloppenburg and Friesoythe to Münster in 1400. Count Conrad joined the Schmalkaldic League and, after its defeat, Charles V forced him to cede lands that became the County of Lingen. Bentheim-Tecklenburg inherited Tecklenburg in 1557 and introduced Calvinism in 1588. Prussia bought it in 1707; the purchase was confirmed in 1730, and the county returned to Prussia in 1816 after Napoleonic rule.