Diepholz

The lords of Diepholz were a noble house of the Middle Weser, seated at a castle east of the Dümmer lake. Cono and William of Diepholz appear in Osnabrück charters in 1160, and Gottschalk of Diepholz is said to have followed Henry the Lion into English exile after 1182.

Back in Saxony the family enlarged its lands during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, until the marshes, the Bishopric of Minden and the County of Hoya checked further growth. In 1337 the lords Conrad and Rudolf still held the small territory around their castle.

The territory became an imperial fief in 1512 and adopted the Reformation in 1528; the family took the title of count in 1530. The last count, Frederick II, died in 1585, and Diepholz fell to the Dukes of Brunswick-Lüneburg, apart from the Auburg district taken by Hesse.