Falkenstein

The Falkensteins were an imperial ministerial dynasty named after Falkenstein Castle in the Palatinate, first recorded with Sigbold in 1135. When the first line died out its lands passed by marriage to the lords of Bolanden. Early in the thirteenth century Philipp IV of Bolanden founded the Bolanden-Falkenstein branch, taking the name Philipp I.

In 1255 he married Isengard, heiress of Hagen-Munzenberg, and in 1258 inherited their estates, shifting the family's centre to the Taunus. They built Neufalkenstein Castle there and held Offenbach, pledged to Frankfurt in 1372. A younger line received the comital title in 1398; Werner III was archbishop of Trier from 1388 to 1418.

The Hessian Falkensteins died out in the male line in 1418, and their Palatinate and Rhenish Hesse lands passed to the counts of Virneburg. The lordship was sold to the Daun-Oberstein family in 1456 and raised to a county in 1518.