Hanau

The lords and counts of Hanau were a Wetterau noble house whose lordship was enlarged in 1255 by part of the Hagen-Munzenberg inheritance. Under Ulrich I, ruling from 1281 to about 1306, the family gained a sixth share through his mother, including Babenhausen, and widened its lands in the upper Kinzig valley.

In 1429 Emperor Sigismund raised the lordship to the County of Hanau. Partition in 1458 created the Munzenberg and Babenhausen lines; the latter inherited Lichtenberg in 1473, forming Hanau-Munzenberg and Hanau-Lichtenberg. In 1612 Munzenberg passed to the Lichtenberg line.

After the Thirty Years' War Count Friedrich Casimir founded Germany's first faience factory but nearly bankrupted the county by leasing Guiana in the failed Hanau Indies venture; he was placed under guardianship in 1670. The house died out in 1736; Hanau-Munzenberg passed to Hesse-Kassel and Hanau-Lichtenberg to Hesse-Darmstadt.