Hohenzollern

The Hohenzollern of the Swabian line were Swabian counts named for their castle of Zollern. Their first documented ancestor, Burkhard I, was killed in a feud in 1061; his likely grandson Frederick I appears early in the twelfth century as a powerful Swabian count.

When the lands were divided at the end of that century, the younger line took the Burgraviate of Nuremberg and grew into the Franconian branch, while the elder kept Zollern as the Catholic Swabian branch. A son of Frederick I secured the County of Hohenberg, which the family held until 1486. In 1337 the Swabian branch still ruled its small county from the Zollern hills; Frederick IX, who died in 1379, was the first to call himself Count of Hohenzollern.

Repeated partitions narrowed the line's means, and in 1576 its lands split into Hohenzollern-Hechingen, Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen and a Haigerloch line. The counts were raised to princely rank in 1623, and Haigerloch was absorbed by Sigmaringen in 1767.