Lippe

The House of Lippe took its name from the Lippe river in Westphalia, where Bernard I appears in a charter of 1123. In 1173 the Bishop of Paderborn enfeoffed the family with lands around Lemgo and Detmold. Bernard II founded Lippstadt, Westphalia's first high-medieval planned town, in 1185 and acquired Rheda in 1190.

The lordship reached its greatest extent under Simon I (1275-1344), who bought into Schwalenberg and pushed the frontier to the Weser. After his death the lands were partitioned; the feud over Rheda ended with its transfer to Tecklenburg and Lippstadt becoming a condominium with Mark.

Simon V became imperial count in 1528 and introduced the Reformation. In 1613 the house split into Detmold, Brake and Alverdissen lines; the last produced Schaumburg-Lippe in 1643, while Detmold became princes of the Empire in 1789.