Moers

The lords of Moers, first documented as Elger and Theodoric de Murse in 1186, began as vassals of the Archbishops of Cologne on the Lower Rhine. Theodoric I, attested from 1226, is the first known ruling count of the small county around Moers Castle.

Theodoric II fought on the Cologne side at Worringen in 1288, and in 1361 the family secured a declaration from Cleves that Moers was not a Cleves fief. The house reached its highest standing through the church: a younger son, Theodoric of Moers, was Archbishop of Cologne from 1414 to 1463.

The comital line died out in 1578. The county was disputed between Orange-Nassau and Cleves, occupied by Maurice of Orange in 1601, and passed to Brandenburg-Prussia in 1702, which raised it to a principality in 1705.