Riedesel

The Riedesel were a Hessian knightly family, documented from the early thirteenth century and serving the landgraves of Hesse. Lacking hereditary lands, they lived from fiefs and offices, and adopted Lutheranism after their overlords.

Hermann II Riedesel of the Melsungen line, adviser to Landgrave Louis, lived from 1407 to 1463. He acquired Eisenbach Castle and the hereditary office of Erbmarschall of Hesse, giving the house a landed base as the Riedesel zu Eisenbach. Most lines died out in the male line or sank into the peasantry by the early seventeenth century.

In 1680 the emperor raised five male members of the house to barons. General Frederick Adolph Riedesel, who lived from 1738 to 1800, led a Brunswick regiment in British service during the American Revolutionary War. The family lost its feudal rents and jurisdiction in the Napoleonic upheaval.