Rieneck

The Franconian counts of Rieneck descended from the counts of Loon. Ludwig I styled himself count of Rieneck in 1156; the family built Burg Rieneck around 1170. Marriages around 1200 and in 1243 nearly doubled the county, but Mainz defeated them in the western Spessart by 1271.

Lohr am Main became the county's chief town in 1295 and gained town rights in 1333. That year Count Ludwig V died after naming his daughter Udelhilt his heiress against a treaty with Hanau; the dispute drew in Mainz and Würzburg and cost the county much land.

A later partition divided the county into northern and southern halves; the southern half was lost in 1502. The Reformation reached Rieneck in 1544; Count Philip III's death in 1559 ended the male line, with the fiefs reverting to Mainz and Würzburg and Hanau inheriting the name and arms.