Schwerin

The counts of Schwerin originated in the Saxon conquest of Wendish lands beyond the Elbe. After Henry the Lion defeated the Obotrite prince Niklot and took Schwerin in 1160, he enfeoffed Gunzelin von Hagen, first documented as count in 1161. Wittenburg and Boizenburg were added as Danish fiefs in 1203, but King Valdemar II of Denmark expelled the counts in 1208 and ruled until they did homage in 1214.

In 1223 Count Henry the Black abducted Valdemar and his son from Lyoe. He defeated the Danish army at Moelln in 1225 and recovered the county by the Treaty of Bardowick; after Bornhoeved in 1227 it became a Saxon fief again.

A younger son, Nicholas, inherited Tecklenburg in 1328. The elder line died out in 1344 and the Wittenburg branch lost its male heirs in 1357; the county was sold to Mecklenburg, formalized by the Treaty of Plueschow in 1368.