Sponheim

The Sponheims, or Spanheims, were a Rhenish Franconian noble house named after Sponheim Castle in the Hunsrück. Siegfried I inherited estates in Carinthia by marriage, and his grandson Henry became Duke of Carinthia in 1122; his line ruled until 1269.

The Rhenish branch kept the County of Sponheim. Before 1237 the sons of Count Gottfried III divided it: Johann I took the rear county around Starkenburg and acquired Sayn in 1247, while Simon I formed the front county on the Nahe, seated at the Kauzenburg above Kreuznach.

The Rhenish ruling male line died out in 1437. The margraves of Baden and the counts palatine of Simmern-Zweibrücken-Birkenfeld inherited the county as a condominium, which lasted until French revolutionary armies annexed the lands west of the Rhine.