Tübingen

The counts palatine of Tübingen began as counts of Nagold in Swabia, first documented in the tenth century. They held Hohentübingen castle by at least 1078, when King Henry IV besieged it during the Investiture Controversy.

Hugo V won the title of count palatine in 1146 for service to Conrad III, becoming the emperor's chief representative in Swabia, with rights of justice, tolls and minting. His son Hugo II married the heiress of Bregenz, while a younger son, Hugo of Montfort, founded the Montfort dynasty, from which the counts of Werdenberg branched off. Debts to Bebenhausen abbey eroded the family's power, and in 1342 Gottfried III was forced to sell Tübingen to Count Ulrich III of Württemberg for twenty thousand gold hellers.

The cadet lines expired one by one: Tübingen-Lichteneck in 1664 and Herrenberg in 1677. The Montfort line lasted until 1787.