von Geroldseck

The von Geroldseck were a Swabian noble house of the Ortenau, documented in the 1080s and settled in the Black Forest from 1139. Their wealth came from silver mining; they founded monasteries and served as protectors of the Bishop of Strasbourg.

Walter built the family castle between 1240 and 1250 and became Bishop of Strasbourg in 1260, but was defeated at Hausbergen in 1262, after which the city became a free imperial city. In 1270 his brother Heinrich married Agnes, heiress of Veldenz, founding its second comital dynasty. The house split into Upper and Lower lines in 1277 and again in the early 1300s, when the Veldenz branch became independent.

The Lower Line died out in 1426. The Palatinate stormed Castle Geroldseck in 1486; the last baron Jacob died in 1634, leaving an heiress whose claims were overtaken when the Kronberg family took the lordship in 1635.