Waldeck

The counts of Waldeck sprang from the counts of Schwalenberg. In 1180 Volkwin II of Schwalenberg gained Waldeck Castle in northern Hesse by marrying Luitgard, the Waldeck heiress; his branch took the castle's name and assembled a small lordship around it.

Originally a fief of the archbishopric of Mainz, the county won imperial immediacy in 1349. After Count Henry VI died in 1397 the family split into the Landau and Waldeck lines, which came under Hessian overlordship in 1431 and 1438. A further partition in 1486 produced the Waldeck-Wildungen and Waldeck-Eisenberg branches, whose counts adopted Lutheranism in 1526 and 1529.

The inheritance of Pyrmont in 1626 gave the family its double name. The residence moved to Arolsen in 1655, the lines were reunited in 1692, and princely rank followed in 1712.