Wassenberg

The House of Wassenberg was a Lower Rhineland dynasty seated at Wassenberg and first documented in the eleventh century. Its earliest known ancestors were the brothers Gerard and Rutger, from whom the counts of Guelders and Cleves respectively descended. In 1096 Gerard IV became Count of Guelders, and his successor married the heiress of Zutphen.

Guelders expanded along the Meuse, Rhine and IJssel until defeat at Worringen in 1288 checked its ambitions. In 1339 Reginald II became Duke of Guelders, but his sons Reginald III and Edward fought, Edward imprisoning his brother; both died without male heirs.

In 1371 Edward's daughters and their husbands contended for the duchy, which passed through Maria of Guelders to the House of Jülich. The Cleves branch ended with Count John in 1368, when Cleves fell to the House of the Marck.