Werdenberg

The counts of Werdenberg were a Swabian noble house sprung from the counts of Montfort and the counts palatine of Tübingen. Hugo II of Tübingen had married the heiress of the last count of Bregenz and brought the family lands along the Alpine Rhine. In 1230 the Montfort inheritance was partitioned and the Werdenberg line took its name from Werdenberg castle above the Rhine.

Rudolf I's sons split the territory again, founding Werdenberg-Heiligenberg and Werdenberg-Sargans in 1260; a further division followed in 1308. The Vaduz line expired in 1406 and Vaduz passed to the barons of Brandis.

The Werdenberg feud with the von Zimmern family and other neighbours escalated in 1488, helping push Emperor Frederick III and Maximilian I toward the Swabian League and the Imperial Reforms. The last influential branch, Werdenberg-Heiligenberg-Sigmaringen-Trochtelfingen, died out in 1534.