Crailsheim

Crailsheim grew near a crossing of the River Jagst in Franconian country. First recorded in 1136, it passed from the counts of Oettingen to the lords of Hohenlohe in 1314. A market and toll station are recorded in the following decades, and in 1338 Crailsheim received town rights and the authority to exercise high justice. Its walls were begun in 1350.

In 1379 the imperial cities of Schwäbisch Hall, Rothenburg and Dinkelsbühl laid siege to Hohenlohe's town. They withdrew without taking it in February 1380. The landgraves of Leuchtenberg later acquired Crailsheim and sold it in 1399 to the burgraves of Nuremberg, whose descendants ruled as margraves of Brandenburg-Ansbach. The Reformation was introduced early in the principality. With Ansbach the town passed to Prussia in 1791–92, then to Bavaria in 1806 and Württemberg in 1810.