Moers

Mörs, also known as Moers, lies west of the Rhine near Duisburg. Its county, recorded from 1186, was an independent territory of the Holy Roman Empire. During the Eighty Years' War its position beside Spanish Guelders exposed it to repeated changes of hands between Spanish and Dutch forces. Maurice of Orange ultimately secured it, and Dutch troops remained stationed there. After William III's death in 1702, the king of Prussia inherited Moers. France annexed it in 1795, and the Congress of Vienna returned it to Prussia in 1815.