House of Solms
The House of Solms is a historic German noble family of the Hochadel, whose members have historically held the ranks of Imperial Count and Imperial Prince. Since circa. 1100, the seat of the Edelherren of Solms was Solms Castle in the district of today's city Solms. The current House of Solms most likely descend, via the Counts of Luxembourg, from the powerful House of Ardenne and are thus among the oldest European noble families.
In the High and Late Middle Ages the house managed with difficulty to maintain their regional position against their powerful neighbours Nassau and Hesse. They later inherited extensive areas in the Wetterau. Despite fragmentation, they emerged from the territorial conflicts as a family of supra-regional importance. In 1806, the House of Solms was mediatised. Until the legal abolition of the nobility's prerogatives in 1919, its members were counted among the mediatised houses and were considered "equals" for dyanstic purposes to other reigning houses of Europe.
History
The existing certificates and documents do not allow a clear determination of the origins of the Solms family, meaning there are various theories about the origin of the family. This was sought for a long time at the Counts of Nassau, but this is questionable. Current research most closely follows the assumption of the historian Friedrich Uhlhorn, according to which the County of Solms emerged from the old in terms of territorial history.The oldest property of the nobles of Solms was in the north in the Königsberg/Hohensolms/Frankenbach area and in the south on the Solmsbach near Burgsolms.
Originally appointed as bailiffs of the Prince-Bishopric of Worms in the Solms and Iserbach valleys, they succeeded in appropriating this area. In 1129, Edelherr Marquardus de Sulmese was named for the first time as a witness in the foundation deed of the, making him the first documented member of the House of Solms. His daughter and heir married Count Otto, co-heir of the, who then took her name and is to be regarded as the progenitor of the House of Solms. In this way, the House of Solms acquired the rights of counts and, together with the and the Counts Palatine of Tübingen, inherited the inheritance of the Counts of Luxembourg-Gleiberg in the middle Lahn Valley. In 1212, an unspecified Count Heinrich also appears in the documents. Since the document refers to goods in Oberweidbach, in Erdagau, which was dominated by the House of Solms, he can also be assigned to the family. However, it is not known what relationship he had to Otto. Furthermore, Counts Heinrich and Marquard of Solms, brothers, are mentioned in 1226. They are considered Otto's grandchildren.
Around 1250 the county was divided into the territories Solms-Burgsolms, Solms-Königsberg and Solms-Braunfels. During the High Middle Ages, an important goal of the Solms people was to gain control over the Cologne High Military and Escort Road. The road led from Frankfurt via Wetzlar to Cologne, and ran through the Solms area. Other goals were control over Altenberg Abbey near Wetzlar as well as over the imperial city of Wetzlar itself, which involved them in feuds with neighboring dynasts, especially in the 14th century.
Early lines
Burgsolms
Around the year 1100, the nobles of Solms established their seat in. The Solms family, who bore the title of count since 1223, expanded a fortified farmstead inhabited by a family member, into a water castle. In 1376, Count Johann IV of Solms-Burgsolms took advantage of the unrest within Wetzlar to take control of the city. Emperor Charles IV had commissioned him to reinstate the old council, but the count instead took control of the city himself. It was not until 1379 that the people of Wetzlar were able to expel Johann again. In 1384, after another feud with the free imperial city Wetzlar, the strongly fortified castle was besieged by the First Rhenish League at their instigation. Johann fled to the neighbouring Greifenstein Castle. Solms' ancestral castle was destroyed by the city association and not rebuilt. When the Solms-Burgsolm line died out in 1415 with Johann, their entire property fell to only remaining line, located in Braunfels Castle.Königsberg-Hohensolms
was possibly built by Count Marquard of Solms. However, the structure is possibly older. A separate line of the family formed there, probably due to the distance to the southern possessions around Burgsolms, because Marquard's son, Count Rembold of Solms, called himself Count of Cunigesberg in 1257. In contrast to the rest of the family, the House of Solms-Königsberg maintained close relationships with the Landgraves of Hesse, which meant that the relationship with the branches in Braunfels and Burgsolms was strained. Around 1321, was built as a counterpart in the immediate vicinity of Königsberg. In 1331, Count Philipp of Solms-Königsberg opened his castles of Alt-Hohensolms and Königsberg to the Mainz abbey archbishop Baldwin of Trier. In 1349, Alt-Hohensolms was destroyed by an alliance around the imperial city Wetzlar. As a replacement, was built two kilometers north in 1350. Contrary to the intra-family agreements, which provided for the preservation of property within the entire house, Count Philipp, the last count from the Solms-Königsberg line, sold his property to Henry II, Landgrave of Hesse. Königsberg Castle became the seat of a Hessian office after Philip's death in 1364.An illegitimate line of Solms-Königsberg went to Rhenish Hesse during the Reformation period. Illegitimate, or morganatic, descendants of Marquard IV of Solms-Königsberg founded the family "von Solms" belonging to the Niederer Adel at the beginning of the 14th century. They served the Counts of Solms and the House of Nassau as ministeriales or vassals. Between 1551 and 1575, a Peter von Solms from this family, fled with his three sons Bartholomäus, Nikolaus and Peter to the Catholic Rhine-Hesse region Ober-Olm during the Reformation.
In the conflicts with Wetzlar, Neu-Hohensolms was also partially destroyed in 1356 and 1363. With the death of Count Johann IV of Solms–Burgsolms, this line also became extinct. Hohensolms then passed to the Braunfels line and in 1420 to its Lich branch, which used and occupied the castle as a residence, home for second-born princes, and widow's residence until the 20th century.
Braunfels
was first mentioned in a document in 1246. Originally a defensive castle against the Counts of Nassau, from 1280 it became the residence of the Counts of Solms. After the aristocratic property was divided between the three lines and the ancestral castle of Solms was destroyed by the Rhenish League of Cities, Braunfels Castle became the new ancestral home of the Counts of Solms-Braunfels in 1384, who were the only one of the three lines to survive and became heir to the entire property in 1415.Through the marriage of Heinrich von Solms-Braunfels with Sophia von, daughter of, a branch of Solms- split off in 1324, but in 1408 that branch lost its castle to the Prince-Bishopric of Münster, and in 1424 in the male line became extinct.
When the Counts of Falkenstein died out in 1418, Counts Bernhard and Johann of Solms-Braunfels received a considerable increase in territory in the Wetterau from their inheritance, including the lordships of Münzenberg Castle,, and Schloss Laubach. They joined the Wetterau Association of Imperial Counts, founded in 1422, which received Imperial Estate status and a curial vote in the college of Imperial Princes at the Diet of Worms, and sent a permanent representative to the Imperial Diet from 1512 onwards. The House of Solms thus achieved imperial immediacy. Lich was expanded into a fortress town with roundels before 1540.
Shortly after this inheritance, the county was divided again, this time into the Solms-Braunfels lines and Solms-Lich. From now on these formed the two main lines, which later divided several times.
On 4 April 1571, the Solms Landrecht was introduced, by Counts Philipp von Solms-Braunfels, Eberhard and Ernst I zu Solms-Lich, as universally valid law. It subsequently gained importance far beyond the county. Jus commune only applied if the regulations of the Solms Landrecht did not contain any provisions for a particular situation. The Solms Landrecht also retained its validity throughout the 19th century, even after parts of the Solms counties were added to the Grand Duchy of Hesse in the mediatisation.
The Solms Landrecht was replaced on 1 January 1900 by the Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch, which was uniformly applicable throughout the entire German Reich.
Younger lines
Solms-Braunfels further divided into branches in 1607 :- Solms-Braunfels,
- Solms-Greifenstein,
- Solms-Hungen
- Solms-Lich
- Solms-Hohensolms,
- Solms-Laubach
- * Solms-Sonnewalde
- *
- * Solms-Laubach
- *
- ** Solms-Sonnewalde
- ** Solms-Sonnewalde-Pouch
- ** Solms-Sonnewalde-Rösa
- * Solms-Baruth
- ** Solms-Rödelheim
- ** Solms-Laubach
- ** Solms-Wildenfels
- ** Solms-Utphe
- ** Solms-Baruth I
- ** Solms-Baruth II
Braunfels Line
As a result of a ruling by the Reichskammergericht, the Westphalian County of Tecklenburg fell to the House of Solms-Braunfels in 1696. Count Wilhelm Moritz von Solms-Braunfels sold Tecklenburg to Prussia in 1707.
Shares in the Butzbach estate had already been acquired by Solms-Braunfels in the 15th century, and Solms-Lich acquired further shares in 1479; The shares were held until they were sold to Hesse-Darmstadt in 1741; the administrative headquarters was the in Butzbach.
The Solms-Braunfels line divided into an older branch, based at Braunfels Castle, Altenburg Abbey and also at . With the death of the last male descendant of this branch, Georg Friedrich Fürst zu Solms-Braunfels, the Braunfels property passed to his son-in-law Hans Georg Graf von Oppersdorff-Solms-Braunfels. Subsequently, the property passed to the son of Graf von Oppersdorff-Solms-Braunfels, Johannes, who adopted the name Grafen von Oppersdorff-Solms-Braunfels.
The founder of the younger, Catholic branch was Prince Wilhelm Heinrich in Austria-Hungary. Two thirds of his large land holdings in Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia, Galicia and Lodomeria were lost after 1918 and the remaining were lost in 1945. The younger Solms-Braunfels branch became extinct in the male line in 1989.