Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt
Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt Landgrafschaft Hessen-Darmstadt | |||||||||
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| 1567–1806 | |||||||||
 Flag
 Coat of arms (1736)
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| Status | State of the Holy Roman Empire | ||||||||
| Capital | Darmstadt | ||||||||
| Common languages | German | ||||||||
| Religion | Lutheran | ||||||||
| Government | Monarchy | ||||||||
| Landgrave | |||||||||
• 1567 - 1596 | George I | ||||||||
• 1790 - 1806 | Louis X | ||||||||
| History | |||||||||
• Established | 1567 | ||||||||
| 1806 | |||||||||
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The Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt (German: Landgrafschaft Hessen-Darmstadt) was a member state of the Holy Roman Empire. It was formed in 1567 following the division of the Landgraviate of Hesse between the four sons of Philip I, the last Landgrave of Hesse.
The capital of this new state was Darmstadt, hence the name. As a result of the Napoleonic wars, the landgraviate was elevated to grand duchy following the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806.
History
The Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt came into existence in 1567, as the portion of George, youngest of the four sons of Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse.
The Hesse-Marburg line was extinct by 1604 and the succession dispute to these lands along with the sectarian differences between Calvinist Hesse-Kassel and Lutheran Hesse-Darmstadt, led to a bitter, decades-long rivalry. Because the University of Marburg had become Calvinist, Hesse-Darmstadt founded the University of Giessen as a Lutheran University in 1607. The conflict was continued in the broader contest of the Thirty Years' War in which Hesse-Kassel sided with the Protestant cause and Hesse-Darmstadt sided with the Emperor.
Hesse-Darmstadt gained a great deal of territory by the secularizations and mediatizations authorized by the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss of 1803. Most notable was the acquisition of the duchy of Westphalia, formerly owned by the Archbishop of Cologne, as well as territories from the Archbishop of Mainz and the Bishop of Worms.
In 1806, upon the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire and the dispossession of his cousin, the Elector of Hesse-Kassel, the Landgrave took the title of Grand Duke of Hesse.
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1 Part of the Three Bishoprics. 2 Nomeny after 1737. 3 without Reichstag seat. 4 until 1736. 5 Joined Swiss Confederacy in 1515. Circles est. 1500: Bavarian, Swabian, Upper Rhenish, Lower Rhenish–Westphalian, Franconian, (Lower) Saxon Circles est. 1512: Austrian, Burgundian, Upper Saxon, Electoral Rhenish · Unencircled territories | |||||
