Imperial County of Rantzau

Reichsgrafschaft Rantzau

State of the Holy Roman Empire (until 1806)

1650–1864

Capital

Rantzau

Government

Principality

History

•

Established

1650

•

Acquired by Denmark

9 April 1726

•

Mediatised to Prussia

1864

Preceded by

Succeeded by

Holstein-Gottorp

Kingdom of Prussia

The Imperial County of Rantzau (German: Reichsgrafschaft Rantzau) was an immediate state of the Holy Roman Empire. Its territory is more or less congruent with the present Amt Rantzau.

In 1649, Frederick III, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp, sold his part of the Lordship of Pinneberg, which had formerly belonged to the County of Schauenburg, to Christian Rantzau, royal Danish governor of Holstein. In 1650 or 1651, Rantzau became an immediate county and state of the Holy Roman Empire. In 1726, it was annexed by the Danish rulers, after Wilhelm Adolf, Count of Rantzau, had murdered his brothers and was imprisoned. Wilhelm Adolf died in 1734 and Rantzau was inherited by the Dukedom of Holstein, which was reigned by the Danish kings and its secundogeniturs.

Origin in the House of Holstein

Holstein

Holstein-Kiel
(1261–1390)

Holstein-Itzehoe
(1261–1300)

Holstein-Segeberg
(1273-1308)

Holstein-Plön
(1300–1390)

Holstein-Rendsburg
(1300–1459)

Holstein-Pinneberg
(1300–1640)

Duchy of
Holstein
(from 1474)

Imperial County of Rantzau
(1650–1726)

References

Köbler, G. (2007). Historisches Lexikon der deutschen Länder (7th ed.). p. 549. ISBN 978-3-406-54986-1.

External links

Map of the County of Rantzau in 1730

Lower Saxon Circle (1500–1806) of the Holy Roman Empire

Ecclesiastical	Bremen¹ Halberstadt¹ Hildesheim Lübeck Magdeburg¹ Ratzeburg² Schwerin¹

Secular	Bremen³ Brunswick and Lunenburg Blankenburg⁴ Calenberg⁵ Celle⁵ Grubenhagen⁶ Hanover⁷ Wolfenbüttel Holstein Glückstadt Gottorp⁸ Pinneberg⁹ Mecklenburg Güstrow¹⁰ Schwerin Strelitz¹¹ Rantzau¹² Regenstein Saxe-Lauenburg⁵

Cities	Bremen Goslar Hamburg Lübeck Mühlhausen Nordhausen

¹ until 1648. ² until 1701. ³ from 1648. ⁴ until 1731. ⁵ until 1705. ⁶ until 1596. ⁷ from 1708. ⁸ until 1773. ⁹ until 1640. ¹⁰ until 1695. ¹¹ from 1701. ¹² until 1734. Circles est. 1500: Bavarian, Swabian, Upper Rhenish, Lower Rhenish–Westphalian, Franconian, (Lower) Saxon Circles est. 1512: Austrian, Burgundian, Upper Saxon, Electoral Rhenish · Unencircled territories

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