House of La Marck


La Marck was a noble family, which from about 1200 appeared as the counts of Mark.

History

The family history started with Count Adolf I, scion of a cadet branch of the Rhenish Berg dynasty residing at Altena Castle in Westphalia. In the early 13th century Adolf took his residence at his family's estates around Mark, a settlement in present-day Hamm-Uentrop. Adolf had inherited the Mark fortress from his father Count Frederick I of Berg-Altena together with the older county around Altena and began to call himself count de La Mark.

Originally liensmen of the archbishops of Cologne in the Duchy of Westphalia, the family ruled the County of Mark, an immediate state of the Holy Roman Empire, and, at the height of their powers, the four duchies of Julich, Cleves, Berg and Guelders as well as the County of Ravensberg. Members of the family became bishops in the Prince-Bishoprics of Liège, Münster and Osnabrück, and Archbishops in Cologne. Later collateral lines became dukes of Bouillon, a title which was later inherited by the House of La Tour d'Auvergne, princes of Sedan, dukes of Nevers, counts of Rethel and so forth.

Notable members

In 1591 the heiress of one of the collateral lines of the family, Charlotte de la Marck, was married to Henri de La Tour d'Auvergne, Marshal of France. In 1594 Charlotte died without issue, and her claims to Bouillon passed to her husband.

Counts of Mark

  1. Adolf I, first documented as comes de Marca in 1202
  2. # Engelbert I
  3. ## Eberhard
  4. ### Engelbert II
  5. #### Adolf II, married Margaret of Cleves in 1332
  6. ##### Engelbert III
  7. ##### Adolf III, Count of Cleves from 1368 → see below
  8. #### Engelbert, Prince-Bishop of Liège 1345–1364, Archbishop of Cologne 1364–68
  9. #### Eberhard I, Count of Arenberg → see below
  10. ### Adolf, Prince-Bishop of Liège 1313–1344

    Dukes of Cleves—La Mark

  11. Adolf III, second son of Adolf II with Margaret of Cleves, Prince-bishop of Münster 1357–1363 and Archbishop of Cologne in 1363, inherited the County of Cleves upon the death of his maternal uncle Count Johann in 1368 and became Count of Mark upon the death of his elder brother Engelbert III in 1391
  12. #Adolph I, Duke of Cleves from 1417
  13. ##Margaret of Cleves, Duchess of Bavaria-Munich
  14. ##Catherine of Cleves, Duchess of Guelders
  15. ##John I
  16. ###John II
  17. ####John III, married Maria of Jülich-Berg in 1509, inherited the duchies of Jülich and Berg and the County of Ravensberg upon the death of his father-in-law Duke William IV of Jülich-Berg, ruled the United Duchies of Jülich-Cleves-Berg upon the death of his father in 1521
  18. #####Sybille, married to Elector John Frederick of Saxony
  19. #####Anne, married to King Henry VIII of England
  20. #####William the Rich, married Maria of Habsburg, Archduchess of Austria and daughter of Emperor Ferdinand I, claimed the Duchy of Guelders upon the death of Duke Charles in 1538
  21. ######Marie Eleonore, married to Albert Frederick, Duke of Prussia
  22. ######John Frederick
  23. ######John William, extinction of the line, followed by the War of the Jülich succession
  24. #####Amalia
  25. ###Engelbert, Count of Nevers
  26. ##Elisabeth, Countess of Schwarzburg
  27. ##Agnes, Queen of Navarre
  28. ##Adolph of Cleves, Lord of Ravenstein
  29. ##Mary, Duchess of Orléans
  30. # Dietrich II

    Counts of Marck—Arenberg

  31. Eberhard I Lord of Arenberg
  32. # Erard II von der Mark, Lord of Sedan & Arenberg
  33. ## Johann II von der Mark, Lord of Sedan & Arenberg
  34. ### Erard III von der Mark, Lord of Arenberg whose issue will die into the house of Ligne, by the marriage of Marguerite de la Marck-Arenberg with Jean de Ligne
  35. ### Robert I de la Marck, Lord of Sedan, chatellain de Bouillon
  36. #### Robert II de la Marck, Lord of Sedan, Duke of Bouillon
  37. ##### Robert III de la Marck, Lord of Sedan, Duke of Bouillon
  38. ###### Robert IV de la Marck, Duke of Bouillon, Earl of Braine & Maulevrier, Lord of Sedan.
  39. ####### Henri Robert de la Marck, Duke of Bouillon, sovereign Prince de Sedan,
  40. ######## Guillaume Robert de la Marck, Pr of Sedan, Duke de Bouillon, Marquess of Cotron
  41. ######### Charlotte de la Marck, Dss of Bouillon, Pss de Sedan oo Henri de La Tour D'Auvergne
  42. #### Erard de la Marck, Prince-bishop of Liège 1506–1538
  43. ### William von der Marck Le Sanglier des Ardennes
  44. #### Johann I von der Marck, Baron of Lummen
  45. ##### Johann II von der Marck, Baron of Lummen
  46. ###### William II de la Marck, Baron of Lummen, admiral of the Gueux de mer