 |
|||||||
|
|
||||||||||
|
||||||||||
| The old duchy of Arenberg The old Duchy of Arenberg, situated in the Eifel and subject to the immediate authority of the emperor, lasted from the High Middle Ages to the peace of Lunéville in 1801. Its disappearance was the result of the annexation by France of the whole of the west bank of the Rhine. The duke of Arenberg had a number of votes in the Diet of the Holy Roman Empire. In his quality of duke directly subject to the emperor, he had one voice in the chamber of princes. Through his possession of Schleiden and of Saffenburg, he also had two votes in the single collegiate vote of the chamber of the counts of Westphalia. The duchy of Arenberg was small by comparison with the enormous feudal possessions, seigneuries, baronies, counties, principalities and duchies that the family was to acquire later within the Low Countries. Historical research, for example historico-geographical mapping carried out by the University of Namur to determine the influence of the great families between the Meuse and the Moselle prior to 1518, has given us a visual demonstration of this. In spite of the sale by Charles d'Arenberg and Anne de Croy of most of the lands in the northern part of the Low Countries during the period 1610-1617, the extension of the feudal domains of the Arenbergs nevertheless continued over the years in the catholic areas of the Low Countries and in northern France. One may well wonder whether the dukes would not have done better to concentrate on the expansion of their own sovereign powers instead of devoting their energies to the faithful service of the emperor and the church.  Political map of the Rhineland before 1789  The Rhineland in the ninetieth and twentieth centuries  The mount Arenberg, third highest peak in the Eifel mountains (623 m)  Arenberg territories within the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation toward the end of the Ancien Régime (Schleiden, Kommern, Saffenburg, Herzogtum Arenberg, Kerpen, Kasselburg, Fleringen, Gillenfeld)  The sovereign duchy of Arenberg  The seigneury of Schleiden  The seigneury of Saffenburg  The seigneury of Gillenfeld  The seigneury of Fleringen  The seigneury of Kerpen  The seigneury of Kommern  The seigneury of Kasselburg |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |