Counts of Rapperswil
| Lordship (County) of Rapperswil | ||||||||||
| Herrschaft (Grafschaft) Rapperswil | ||||||||||
| State of the Holy Roman Empire | ||||||||||
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| Capital | Rapperswil | |||||||||
| Government | Principality | |||||||||
| Historical era | Middle Ages, Early Modern period | |||||||||
| • | Rapperswil founded | 1229 (official date) | ||||||||
| • | Lordship established | ca 1233 1220 | ||||||||
| • | Inherited by counts of Habsburg-Laufenburg |
1309–58 |
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| • | Purchased liberty from Austria |
1415–58 |
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| • | Allied with Habsburg and Zürich in the Old Zürich War |
1440–46 |
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Condominium of the Old Swiss Confederacy |
1458–1798 |
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Annexed to Helvetic canton of Linth |
1798 1464 |
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| • | Joined St Gallen | February 19, 1803 | ||||||||
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The House of Rapperswil respectively Counts of Rapperswil (Grafen von Rapperwil since 1233, before Lords) ruled the upper Zürichsee and Seedamm region around Rapperswil and parts of, as of today, Swiss cantons of St. Gallen, Glarus, Zürich and Graubünden when their influence was most extensive around the 1200s until the 1290s. They acted also as Vogt of the most influential Einsiedeln Abbey in the 12th and 13th century, and at least three abbots of Einsiedeln were members of Rapperswil family.
In 697 legends mentions a knight called Raprecht in connection with the later Grynau Castle. The former seat of the Vogt in Altendorf was first mentioned as "Rahprehteswilare" in a document of emperor Otto II, in which goods of the Einsiedeln abbey were confirmed on 14 August 972.
The fourth Abbot of Einsiedeln, Wirunt (996–1026), or Wirendus, Wirund, Wem, Wirand, Verendus, was according to 15th-century chronists a Graf von Wandelburg of the Rapperswil family. Wandelburg may be another name of the Grynau Castle at the Buechberg hill on Obersee lake shore. According to the abbey's archives there are no reliable sources about Wirunt's origin. Other unreliable sources mention that Rudolf I (1090–1101) the 9th abbot was a member of the Rapperswil family.Ulrich I von Rapperswil (1192–1206) became the 14th abbot of Einsiedeln.
In 1099 first mentioned, the donation of the St. Andreas Church was given by the House of Rapperswil as a spacious three-naved country church. The assumably legal connection with the church situated above the Uster Castle, due to the archaeological investigations of 1982 so far is not proven, but the pastoral rights were sold by Elisabeth von Rapperswil not earlier than 1300. Some fortifications, among them in Greifensee, Uster and Alt-Rapperswil were built probably in the early 12th century by members of the family. The Vogts of Rapperswil were persons of influence in the so-called Marchenstreit between the people of Schwyz and the Einsiedeln abbey beginning around 1100. Around 1180 the lords of Rapperswil inherit the parish rights of Weisslingen and free float in Russikon, Erisberg, Luckhausen, Moosburg and in Kempthal, as well as the castles Greifenberg and Bernegg, and the bailiwick of Kempten in the area around the Töss Valley respectively in Eastern Switzerland.
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