House of La Marck

The House of La Marck, (Maison de La Marck), original German name von der Mar(c)k, was an important family in the history of Europe, which from about 1200 appeared as the Counts of Mark.

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 (d. 1198) 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 reigned 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. Anne of Cleves is one of the most renowned figures in history descending from the main line of the House of La Mark.

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