Landgrave of Hesse

Landgraviate of Hesse
Landgrafschaft Hessen
State of the Holy Roman Empire
1264–1567
Coat of arms
Landgraviate of Hesse (blue), about 1400
Capital		Marburg, Gudensberg, Kassel (from 1277)
Government		Feudal monarchy
Landgrave
•	1264–1308	Henry I the Child
•	1509–1567	Philip I the Magnanimous
Historical era		Middle Ages, Reformation
•	Partitioned from     Landgraviate of Thuringia	1264
•	Raised to     Principality	1292
•	Partitioned in twain	1458–1500
•	Partitioned in four	1567
Preceded by Succeeded by Landgraviate of Thuringia Landgraviate of Hesse-Kassel Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt Hesse-Marburg Hesse-Rheinfels

Coat of arms

The Landgraviate of Hesse (German: Landgrafschaft Hessen) was a Principality of the Holy Roman Empire. It existed as a single entity from 1264 to 1567, when it was divided between the sons of the late Landgrave Philip I.

In the early Middle Ages the Hessengau territory (named after the Germanic Chatti tribes) formed the northern parts of the German stem duchy of Franconia along with the adjacent Lahngau. Upon the extinction of the ducal Conradines, these Rhenish Franconian counties were gradually acquired by Landgrave Louis I of Thuringia and his successors.

After the War of the Thuringian Succession upon the death of Landgrave Henry Raspe in 1247, his niece Duchess Sophia of Brabant secured the Hessian possessions for her minor son Henry the Child, who would become the first Landgrave of Hesse and founder of the House of Hesse in 1246. The remaining Thuringian landgraviate fell to the Wettin margrave Henry III of Meissen. Henry I of Hesse was raised to princely status by King Adolf of Germany in 1292.