Raugraves

The Raugraves were a German noble family, which had its center of influence in the former Nahegau. They descended from the Emichones (Counts of Nahegau).

The family of the Raugraves were descended from a division of the Wildgraves around 1148 (heirs of the Emichones). The first Raugrave was Emich I (ca. 1128-1172), second son of the Wildgrave Emich VI and brother of Wildgrave Konrad. Perhaps on account of the rough and mountainous quality of his lordships Emich named himself Raugrave (German: Raugraf; Latin: comes hirsutus; the precise meaning is unknown). The second line originated from a first heritage division of the county in Nahegau in 1113 was that of the Counts of Veldenz. The family seat (Stammburg) of the Raugraves was the Baumburg near the present-day village of Altenbamberg south of Bad Münster am Stein, which was built before 1146.

The sons of Raugrave Emich II divided his possessions, thus establishing the Stolzenberger and Baumburger lines. In 1253 the New Baumburg (Neubamberg) rose as the seat of a further line and the Stolzenberg line had died out by 1358. In the same year disagreements in arms took place about the Stolzenburg. The lords of Bolanden inherited the lands of the extinct Stolzenberg line and sold Simmern to the Electorate of the Palatinate in 1359. In 1385 the Altenbaumburg line died out and in 1457 the last member of the Neuenbaumburg line died. Most of the estate went to the Electorate of the Palatinate.

When the Raugrave possessions passed to the Electorate of the Palatinate, the Raugrave title was taken over by Charles I Louis, Elector Palatine who purchased the estates. In 1667 it fell to the children of the Elector's second marriage. In 1658 the Elector contracted a morganatic, arguably bigamous (cf. Cuius regio, eius religio) second marriage at Frankenthal to Baroness Luise von Degenfeld. From 31 December 1667, the Elector accorded Luise the title of "the Raugravine" (Raugrafin), and the corresponding titles of Raugrave/Raugravine (Raugraf/Raugrafin), without territorial suffix, to each of her children, distinguishing them from his first, dynastic family; the Electress (née Landgravine Charlotte of Hesse-Kassel, who always refused to acknowledge divorce from her husband, and her children, the future Elector Palatine Charles II and the future Duchess of Orleans, Elisabeth Charlotte. Thirteen children were born to the Elector and the Raugravine between October 1658 and April 1675, and she died in the castle of Friedrichsburg in Mannheim on 28 March 1677.

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