View source for Hesse-Homburg

{{Short description|Historical state in Germany}}
{{Infobox country
| native_name            = ''Landgrafschaft Hessen-Homburg''
| conventional_long_name = Landgraviate of Hesse-Homburg
| common_name            = Hesse-Homburg
| status                 = [[States of the Holy Roman Empire|State]] of the [[Holy Roman Empire]]<br/>[[States of the German Confederation|State]] of the [[German Confederation]]
| government_type        = Landgraviate
| event_start            = 
| year_start             = 1622
| date_start             = 
| event_end              = Inherited by [[Grand Duchy of Hesse]]<sup>1</sup>
| year_end               = 1866
| date_end               = |
| area_km2               = 430
| area_sq_mi             = 166
| event1                 = Ceded by [[Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt|Darmstadt]]
| date_event1            = 1668
| event2                 = Ceded to Darmstadt
| date_event2            = 1806
| event3                 = [[Congress of Vienna|Re-established]]
| date_event3            = 1815
| p1                     = Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt
| image_p1               = [[File:Arms of the house of Hesse-Darmstadt.svg|20px]]
| s1                     = Grand Duchy of Hesse
| flag_s1                = Flagge Großherzogtum Hessen ohne Wappen.svg
| s2                     = Province of Hesse-Nassau
| flag_s2                = Flagge Preußen - Provinz Hessen-Nassau.svg
| image_flag             = Hessen HG flag.svg
| image_coat             = Wappen-HH (1736–1866).svg
| image_map              = Hessen-Homburg.svg
| image_map_caption      = Map of Hesse-Homburg (two parts, beige, with Homburg and Meisenheim) and the Middle Rhine|
| stat_year1             = 1848
| stat_pop1              = 22,800
| capital                = [[Bad Homburg]]
| common_languages       = [[German language|German]]
| leader1                = [[Frederick I, Landgrave of Hesse-Homburg|Frederick I]] {{small|(first)}}
| year_leader1           = 1622–1638
| leader2                = [[Ferdinand, Landgrave of Hesse-Homburg|Ferdinand]] {{small|(last)}}
| year_leader2           = 1848–1866
| title_leader           = Landgrave
| footnotes              = <sup>1</sup> [[Meisenheim]] ceded to the [[Kingdom of Prussia|Prussian]] [[Rhine Province]].
}}

'''Hesse-Homburg''' was a [[Imperial Estate|state]] of the [[Holy Roman Empire]] and a sovereign member of the [[German Confederation]], which consisted of the lordship of Homburg at the foot of the [[Taunus]], which was then known as ''Die Höhe'' ("the Heights"). The reigning princes belonged to the Darmstadt line of the [[House of Hesse]]. It was created in 1622 by the Landgrave of [[Hesse-Darmstadt]] to be ruled by one of his sons, but from 1622 to 1768 and again from 1806 to 1815, the territory was part of Hesse-Darmstadt. It was briefly divided into Hesse-Homburg and [[Hesse-Homburg-Bingenheim]]; but these parts were reunited in 1681. In 1815, it became a sovereign principality, expanded with the addition of [[Oberamt Meisenheim]] in the [[Rhineland]] to give a total area of 221&nbsp;km². When the reigning princely family died out in March 1866, the territory returned to Hesse-Darmstadt, but the latter was forced to cede the territory to [[Prussia]] in September of the same year after it was defeated in the [[Austro-Prussian War]].

==History==
=== Holy Roman Empire (1622–1806) ===
The landgraves of Hesse-Homburg were a [[cadet branch]] of the Darmstadt branch of the House of Hesse, which existed from 1622 until 1866. Hesse-Darmstadt, like many principalities, was theoretically inherited through [[primogeniture]]. However, in practice, the younger sons were often endowed with a piece of land. Thus, the first landgrave of Hesse-Homburg, [[Frederick I, Landgrave of Hesse-Homburg|Frederick I]] (1585-1638), the youngest son of [[George I, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt]] (1547-1609), received the territory of Homburg in 1622, after his brother [[Louis V, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt]] had fallen significantly behind with his [[appanage]] payments. Frederick I received the city and [[amt]] of [[Bad Homburg|Homburg]] before the heights "with all prestige and authority" but "without princely power" and allowed to draw his appanage payments from the incomes of Homburg. The treaty governing this was concluded on 6 March 1622 and Homburg was handed over to Frederick on 23 July 1622.<ref>Barbara Dölemeyer, "Hessen-Homburg. Eine kurze Geschichte eines kleinen Territoriums." ''Archivnachrichten aus Hessen'' 1/2022, pp. 22–29.</ref> The landgraves thus remained subordinate to the Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt under [[Holy Roman Empire|Imperial]] law, owing it [[Homage (feudal)|homage]], for example. Darmstadt was obliged to pay Homburg 15,000 [[gulder]] annually, but generally did not manage to do so. The law of the time did not clearly distinguish between princely authority and a simple transfer of territory for economic purposes. Thus, Hesse-Homburg early began to seek independence. It succeeded in 1768, when a dynastic treaty was agreed, known as the ''Vergleichspunktuation'', in which Hesse-Darmstadt waived its sovereignty over Hesse-Homburg. In this treaty, the territory received wide-ranging internal sovereignty, but whether Hesse-Homburg thereafter possessed [[Imperial immediacy]] is doubted by the historian {{ill|Barbara Dölemeyer|de}}, among others: "Hesse-Darmstadt reserved for itself only the relationship with the Emperor and Empire; it represented Hesse-Homburg in the [[Imperial Diet (Holy Roman Empire)|Reichstag]] and in the assembly of the [[Imperial circle]] and paid the Imperial and circle taxes for Homburg. Hesse-Homburg thus never possessed Imperial immediacy... Therefore, the incorporation of Homburg into... Hesse-Darmstadt between 1806 and 1816 can... probably not be called '[[German mediatisation|mediatization]]'."<ref>Barbara Dölemeyer, "Von der Landgrafschaft Hessen-Homburg zur Nebenresidenz der Hohenzollern." in Bernd Heidenreich, Eckhard G. Franz (Edd.): ''Kronen, Kriege, Künste. Das Haus Hessen im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert.'' Societaetsverlag, Frankfurt 2009, ISBN 978-3-7973-1142-9, pp. 57 f.</ref>

Landgrave [[Frederick II, Landgrave of Hesse-Homburg|Frederick II]] (1633-1708), the prince of Homburg "with the silver leg," was notable as a [[Swedish Empire|Swedish]] and [[Brandenburg]]er general, who followed a [[mercantalist]] economic policy and carried out numerous developmental projects, based on his experiences in the service of Brandenburg. These included the settlement of [[Huguenot]] colonists at [[Friedrichsdorf]]. The resulting economic prosperity is evidenced by the early [[Baroque]] [[Bad Homburg Castle]].

It is notable that five landgraves (Frederick VI, Louis, Philip, Gustave, and Ferdinand) were members of the [[Military Order of Maria Theresa]].

At the end of the Holy Roman Empire, Hesse-Homburg consisted of the settlements of {{ill|Dillingen, Friedrichsdorf|de|Dillingen (Friedrichsdorf)|lt=Dillingen}}, {{ill|Dornholzhausen, Bad Homburg|de|Dornholzhausen (Bad Homburg)|lt=Dornholzhausen}}, {{ill|Espa, Langgöns|de|Espa (Langgöns)|Espa}}, [[Friedrichsdorf]], {{ill|Gonzenheim|de}}, [[Bad Homburg|Homburg]], {{ill|Köppern|de}}, [[Oberstedten]], {{ill|Seulberg|de}} and half of {{ill|Petterweil|de}}. By a treaty signed on 26 April 1803, an exchange of territory between Hesse-Homburg and [[Nassau-Usingen]] was agreed, which granted the village of [[Kirdorf]] to Hesse-Homburg, in exchange for Espa, which had been acquired by Hesse-Homburg in 1785.

===German Confederation (1815-1866)===
[[File:Bad Homburg 1840.jpg|thumb|left|[[Bad Homburg]] in 1851]]
[[Frederick V, Landgrave of Hesse-Homburg|Frederick V]] lost his lands in the [[German mediatisation]] of 1806, when Hesse-Homburg was incorporated into the [[Grand Duchy of Hesse]] (Hesse-Darmstadt). But in 1815, the [[Congress of Vienna]] forced Hesse-Darmstadt to recognize the independence of Hesse-Homburg, which was increased by the addition of [[Meisenheim]] (176 km²), part of the former French [[département]] of [[Sarre (department)|Sarre]], located on the left side of the Rhine some 80 km southwest of Homburg. 

Hesse-Homburg joined the [[German Confederation]] as a sovereign state on 7 July 1817. In 1848, the landgraviate had a population of 22,800 and a total land area of 430 km², thus making it one of the smallest states in the German Confederation.<ref>{{cite book |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |date=1848 |title=A Pictorial Geography of the World: Comprising a System of Universal Geography, Popular and Scientific |url= |location=Boston |publisher=C.D. Strong |page=762 |isbn=}}</ref> The landgraviate was the only principality that was not one of the founding members of the Confederation, apart from the [[Duchy of Limburg]] ruled by the King of the Netherlands (added in 1839) and the [[Duchy of Schleswig]] (1848-1851) ruled by the Danish king. The landgraviate supplied the Homburg Scouts battalion in the [[German Federal Army|Federal Army]] of the new Confederation. This battalion was stationed at the {{ill|Jägerkaserne, Bad Homburg|de|Jägerkaserne (Bad Homburg)|lt=Jägerkaserne}} in Bad Homburg. Hesse-Homburg was represented by the Grand Duchy of Hesse in the Inner Council of the [[Federal Convention (German Confederation)|Confederate Diet]], but had a seat of its own on the Plenary Council. 

In 1833, baths were opened in Homburg, which brought unexpected wealth and attention to the landgraviate. A casino and gambling saloons soon opened, which also contributed greatly to the state's burgeoning economy. Several legal overtures were made by the diet in an attempt to end gambling, but all attempts failed until after Hesse-Homburg passed into Prussian hands.<ref name="Dodd">{{cite book |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |date=1900 |title=The International Cyclopaedia: A Compendium of Human Knowledge, Volume 7 |url= |location=New York |publisher=Dodd, Mead & Company |page=515 |isbn=}}</ref> Hesse-Homburg joined the [[Central German Commercial Union]] in 1828, but Meisenheim became part of the Prussian customs area in 1830 and the Prussian-led [[Zollverein]] in 1834. In 1836, when the Hessian customs system was merged with the Zollverein, Homburg followed it into the Zollverein.
On 8 December 1837, Hesse-Homburg joined the South German monetary convention, which had been formed in [[Munich]] on 25 August 1837. On 20 November 1838, it also coined the monetary convention that was formed at [[Dresden]] on 20 July 1838. In accordance with these conventions, the landgraves [[Louis William, Landgrave of Hesse-Homburg|Louis William]] and [[Philip, Landgrave of Hesse-Homburg|Philip]] minted coins worth 1/2, 1, and 2 [[gulder]]s and coins worth 1, 3 and 6 [[kreuzer]]. On 24 January 1857, Hesse-Homburg also joined the Vienna monetary convention. Between 1858 and 1863, Hesse-Homburg minted 38,000 [[Vereinsthaler]]. In 1848, the issuing of [[bank note]]s was discussed in Hesse-Homburg, but the plan was not executed.<ref>Marc Drechsler, "Ein Papiergeldprojekt für die Landgrafschaft Hessen-Homburg im Jahre 1849." ''Geldgeschichtliche Nachrichten.'' vol. 41, 2006, pp.&nbsp;117–121.</ref> From 1855, the {{ill|Homburger Bank|de}} was Hesse-Homburg's private note bank, which issued bank notes until 1876.

Despite the provisions of article 13 of the [[Constitution of the German Confederation]], Hesse-Homburg had no constitution until 3 January 1850, when [[Gustav, Landgrave of Hesse-Homburg|Landgrave Gustav]] issued a constitution in response to the [[German revolutions of 1848–1849|March Revolution]]. A {{ill|Landtag of Hesse-Homburg|de|Landtag von Hessen-Homburg|lt=landtag}} was elected in 1848, but it had no significant power. On 20 April 1852, the landgrave rescinded the constitution.

With the death of [[Ferdinand, Landgrave of Hesse-Homburg|Landgrave Ferdinand]] on 24 March 1866, the Hesse-Homburg dynasty's male line came to an end. Hesse-Homburg returned to the Grand Duke of Hesse, while Meisenheim fell to [[Kingdom of Prussia|Prussia]]. In the peace treaty which concluded the [[Austro-Prussian War]] later that same year, Prussia took the other territories of Hesse-Homburg from Hesse-Darmstadt again. The former landgraviate was combined with the [[Electorate of Hesse]], [[Duchy of Nassau]], the [[Free City of Frankfurt]] and some former parts of the [[Kingdom of Bavaria]] to form the Prussian [[Province of Hesse-Nassau]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Patrick |first=David |last2=Geddie |first2=William |date=1924 |title=Chambers's Encyclopaedia: A Dictionary of Universal Knowledge, Volume 5 |url= |location=London |publisher=W. & R. Chambers, Limited |page=698|isbn=}}</ref> Meisenheim became part of Prussia's [[Rhine Province]].

Today, the former Homburg district forms part of the German state of [[Hesse]] while Meisenheim forms part of [[Rhineland-Palatinate]].

====Government and administration====
[[File:Schloss-hg-eingang001.jpg|thumb|Entrance to [[Bad Homburg Castle]].]]
[[File:Schloss_HG.jpg|thumb|[[Bad Homburg Castle|Homburg Castle]]]]
The landgraviate was an [[absolute monarchy]], headed by the [[landgrave]], who was simultaneously [[head of government]] and head of administration. All decisions about laws and ordinances were made by the landgrave.

The most important administrative body in Hesse-Homburg was the Privy Council ({{lang|de|Geheimrat}}), which was created by an ordinance of 12 May 1816.<ref>ABl. vom 2. März 1818</ref> It had wide powers, including dynastic affairs, foreign affairs, the direction of internal affairs, oversight of local government, judicial appeals, acts of [[clemency]], and the landgrave's personal affairs. 

The landgrave presided over the Council and appointed its members. It had only an advisory function. The directors of the Privy Council were the highest-ranking civil servants in the landgravate. They were responsible for preparation and passage of matters reserved to the central government, as well as countersigning laws and ordinances. The following individuals held the role. 

* 1817–1818: {{ill|Karl von Zyllnhardt (Jurist)|de|lt=Karl von Zyllnhardt}}, Director of the Privy Council and President 
* 1820–1827: [[Johann Philipp von Hert]], Director of the Privy Council and President of all state colleges
* 1828–1832: [[Carl Friedrich Emil von Ibell]], Director of the Privy Council and President of all state colleges
* 1832–1841: Vacant
* 1841–1847: [[Karl Bernhard von Ibell]], Director of the Privy Council
* (1847–1848): [[Ludwig Karl Wilhelm Henrich]], provisional director of government
* 1848–1862: Dr. jur. {{ill|Christian Bansa|de}}
* 1862–1866: {{ill|Georg Ferdinand Fenner|de}}, Director of the Privy Council

On 18 February 1818, [[Frederick V, Landgrave of Hesse-Homburg|Frederick V]] founded the State Government, which combined all formerly independent state colleges (consistories, chamber, forestry college, college medicum, and court) into a central authority, divided into three deputations:
* I. Justice (Civil and criminal law, as well as marital and disciplinary matters of the former consistories)
* II. State administration, police, health, poor aid, oversight of trusts, postal service, churches, schools, etc.
* III. Finance and cameral administration, including administration of domains and forests.

Hesse-Homburg had no constitution except from a brief period between 1850 and 1852.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.deutsche-digitale-bibliothek.de/item/WIZLKKH7LJAEBVMK3K3VBL3EJ3LAUBW4 |title=Hessen-Homburg: Landesregierung (Bestand) |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=1988 |website=Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek |publisher=Hessian Main State Archives |access-date=12 November 2022 |quote=|language=de| trans-title=Hesse-Homburg: State government (stock) }}</ref>

==List of landgraves of Hesse-Homburg==
{{For|the rulers of Hesse-Homburg|List of Hessian monarchs #Rulers of Hesse}}

==See also==
*{{C|House of Hesse-Homburg}}
*[[Rulers of Hesse]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{States of the German Confederation}}
{{Upper Rhenish Circle}}
{{Authority Control}}

[[Category:Hesse]]
[[Category:House of Hesse-Homburg| ]]
[[Category:Former states and territories of Rhineland-Palatinate]]
[[Category:States of the German Confederation|Hesse-Homburg]]
[[Category:Counties of the Holy Roman Empire|Hesse-Homburg]]
[[Category:Taunus]]
[[Category:Upper Rhenish Circle]]
[[Category:Early modern history of Germany]]
[[Category:Modern history of Germany]]
[[Category:States and territories established in 1622]]
[[Category:States and territories disestablished in 1866]]
[[Category:1622 establishments in Europe]]
[[Category:1622 establishments in the Holy Roman Empire]]
[[Category:1866 disestablishments in the German Confederation]]
[[Category:Former monarchies of Europe]]