New_System_of_Geogra.. - Medievalcoinage.com

U.Yfcnburg.] GERMANY, 119
7he
UPPER -
County of
r S E N B U R G,
§. I. T lES in the Wetterau, and is well reprefented in the above-mentioned
map of the county oi Hanau. It is called Uppcr-Ifenburo-^
or Ijeiiburg, by way of diftindlion from the county of Loii)er-Ifeiibnrf>\,
in the Palatinate ; and confifts properly of the lordfliip of Budin'^cn^
which, in the year 1442, was raifed to a county. Excluüve of the
Reichsfort at Drcyeichen, which lies on the fouth fide of the Mayne, this
county extends from the prefedturate oi Bucberthal, in the county of Hanau
as far as Vogehherg. It is a fine corn country, containing alfo good
pafturage, and fome parts of it likewife produce wine. In it too are fome
confiderable woods. '^'^dX q{ Büdingen in particular is one of the befl: Imperial
fiefs belonging to the counts of Ifenburg. Thefe counts have likewife
purchafed the poft of great-forrefler of Gehihaujen. The country is
watered by feveral little ftreams; as, namely, the Kinzig, Semen and Nidder.
§. 2. The counts of IJhiburg, whofe refidence and eftate lay in the
territories of the Middle-Rhine, are defcendcd from Henry, lord of Ifenburg,
who lived in the thirteenth century. His fons, Lewis and Gerlach,
being the founders of the Ife?iburg-Buditjgen and Jjenburg-Grenfau
lines. Count Le'wis married Helwiga, eldefl daughter of Cerlach, lafi:
lord of Büdingen, and by her inherited part of the lordHiip of Büdingen,
and his defcendents, as coheirs, or by purchafe, are in polfeffion of other
parts of it : that is to fay, towards the beginning of the fourteenth century,
on failure of the male-line of Büdingen, the whole fucccfiion became divided
among IJenburg, Braunek, Breuberg and T^rimburg, as hufbands of
the four 'daughters oi Gerlach, the laft lord of 5W/;7^t'« ; but the houfe of
Brauneck failing in the year 1390, its part, by virtue of a ftipulated fuccefiion,
devolved to the other three heirs ; and, on the fubfcquent extinction
of the male-line of Breuberg, the lord of Ifenburg and a lord of Epftein
being married to the two coheirefies of Breuberg, who were counteffcs of
Wertheim, one half of the Breuberg fliare devolved to the lord of Ifenburg
and the other half to Epftein, and is flill in the poffeffion of the houfe of Stolberg.
Trimburg alfo dying afterwards without heirs, his fhare, by coheir-
Ihip and purchafe, became divided among the houfes of IJenburg, Rodenftein
and Hanau. The laft of thefe has alfo purchafed another part, and
Heffl'-Darmftadt holds the Rodenftein eflate by right of conqueft.
The houfe of IJenburg is at prelent divided into two lines ; viz.
I . that of Ifenburg-OJfenbacb-BirJtein, of which IJhiburg-Philifs-Eicb h
a coL-