New_System_of_Geogra.. - Medievalcoinage.com

192 GERMANY. [Wurtemberg.
the dutchy, as a fief always to be held by the hereditary marfhal, and accordingly
in the year 1507 it was given as a male fief to Ham Conrad
Thumb o^ Neubiirg, whofe wife Margaret was fifter to the above-mentioned
Zajhlpb, at that time deceafed. In the year 1527, the above Conrad fold
it to IVo'iff Philip of Hirnheim, who dying without iffue, Duke Chriflian
was for refuming the fief. But the Emperor Charles V. conferred the lordfhio
on the houfe of Walther of Hirnloeim, who in 155 1 fold it to the family
of Fiigger, and they in 1556 received it as a fief from the counts of Wurtcmberg.
But the Fiiggers accounting it an immediate lordfhip derived
from IVt/rtemberg only as a male fief, but exempt from all fervices, and
incorporated with the independent nobleffe about the Hocher, and in the
years 1734 and 1735 founding q. convent, of Capuchins, as alfo a church
at the caftle of Stettenfels, this occafioned an expenfive procefs before the
Aulic Council with the houfe of Wurtemberg, infomuch that to bring it to
a conclufion, the duke in 1747, purchafed the ü'o;«/W?/w «///^ of the lordfhip.
It conhfts of the caftle of Stettenfels, and the httle town of Grupfenbach,
with a Lutheran parirti-church, a hamlet, and fome land.
Under-heinrieth, a paridi-viilage.
town and diftrift of Neuffen. In it
1 3 . The
ISfeuJf'en, a little town, but a fpecial fuperintendency ; and having formerly
lords of its own, who were at firft ftiled nobles of Neuffen, and afterwards
counts of Graifpach and Marßetten. From thefe, partly by purchafe
and partly by inheritance, in the year 1284 it defcended to Conrad of Wein-
J'per^, who in 1301 fold it to Count Eberhard of Wurteinberg.
Not far from the town on a high and fleep hill flands a caftle called
Hohen -neuffen.
The dirtrift of Neuffen contains eight pariihes, namely, Beuren, Ej-henbrtchtfiseiler,
Frickenhaufen, Grabenjietten, GrafcJiberg, Great-Bettlingen,
Kohlberg and Linjenhofen.
14. The caftle of A[perg, or Hohen- Afperg, lies at a fmall diftance from
Ludwigiburg, betwixt Stutfgardt and Groningen, on a fingle mountain in the
old Glemfgau, in the country around which, for fome leagues, is nothing
but corn-land to be feen. In former times its proper name was Richtenkerg,
and Ajperg that of a little town feated on the mountain near it ; but
the latter was demoliflied in the 14th century, and included within the
circuit of the caftle, which then came to be called Ajperg. Anciently too
an earldom belonged to it, the owner of which was defcended of the line
Palatine of Tubingen. Count WiHia7n of Tubingen pofl"efled it in 1228, and
his fon Ulrich at firft ftiled himfelf count of Ajperg, whofe fon of the fame
name in the year 1308 fold the county of Afperg to Count Eberhard of
Wurtembcrv. The caftle in the i6th and 17th centuries was feveral times
taken, and at pr^fent is reduced to a low condition. Near it is a market-town
with