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HefTe.] G E R M A N T. 57
male-heirs, certain feats, towns, lordfliips, lands, vafTals and farms, with
all their appurtenances, as alfo the fourth part of the taxes of the country ;
and, on the twentieth of February, 1629, enjoined the fubjeds of this
^Mrt to perform to his faid half-brothers the hereditary homage, and all
other fervices due from faithful vafTals to their legal lord. But in this
convention it was likewife flipulated, that, whilft the line of Hejfe-Caß'el
exifted, there fliould be only one fingle government ; and, that to Landgrave
William, as the only Prince and fovereign at that time of the
country, and his lawful male-heirs, purfuant to the right of primogeniture,
every branch and article of the princely dignity and prerogative, in this
^art, thus transferred, fliould belong and remain ; as, namely, the jm
f/jz/rö/irt/f audits appurtenances; the fummoning of Diets; the ifliiing edids;
the grants of fairs and companies, the roads, the mint, the tolls, the
Imperial, provincial, military duties, and thofe on honors, together with
the right of fucceffion, appeals, &c. regarding this fovereignty and the
prerogatives implied thereby. The valTals of this ^art are to perform
homage to the reigning Landgrave of Hejfe-Cajfel, who, for the maintenance
and exercife of thefe powers thus referved, appoints, refervat-commißaries.
The lower county of Katzenellnbogen, as well as the upper county, in
the year 1479, on the deceafe of Philip, the lafl: count, devolved to the
houfe of Hejfe, for Henry IV". Landgrave of He£e, being nominated heir
and fuccefTor by that count, as huiband to his only daughter Anne, on the
death of his father-in-law delayed not to take immediate poffeflion of
the upper and lower county of Katzenellnbogen ; which, to the great difcontent
of the counts of Naffau, who ftrongly claim it, has ever fince been
annexed to the Principality of H'ffe- The landgrave Fhilip the Magnanimous
fetded on his fon, Philip II. the lower county, who dying in the year 1583,
George I. Landgrave of Hejfe-Darmjladt, took polTeflion of the lower
county of Katzenellnbogen. By an agreement entered into on the fourteenth
oi April, 1648, betwixt the houfes of /f#-Cö>/ and Ht^-D^/-Ä7/?ö^/, this
county reverted to the former houfes, and, as the Rothenburg branch, by
virtue of the compaft of the year 1627 and 1628, was entitled to a fourth
part of what thus accrued to the fovereign houfe of H-'ffe, by the compad
_made with HeJJe-Darmßadt ; another convention was entered into on the^
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fecond of ^«jk/, 1648, betwixt thefe houfes : lieffe-Caffel, with referve of
the fovereignty, ceding hereditarily to the Landgraves Frederick and Ernß
vi Rothenburg thtXowtx cQ\Jiniy oi Katzenellnbogen, of which, on the twentythird
of Decetnber, the Landgrave Erneß took poffeffion according to the
ftipulated divifion. The fubfequent contefls, betwixt William, the five
Landgraves of Heß-Caßl and Ernß, Landgrave of Heffe-Rheinßh, were
adjufted by a convention on the firft of January, 1654, at Ratisbon, and
this convention, confirmed b}' an aft of the Diet in the lame year as a prag-
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