The County of Nidda ( was a small county of the Holy Roman Empire centred on the city of Nidda in modern Wetteraukreis, Hesse. It was located on the northern edge of the Wetterau river valley and consisted of a relatively cohesive block of land held in fief from the Abbey of Fulda.
The County was created by a decree of the Abbey of Fulda, which consolidated the Abbey's possessions in the northern Wetterau. The name "County of Nidda" had become attached to the area by the second half of the eleventh century, when the position of Vogt over the area was given as a fief to Volkold I of Malsburg. The marriage of his son, Volkold II, into the Nürings of Adelsgeschlecht around 1100 expanded the family's possessions. From these territories, the County of Nidda was created. The first reference to a member of the family as "Count of Nidda" dates to 1104, during the reign of Volkold II.
In 1155, after supporting Count palatine Hermann von Stahleck against the Archbishop Arnold of Selenhofen, the family lost Malsburg and other possessions in northern Hesse, meaning that the County was henceforth concentrated in the northern Wetterau region. An endowment of 1187 gives information on the extent of the County. At that point, it contained at least the area between the settlements of Ranstadt, Einartshausen, Wenings, and Gelnhaar. The patchy record makes it unclear what other territories belonged to the County. This document was produced in the reign of Berthold II. He died childless in 1205/6, so the county was inherited by his nephew, Louis I, son of Rudolf II, and his wife Mechthild, sister of Berthold II. Smaller sections of the county were probably given away as dowries for two of his sisters: Adelheid of Ziegenhain, who married Ulrich I of Hagen-Münzenberg, and Mechthild, who married Gerlach II, Count of Isenburg.
From 1205/06, the County of Nidda was in the possession of the Counts of Ziegenhain, for whom it had only secondary significance compared to the substantially larger . Nidda was formally separated from Ziegenhain and passed to a junior line during the period 1259-1330, but it returned to the Ziegenhain main line after married Lukardis (Luitgart), daughter of the last Count of Nidda, Engelbert I. After John II died childless in 1450, the County of Nidda, along with the County of Ziegenhain, passed to the Landgraviate of Hesse and ceased to exist as a separate lordship. By this point, it consisted of the with the assizes of , , and , the Lordship of , the with the half vogteien of Echzell, , und (except for the castle), and the assizes of and
Origin
The Abbey of Fulda acquired substantial estates in the Wetterau region after the fall of the Conradines on the basis of various imperial rights which had been transferred to them over time. To unify these territories administratively, the Abbey established the assize of Bingenheim in 1064 around the . Soon after, probably under Abbot (1060-1075), the region of the assize of Birgenheim was referred to as the "County of Nidda". Since the Abbey could not operate the blood court itself and required secular protection of its possessions, it established vogts for the Fuldish Mark and its possessions along the Nidda river. These vogts received the area (excepting Bingenheim castle) as a Fuldian fief.Georg Landau: Beschreibung der deutschen Gaue, Erster Band: Beschreibung des Gaues Wettereiba. Kassel, 1855, p. 30. Initially, the Vogtei of the small County of Nidda was probably a fief of Fulda in the hands of the Lords of in the Taunus. It was transferred in whole or in part to the lords of , probably by Abbot Widerad. They had also acquired the allod of the area and are named as "Counts of Nidda" from 1104. Counts of Nidda from House Malsburg (ca. 1065-1205)
Volkold I The Vogtei of Bingenheim or the Fuldish Mark was probably entrusted to the free knight Volkold I (ca. 1040-1097) of Malsburg in whole or in part by Abbot Widerad in or shortly after 1065. Volkold, who is first attested in 1062, served as the Fuldan Vogt in Bingenheim from then on and was the founder of the relatively short-lived House of the first Counts of Nidda. Volkold's family had acquired a small lordship in the area of Zierenberg in northern Hesse in the 10th century and had established their castle at Malsburg. It is unclear whether it was Volkold I or his son Volkold II who built the water castle at Nidda. It may have been begun by the father and completed by the son. The name "County of Nidda" is attested for the fief at Bingheim in this period.However, it is only in 1104 that a member of the family is referred to as Count of Nidda - this is Volkold II, who transferred his base from the castle at Bingenheim to Nidda.
Volkold II Volkold's son, Volkold II (ca. 1070 - ca. 1130), married Luitgart of Nürings, a daughter of Berthold of Nürings (1050-1112). The marriage brought Volkold allod in the area around Nidda, which was the basis of the County of Nidda, and probably also strengthened his claim to succeed his father as Vogt of Bingenheim, which he did in 1087. He transferred his main residence from the Fuldan castle in Bingenheim to the castle built at Nidda by him and/or his father, which he owned outright. Volkold is recorded as "Count of Nidda" from 1104 at the latest.
Subsequently, as a result of a feud, Volkold was imprisoned in Mainz and he and has brother Udalrich had to surrender their castles, Malsburg and to Adalbert I, Archbishop of Mainz, from whom they then received them back as fiefs.Georg Landau: Die hessischen Ritterburgen und ihre Besitzer, Erster Band. Luckhardsche Hofbuchhandlung, Kassel 1832, S. 358–359 Volkold II remained at Nidda and left administration of the fiefs to his brother. After Udalrich died childless, the whole county returned to him.
Berthold I Volkold's son, Berthold I (ca. 1110-1162) succeeded his father as Count of Nidda. He expanded his possessions around Nidda by exchanging properties that he had inherited in North Hesse and Westphalia with local properties of Helmarshausen Abbey and . In 1154, he lost his remaining Westphalian territories at Atteln and to Abdinghof Abbey in a legal case decided by Duke Henry the Lion.
In 1155, he also lost the castles of Malsburg and Schartenberg to Archbishop Arnold of Mainz, since he had taken the side of Count Palatine in a feud. Several other counts who had supported the Count Palatine were convicted of breach of the peace by Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa, placed under the Imperial ban, and subjected to the humiliating punishment of the , but Berthold ignored the summons to Gelnhausen and the judgement. He instead established himself as a robber baron and bandit. For this, he used the Alteburg at Kohden as a base. He was finally forced to accept punishment by an Imperial command. According to folklore, after an attempt by his wife to save him, he was forced to accept punishment.Schmidt, Geschichte des Großherzogthums Hessen, p. 254.
Berthold II The next Count of Nidda, Berthold II (dead by 1205), probably Berthold I's son, was a close follower of Frederick Barbarossa. He gifted extensive possessions in Nidda, including the parish of Nitehe (Nidda) and its daughter churches in and Reichelshausen (now abandoned, east of ), as well as the revenues of twenty-six other places in the area between and in the north and , und in the south to the Order of St. John in 1187, for the protection of his parents' souls. The Order used this gift to establish their first commandery in Hesse (their eighth in Germany).
Berthold is last attested in 1191, as witness to the establishment of . At his death the House of Malsburg was extinct in the male line.
First unification with Ziegenhain (ca. 1205-1250)
Louis I After Berthold II's death, the County of Nidda, which remained a fief of Fulda Abbey, passed via his sister Mechthild, who had married Count Rudolf II of Ziegenhain in 1170, to their son Louis I (born 1167 in Nidda, died 1227). Louis had become the Count of Ziegenhain after the death of his older brother Gottfried II in 1205 and he therefore united the two counties.
At this time, the County of Nidda extended up the Ohm and Felda rivers in Vogelsberg and included Streubesitz at Rüdesheim in the Rheingau, as well as the Vogtei over the possessions of Fulda Abbey and some of the possessions of the Archbishopric of Mainz in the Wetterau and on the Main river. Louis also made donations in Nidda to the Knights of St John, such as Brungesrode in 1226 (near the modern Am Ruppelshof Straße). As a result of the marriages of his sisters Adelheid and Mechthild, many properties and rights of the County of Nidda passed to their husbands, Ulrich I of Münzenberg and Gerlach II of Büdingen, such as the Vogtei of Schotten. Along with his relatives in Ziegenhain and , Louis donated the former to the Teutonic Order - their first significant branch within the Holy Roman Empire. Louis was a reliable supporter of the Hohenstaufen dynasty and after the election of Philip of Swabia as Emperor in 1198 he is repeatedly attested in his entourage (at Nürnberg in 1205, Boppard in 1206, Gelnhausen and Jülich in 1207).
Berthold I and Gottfried IV After Louis died in 1227, his sons Gottfried IV (died 1250) and Berthold I (born 1207, died 1257/58) ruled over both counties together, with Berthold residing in the Ziegenhain ancestral lands and Gottfried in Nidda. Both of them were supporters of the Hohenstaufen, like their father. In the decisive phase of the Hohenstaufens' conflict with the Papacy, however, they switched their support to the Pope, along with their brother , who was Provost of Saint Peter's Church in Fritzlar from 1240 and became Archbishop of Salzburg in 1247, but died the same year, in the camp of the Papal candidate for emperor, Henry Raspe. From 1234, the brothers held the city of Nidda as an Imperial Estate, making the Counts of Nidda Imperial princes (the county of Nidda remained a fief of the Abbey of Fulda).
Separation of Nidda and Ziegenhain (1250-1333) Louis II When Gottfried IV died in 1250, he was succeeded in the County of Nidda by his son Louis II (died between 1290 and 1294). He and his cousin, , came into conflict soon after the latter came to power in Ziegenhain in 1258 and in the same year there was a formal partition of the two counties and an exchange of territories, mediated by Archbishop , Bishop , and Abbot (who was also Abbot of Hersfeld, in which role he was the overlord of Ziegenhain and parts of Nidda). Louis II received the County of Nidda and the Amt of Neustadt, gave up the Vogtei of Burg-Gemünden in exchange for the fiefs of and Widdersheim, and had to renounce his claims to , Rauschenberg, Treysa, the castle in Burg-Gemünden, Schlitz and Lissberg. Gottfried had the option to buy the Vogtei of Fulda from Louis for 175 silver marks. Gottfried could build in Nidda and Louis in Ziegenhain, but neither could damage the territory of the other. In 1259 Louis purchased the shares of Nidda castle owned by the Werner II and Siegfried I of Stein. In 1263, he surrendered his right to Hornberg Castle in Neckarzimmern to the Bishop of Speyer. He established the family tradition of making donations at the Abbey of Haina. He also sold substantial territories in the city of Nidda and the wider county to the Knights of St John between 1264 and 1286, probably because he was short of money, and in 1279, he mortgaged the Fuldan Vogtei to Abbot for 400 marks.