Westrich (sometimes Westerreich or Westerrych), in Old French Wastriche or Vestric is the name of a former province of the Holy Roman Empire. The term is attested from the 13th century; the heart of this territory was located in the valley of the Saar, including its tributaries, the Blies, the Albe and the German Nied. Its boundaries, which fluctuated over time, were located to the east, along the northern Vosges and the Pfälzerwald, to the west along the Moselle between Sierck and Saarburg, to the south along the valley of the SeilleEiselé (1990)p.304 to the north, along the Nahe. In the Holy Roman Empire, Westrich constitutes a veritable mosaic of territories; The latter are shared between numerous lordships, including the duchies of Lorraine, Palatinate-Deux-Ponts, Duchy of Luxembourg, as well as the Prince-Bishopric of Metz, the archbishopric of Trier, the Elector palatine, the County of Nassau-Saarbrücken, County Palatine of Veldenz, La Petite-Pierre de Deux-Ponts-Bitche. The name "Westrich" slowly fell into disuse after the ravages caused to this province by the Thirty Years' War. Today it is a "phantom province" which covers the current territories of Saarland, the North-East of the Moselle including Dieuze, the Alsace bossue, and the South-West of the Rhineland-Palatinate (Südwestpfalz).
Definition and limits
The Westrich and its context in the 16th century The boundaries of Westrich have fluctuated over the centuries.
Waldseemüller map The oldest map is apparently the one that Martin Waldseemüller drew up at an unknown date but before 1508Eiselé (1990) p.298 in the workshop of the Gymnase de Saint-Dié-des-Vosges and published by Jean Schott in Strasbourg in 1513; the cartographer, in the service of the René II, Duke of Lorraine, represents in an indicative manner the respective provinces of Westrich (VASTI REGNI DOMINI) and the Duchy of Lorraine (LOTHARINGIE DUCATUS), thus named in their coats of arms located at the top of the map.
The two provinces being shown in a perspective going from North to South, the Vosges are on the left; on the right and at the bottom of the map are coats of arms of various counties of the Duchy of Lorraine and Westrich:Eiselé (1990) p.307
For the Westrich: south Blâmont Réchicourt-le-Château Salm to the north Sarrewerden Saarbrücken Duchy of Deux-Ponts
from which is omitted, perhaps for political reasons, the fief of the Counts of Dabo, around Dagsburg.
Seven baronies are attached to:Eiselé (1991) p.33 Parroy Sirck (Sierck-les-Bains) Benschdorf (Bénestroff) Lützelstein (La Petite-Pierre) Bolchen (Boulay-Moselle) Vinstingen (Fénétrange) Bitsch (Bitche)
among which an eighth, Kriechingen (Créhange), is also missing.
The representation of this territory seems to have been more cultural and geographical, than political and/or seigneurial; today it corresponds roughly to the territories of Saulnois, German Lorraine, Alsace Bossue, the Land of Saarland, and the southwest of the Land of Palatinate.
Münster map Another map, made by Sebastian Münster around 1550, is titled "Another Chart of the River Rhine, Including the Palatinate, the Westrich and the Eiffel, etc."
The centre of the old province (where the term Westrich is inserted) would be located between the localities of Sarrebourg (Sarburg), Bérus (Beris) and Vaudrevange (Walderfingen). Its southern limits would pass around Saint-Quirin (S. Quirin), Réchicourt-le-Château (Ruxingen), Dieuze (Dusa), Vic-sur-Seille (Wich), Château-Salins (Salzpurg, Salun); the western limits with the Metz region would be around Faulquemont (Falcoperg), Boulay-Moselle (Bolchñ); a little further north, near Thionville (Dietñhofen) Sierck-les-Bains (Sirch); to the north, the landmarks are more imprecise; from the confluence zone between Saar and Moselle the limits would schematically go towards Sankt Wendel (S. Wendel) then Kaiserslautern (Keiserslutern); to the east, it is more obvious, located along the hills of the Pfälzerwald and the Northern Vosges, on the outskirts of Zweibrücken (Zweibrug), Bitche (Bitsch), La Petite-Pierre (Lutzelstein) and Lixheim.
The surrounding provinces indicated are respectively: to the south, the Duchy of Lorraine (Lotringñ), to the west, the city of Metz (city free of the Empire), the County of Luxembourg (Lutzelburg); to the north, we find the archiepiscopate of Trier (Trier), the Eifel north of the Moselle, and the County Palatine of Veldenz (Veldentz), near the Nahe; to the east, the Palatinate is indicated between the Lauter and the city of Bingen am Rhein, its center is Worms.
Westrich in contemporary history On the French side today, the Westrich has known a relative survival in the "German Lorraine" (or German-speaking Moselle), in the part corresponding to the countries of Sarrebourg, Sarreguemines, Nied Allemande, Warndt, the country of Sierck, the former County of Deux-Ponts-Bitche, which are today in the department of Moselle. The contemporary use of the term Westrich, apart from the German exception, very restrictive compared to its ancient use, has remained used by historians of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, such as Henri Hiegel in France. Franco-German conferences on the theme of the Westrich and its history have brought together historians from Moselle, Saarland, bossue Alsace and the West Palatinate.
On the side that became German, the name Westrich is still sometimes used today by the inhabitants of the south of the Nahe and the west of the Palatine Forest ridges to designate their territory, that is to say the East of the Saar, the Bliesgau and the territory around Saint-Wendel as well as the interior of the former department of Mont-Tonnerre south of the Nahegau.
In a recent map, we find the term in a restricted sense, under the name "Zweibrücker Westrich", this expression designating a territory which extends between Deux-Ponts and the crest of the Pfälzerwald and the Northern Vosges, the east of the Pays de Bitche, up to La-Petite-Pierre.
Etymology Westrich is a form of the contemporary German Westerreich meaning "kingdom of the West"; its structure is comparable to that of the term Österreich for "kingdom of the East" (Austriche in Middle French, then Austria). Emerging in the 13th century, this concept then arose as a pendantBenoît (1861) p.26 to Austria,Eiselé (1991) p.35 at a time when the Wittelsbachs asserted their power on the one hand towards the east over Bavaria and on the other hand towards the west over the Palatinate by Palatinate-Deux-Ponts in 1394. Westrich and Austria thus appear as the western and eastern neighboring domains of the Wittelsbachs, if not as a display of their territorial ambitions.
The Latin translation is Westrichia or Westratia. Martin Waldseemuller, cartographer of the Duke of Lorraine René II of Vaudemont and Anjou, designates it by a play on words Vastum Regnum, that is to say "Vast Kingdom" which connotes the undertones of devastation, emptiness and therefore availability, for ideological reasons, namely to present it as a natural domain of annexation to the Duchy of LorraineEiselé (1990) p.301 & 303 and not as a western part of the Empire and the province of the Palatinate. Its original meaning of "west of the Palatinate" (= of the Holy Empire) is thus erased.
Blazon The Westrich not being a well-defined fief but a mosaic of fiefs which became a stake in rivalries between regional and local princes and lords, the images vary. An imaginary coat of arms was attributed to it by a kind of genealogical claim, namely coticé of gold and azure of eight piecesSee above map. This coat of arms, claimed by René II of Lorraine as prior to that of the House of Lorraine,Benoît (1861) p.46 & 47 reflects an imaginaryEiselé (1990) p.32 linking Lotharingia to Austrasia coat of arms, equally imaginary but taken up with a border of gules broken by a Burgundy claiming to reconstitute the ancient Lotharingia, were banded with six pieces of gold and azure. Similarly, we find in a later armorial the arms of Westrich almost identical to those of Austrasia, banded with six pieces of silver and azure.Benoît (1861) p.47
Furthermore, the name Westrich survives as a surname; it is rare, and present mainly in the area covering and surrounding the historical territory, that is to say in Germany, the east of the Saar and the west of the Palatinate, and in France, in Lorraine and Alsace.
History In ancient times, the western part of early Belgium was crossed by the "via regalis" linking Divodurum (Metz) to Mongotiacum (Mainz) and Borbetomagus (Worms) via the future Villa Luthra (Kaiserslautern). It crossed at the current place called Champ noir, between the current Saarbrücken and Homburg, the road linking Augusta Trevorum (Trier), capital of the Roman or secessionist Gauls, and Argentoratum (Strasbourg) along the Saravus valley (Saar) via Martiaticum (Merzig) and Pons Saravi (Saarburg).
The Far West of the Palatinate (880-1525)
An intermediate zone between the centers of power Springing on the borders of Upper Germania from the cities of the Treveri, which occupy the lower Moselle, for its northern part and of the Mediomatrici, which are upstream, for its southern part, then respectively from the dioceses of the archbishop of Trier and the bishop of Metz, this territory emerges from the High Middle Ages by its margins:
in 903, the Franconian Gebhard, Count of Rheingau, attached to his own domain, the heart of the future Palatinate, the title of Duke of Lotharingia, with which the future Westrich made the connection in 982, Sarrebourg, a commercial stopover towards Alsace, obtained from the bishop of Metz the right to mint coins between 1047 and 1048, the Alsatian Adalbert, Duke of Lorraine, had the castle of Langenstein built, the base of the county of Salm in 1074, Conrad II the Salic, Count of Speyer, made Lautern an imperial court in 1152, Frederick of Hohenstaufen made it the residence of the King of the Romans while installing his younger brother, Conrad, in Heidelberg at the head of the Palatinate In 1179, the Treaty of Ribemont separated the future Westrich from Upper Lotharingia
Development and birth of Westrich in the 13th century The Westrich acquired its name in the following century. This was the period when the Habsburgs and the Capetians built their national territories and which ended in 1299 with the meeting of Quatrevaux during which the border between the Empire and the Kingdom was fixed on the Meuse.
The term Westrich itself is mentioned in a document from 1295,Eiselé (1991) p.34 the oldest that remains. Its fiefs are described in many later documentsBenoît (1861) p.22–28 including, a century and a half later, a map by Nicholas of Cusa,Eiselé (1990) p.299 a Westrichois by birth. This name, which means kingdom or region of the West in German, indicates a settlement around a few agricultural and forest lordships, such as that of the Wild Counts of Salm, and a few isolated abbeys, such as that of Herbitzheim, organized from the right bank of the Rhine and Heidelberg, capital of the Lower Palatinate or Palatinate of the Rhine.
From traditional operations, there also developed during the 13th century, thanks to the inventions one hundred and fifty years earlier of the camshaft mill and the horse harness which doubled the productivity of logging, industrial centres which benefited from the resources of wood and water and supplied the neighbouring princely and episcopal courts with ores and metals, paper and salt, such as Marsal, and ceramics and glass, such as Sarrebourg. In 1357, the Counts Palatine made the imperial palace of Kaiserslautern their own. In 1394 Robert of Wittelsbach annexed part of the County of Zweibrücken, renamed Palatinate-Zweibrücken, one of the five regions of the Palatinate, west of the Rhine.
Social upheavals closing the Middle Ages