County of Bretzenheim explained

Native Name:Reichsgrafschaft Bretzenheim*
Conventional Long Name:Imperial County of Bretzenheim
Common Name:Bretzenheim
Era:Napoleonic Wars
Status:County
Empire:Holy Roman Empire
Year Start:1790
Year End:1804
Event Start:Partitioned from the
    Electorate of the Palatinate
Date Start: 
1790
Event1:Raised to princely county
Date Event1:1789
Event2:Part-mediatised to
    Hesse-Darmstadt; granted
    County of Lindau am Bodensee
Date Event2: 
 
1803
Event End:Mediatised to Austria
P1:Electorate of the Palatinate
S1:Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt
Flag S1:Flag of Hesse.svg
S2:Archduchy of Austria
Flag S2:Flag of the Habsburg Monarchy.svg
Capital:Bretzenheim
Common Languages:West Central German
Footnotes:
  • Later Reichsfürstentum Bretzenheim, Imperial princely county of Bretzenheim

Bretzenheim was a minor principality in pre-Napoleonic Germany. It was created in 1790 for Prince Charles Augustus (1769-1823) of the line of Wittelsbach-Bretzenheim, son of Charles Theodore, Elector of Bavaria and Palatinate.

Its territory in central Germany was mediatised to Hesse-Darmstadt in 1803, and its territory north of Lake Constance (former imperial city of Lindau) was mediatised to Austria in 1804.

Before 1789-1790 it was an Imperial Lordship and it had some important rulers, including Ambrosius Franz, Count of Virmont. In 1772 the Elector of Palatinate bought the Lordship (Imperial County 1774) for his son.

Prince of Bretzenheim