page_title: Barony of Westerwald
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Barony of Westerwald / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Burg Greifenstein Deutsch: Burg Greifenstein
context_page_description: The Barony of Westerwald was a Vogtei created in the 15th century from the royal estate of Herborn in the German hill region of the High Westerwald.
context_section_description: The region, which lay west of Königshof Herborn, had originally been settled from the Chattian (Hessian) area. The barony covered the church parishes and their associated local magistracies (Zentgerichte) of Marienberg, Neukirch and Emmerichenhain. These three parishes in the High Westerwald first appear in a document dating to the year 1048.
  Originally the Herrschaft zum Westerwald, which lay within the Herboremarca (March of Herborn), belonged to the counts of Gleiberg; but at the end of the 12th century it went to the counts of Nassau. As a fief of the Electorate of Cologne, the latter had the long-term possession of the Herrschaft zum Westerwald, exercising criminal jurisdiction (Gerichtsbarkeit) and territorial lordship rights. The parish of Marienberg had been emancipated by 1231 from Herborn. In a document of the regional magistracy (Landgericht) at Emmerichenhain in 1524, the appointment of a court with jurors from the three local jurisdictions (Gerichte, then the administrative units) of Marienberg, Emmerichenhain and Neukirch was decreed by the regional magistrate (Zentgraf). Instead of a count of Nassau-Beilstein, an Amtmann presided over the court. It was publicly declared that the Count of Nassau was not to be paid the Vogtland tax in the form of 'cow money' (Kuhgeld).
  The border of the barony was protected in the north and northeast by a thick, impenetrable hedge (Heeg or Landheeg), and, in many places, also by a wide ditch and bank known as a Landwehr (border). In some places, gaps were made which had portcullises. One such passageway was supposed to have been on the border at the Großer Wolfstein west of Obermarienberg. In a protocol it said:
  "Von dem Grenzstein auf dem hintersten Galgenpüsch die Mauer entlang, forters auf die Lücke zu, welche ober dem Wolfstein in der Mauer ist, allwo vor alters ein Thor gehangen hat." ("From the boundary stone on the rearmost gallows footing, along the wall, continuing to the gap which is in the wall above the Wolf Rock, from which a gate has been hung since time immemorial.")
  — From the protocol of a border crossing, 1692
  In the many settlements in the south of the Barony along the river Nister, such special defensive measures were not needed. The occupants of the Westerwald marches, as free vogts, had the same status as nobility. Duties and service were rendered to the territorial overlords; but the vogts dealt with their own affairs independently at the regional magistracy of Emmerichenhain and at the individual magistracies (Zentgerichte), so their overlords, the princes, were not involved in the administration of justice (Rechtspflege). Each parish had free rein over the village land (the Dorfmark) and looked after its own defences; forest and pasture were commonly owned by all members of the Barony.
  From the 15th century, however, even in the marches of Westerwald, the princes began to intervene in the management of the march and, for example, issue decrees about the use of the forests, using the pretext that there had been abuses. Nevertheless, the Westerwald vogts continued to enjoy freedom in disposing of their own property and person; they could leave the Westerwald without the consent of the lords and only paid for the protection they had enjoyed so far, the so-called "holiday bounty" (Urlaubsschatz). Even forms of serfdom - such as Besthaupt and Buwetheil - did not exist.
  "Auch sall off Westerwalde kein Besteheudt sin noch noch nemen und nit Buwetheile, darum ist auch keyn Bosem off Westerwalde und ist diß alle wegen zo Westerwalde Recht gewest und noch ist und daby blyben soll." ("Also, no Besthaupt exists or shall be imposed in the Westerwald, nor Buwetheil, therefore there is also no serfdom in the Westerwald and this is so everywhere that the Westerwald rights have existed and still do and so shall remain.")
  — Legal decision of the regional magistracy of Emmerichenhein in 1456.</ref>
  The Bosem (or Busen), the 'right of serfdom' (Leibeigenschaftsrecht), also did not exist in the Westerwald. Ordinarily this meant that children of a marriage between a free 
caption: Greifenstein Castle
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