Adolf I, Count of the Mark

He was son of Frederick I, Count of Berg-Altena and Alveradis of Krickenbeck, daughter of Reiner of Krieckenbeck-Millendonk.

[4] In his book Die Landstände der Grafschaft Mark bis zum Jahre 1510: Mit Urkundlichen Beilagen, Rudolf Schulze determined Adolf's date of birth to be in 1164.

[5] In fact Adolf signed as a witness a charter in 1194,[6] and thus logic requires that he had reached majority by that time.

In medieval Germany majority was bound to the ability to serve in battle or bearing arms.

Another legal fact supporting this theory is that Adolf's father died either in 1198 or 1199 and he became the new Count of Altena-Mark and Krickenbeck.

Like his father Adolf I became Count of Berg-Altena and Krickenbeck and reeve of the monasteries of Werden and Cappenberg.

From 1202, Adolf took on the sobriquet of "von der Mark", after this new main residency which his father had built on land originally acquired from either the Archbishop of Cologne (Philipp of Heinsberg) or the noble family of Rüdenberg.

Castle Altena in Altena . First residence of the Counts of Altena, the title and family name were later changed, by Adolf I, to La Mark
Coat of arms of the counts of the Mark