Landenberg

By the beginning 14th century, they were the most powerful family of eastern Switzerland, separating into four lines, Alt-Landenberg, Landenberg-Greifensee, Hohenlandenberg and Breitenlandenberg.

The main line was extinct early, Rudolf I and his son Pantaleon both falling in the battle of Morgarten in 1315.

Breitenlandenberg proved the most successful in the longer run, rising to significant power in the 15th century and lasting into the 19th.

The influence of the Landenberg-Greifensee line peaked in the 1350s with Hermann IV, whose sons came into financial difficulties and had to sell a number of castles, among them Alt-Landenberg and Greifensee.

The reasons for this decline was their close ties with the house of Habsburg, which was itself struggling with difficulties and losing its hold over the territory due to both the rise of the city of Zürich and the growth of the Old Swiss Confederacy.