In 1160, the territory split into two portions, one of them later becoming the County of the Mark, which returned to the possession of the family line in the 16th century.

[1][2] In 1280 the counts moved their court from Schloss Burg on the Wupper river to the town of Düsseldorf.

Count Adolf VIII of Berg fought on the winning side in the Battle of Worringen against Guelders in 1288.

In 1509, John III, Duke of Cleves, made a strategic marriage to Maria von Geldern, daughter of William IV, Duke of Jülich-Berg, who became heiress to her father's estates: Jülich, Berg and the County of Ravensberg, which under the Salic laws of the Holy Roman Empire caused the properties to pass to the husband of the female heir (women could not hold property except through a husband or a guardian).

As a result of this union the dukes of the United Duchies of Jülich-Cleves-Berg controlled much of present-day North Rhine-Westphalia, with the exception of the clerical states of the Archbishop of Cologne and of the Bishop of Münster.

This led to a lengthy dispute over succession to the various territories before the partition of 1614: the Count Palatine of Neuburg, who had converted to Catholicism, annexed Jülich and Berg; while Cleves and Mark fell to John Sigismund, Elector of Brandenburg, who subsequently also became Duke of Prussia.

Elector Charles III Philipp disliked Düsseldorf, because the estates there did not want to grant the funds he demanded.

The anchor and the batons came to the party due to Murat's positions as Grand Admiral and as Marshal of the Empire.