The territory was located roughly between the rivers Rhine, Moselle, and Nahe, in the present state of Rhineland-Palatinate, around the Hunsrück region.

This partition took place among the sons of Count Gottfried III of Sponheim, who died abroad while participating in the Fifth Crusade.

[note 1] Feuds with the neighbouring Electorates of Mainz and Trier were common, giving birth to southwestern German legends such as the tale of Michel Mort.

Count Walram's granddaughter married Ruprecht Pipan, heir to the Electorate of the Palatinate, who died of disease after returning from the Battle of Nicopolis at the age of 21.

In 1437 the Sponheim-Starkenburg family became extinct in the male line, and the counties were jointly ruled as a condominium by female-line heirs from then until the early 19th century.

The Reformation was instituted in the County of Sponheim in the year 1557, led by Friedrich II, Count Palatine of Simmern.

The county became an important outpost of Protestant territory, with exclaves on the Moselle such as Enkirch, Trarbach, or Winningen, bordering as it did the Catholic Electorate of Trier.

Warfare with neighbouring Catholic states would take place intermittently through the centuries, notably including the Thirty Years' War.