His own family was of great antiquity, his ancestors having been hereditary ministerials of the bishop of Worms since the time of Ekbert the chamberlain, who founded in 1119 the Augustinian monastery of Frankenthal and died in 1132.
By the mid 15th century, the Dalberg family had grown to be of such importance that, in 1494, the German King Maximilian I granted them the honor of being the first to receive knighthood at the coronation, this part of the ceremonies being opened by the herald asking in a loud voice Ist kein Dalberg da?
This picturesque privilege the family enjoyed until the end of the Holy Roman Empire.
[1] The following are the most noteworthy members of the family: Emmerich Joseph, duc de Dalberg, had inherited the family property of Herrnsheim from his uncle, the arch-chancellor Karl Theodor von Dalberg.
This estate passed, through his daughter and heiress, Marie Louise Pelline de Dalberg, by her marriage with Sir Ferdinand Acton, 7th Baronet (who assumed the additional surname of Dalberg), to her son, the historian John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton.