The family has produced several of the longest-reigning monarchs in Europe, including the longest reigning (for 82 years), Bernard VII, Lord of Lippe (d. 1511).

In 1643, Count Philipp of Lippe-Alverdissen inherited half of the neighboring County of Schaumburg and founded the Schaumburg-Lippe line of the House of Lippe.

Both, Biesterfeld and Weissenfeld were so-called paragiums (non-sovereign estates of a cadet-branch) within the County of Lippe.

In 1905, with the death of Alexander, Prince of Lippe, the senior Lippe-Detmold branch of the family became extinct and Count Leopold of Lippe-Biesterfeld (head of the non-ruling junior branch line Lippe-Biesterfeld) succeeded him as Prince, after an Imperial court ruling, in fact against the wishes of Wilhelm II, German Emperor, who would have preferred his brother-in-law Prince Adolf of Schaumburg-Lippe to succeed.

Alexander, Prince of Schaumburg-Lippe, head of the younger formerly sovereign branch, still resides at Bückeburg Palace, Lower Saxony, located on the border with North Rhine Westphalia.