The family history started with Count Adolf I, scion of a cadet branch of the Rhenish Berg dynasty residing at Altena Castle in Westphalia.

In the early 13th century Adolf took his residence at his family's estates around Mark, a settlement in present-day Hamm-Uentrop.

Originally liensmen (a type of vassal) of the archbishops of Cologne in the Duchy of Westphalia, the family ruled the County of Mark, an immediate state of the Holy Roman Empire, and, at the height of their powers, the four duchies of Julich, Cleves, Berg and Guelders as well as the County of Ravensberg.

Members of the family became bishops in the Prince-Bishoprics of Liège, Münster and Osnabrück, and Archbishops in Cologne.

Marguerite de La Marck d'Arenberg (1527–1599), princess-countess and sovereign of Arenberg from 1576.