Lahngau
The Lahngau was a medieval territory comprising the middle and lower Lahn River valley in the current German states of Hesse and (partially) Rhineland-Palatinate.
Northwest and north of the Lahngau was the Auelgau with its central settlements near the mouth of the Sieg River and probably in the Siegerland.
In the 1845 travel guide Le Rhin, Victor Hugo notes: "Then comes Braubach, named in a charter of 933, fief of the Counts Arnstein of Lahngau; an Imperial city under Rodolph in 1270, a domain of the Counts of Katznellenbogen in 1283; accruing to Hesse in 1473; to Darmstadt, in 1632, and in 1802 to Nassau.
According to some historians, the approximate boundary is presumed to have been the watershed between the Solmsbach and the Weil River, east of Weilburg.
The assignment of the Kallenbach Zent (or Kallenbergskopf) north of present-day Löhnberg is unclear and depends on which interpretation of the boundary is adopted.
Some of these places go back, according to archaeological finds, to Frankish camps of the 6th and 7th centuries that secured crossings of the Lahn.
In the Middle Ages, the St. Lubentius at Dietkirchen was the seat of an archdeaconry that included all of the areas on the right bank of the Rhine belonging to the Archbishopric of Trier.
It evolved into a border region between the Franks in the Westerwald, the Chatti in present-day North Hesse, and the Alamanni in the Taunus and Wetterau.
At the beginning of Conradine rule in the Lahngau, the only existing monastery was that of St. Lubentius in Dietkirchen, which was probably founded as early as the 6th century.
The Conradines achieved the peak of their power when Conrad the Younger, the Count of Oberlahngau and the Duke of Franconia, was chosen King of East Francia in 911.
According to Widukind of Corvey,[4] Conrad on his deathbed in Weilburg recommended to his brother, Margrave (and later Duke) Eberhard III of Franconia, to forgo any ambition for the German crown and offer it instead to Henry of Saxony, one of his principal opponents, since he considered Henry to be the only prince capable of holding the Kingdom together in the face of internal rivalries among the dukes.
[citation needed] In the conflict between Eberhard III of Franconia, as Conrad’s successor as Count in the Oberlahngau, and King Otto I came the final division of the Conradine dynasty.
The extensive Conradine allodial lands in the Niederlahngau came, probably through familial relationships, to the Counts of (Alt-) Leiningen.
Complete overviews of property ownership for this area only exist from the 12th century, so the opportunity to draw inferences is limited.
Such a process would explain the equation of Udo of the Oberlahngau with Odo I of Blois, as well as the extensive holdings in the Lahngau by Lorsch Abbey (founded by the Robertians).
Since the Conradine family line of Conrad the Elder is identified as Counts in Weilburg, the assignment has a crucial role in the history of the Oberlahngau.
