Lordship of Winneburg and Beilstein

The Lords of Winneburg were first mentioned in a 1304 deed, they also acquired the estates of the neighbouring Beilstein Castle in 1362.

In the following decades the Lords of Winneburg and Beilstein were forced to give their lands in pawn to the Archbishops of Trier, who after a feud, finally seized the property in 1488, only to lend it back as a fiefdom a few years later.

The last reigning Count Franz George Karl, lost his territory to France when that country officially annexed the left bank of the Rhine following the 1801 Treaty of Lunéville.

He was however compensated in the course of the German mediatization with the possession of secularized Ochsenhausen Abbey and with the title of Prince of the Holy Roman Empire in 1803.

Franz George Karl's son, Prince Klemens Wenzel von Metternich took the chance to buy the ruin of Winneburg Castle in 1832 but never rebuilt it.

The Lordship of Beilstein in the Moselle Valley
Map of a large region (in white) including all the territory of modern Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium and the Netherlands, plus parts of most neighbouring countries, including most of Northern Italy. Some of the northwest part region is highlighted in color, including Münster, most of the Netherlands and parts of modern Belgium.
The Lower Rhenish–Westphalian Circle (red) within the Holy Roman Empire (white) after 1548