Walram I, Count of Nassau

[1][3] Possibly his mother was called Beatrix, it is uncertain whether that mention should not have been ‘grandmother’ (namely Beatrix of Limburg, daughter of Walram II ‘the Pagan’, Count of Limburg and Duke of Lower Lorraine and Jutta of Guelders (daughter of Gerard I, Count of Guelders).

In this way, Walram was able to make a connection between the family possessions the Vogtship of Weilburg (with its numerous property and lordship rights in the Westerwald and Dill River region), the castles of Laurenburg and Nassau on the River Lahn, and the Vogtship in the Siegerland (the region around the city of Siegen).

The same period may also have brought the Lordship of the Westerwald (including Marienberg, Neukirch, and Emmerichenhain, now part of Rennerod).

[citation needed] To the south of his possessions, Walram took over partial rule of the Einrichgau, later-named the Vierherrengericht (Four Lords’ Jurisdiction),[6] with its main town of Marienfels.

[7] Walram became affiliated with Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I Barbarrossa in the Peace of the Rhine Country in 1179.

[a] At about the same time, he also received possession of the game rights in the forests of the Rheingau (a fief of the Archbishopric of Mainz), so that his rule extended over the Taunus, south to the Middle Rhine.

[citation needed] Walram had ongoing feuds with the neighboring houses of Eppstein, Solms, and Katzenelnbogen.

In the years following the treaty of 6 November 1195, Walram appears to have stayed at the imperial court, where he participated in the Reichstag of Worms, at which the emperor negotiated a new crusade.

It is certain that Walram did not participate in the German army in 1197, several mentionings as witness in charters prove that he did not leave the country.