House of La Marck
The House of La Marck (German: Haus Mark; von der Mark) was a noble family, which from about 1200 appeared as the counts of Mark.
History[edit]
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. Adolf had inherited the Mark fortress from his father Count Frederick I of Berg-Altena (d. 1198) together with the older county around Altena and began to call himself count de La Mark.
Originally liensmen 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. Later collateral lines became dukes of Bouillon, a title which was later inherited by the House of La Tour d'Auvergne, princes of Sedan, dukes of Nevers, counts of Rethel and so forth.
In 1591 the heiress of one of the collateral lines of the family, Charlotte de la Marck, was married to Henri de La Tour d'Auvergne, Marshal of France. In 1594 Charlotte died without issue, and her claims to Bouillon passed to her husband.
Marguerite de La Marck d'Arenberg (1527–1599), princess-countess and sovereign of Arenberg from 1576. Married Jean de Ligne, baron of Barbançon, in 1547. General of the Spanish armies, he was killed at the battle of Heiligerlée in 1568.
Genealogy de la Marck on genealogy.euweb.cz :