Landgraviate of Hesse-Homburg

The Landgraviate of Hesse-Homburg was a small state of the Holy Roman Empire and later a sovereign member of the German Confederation. It consisted of the lordship of Homburg at the foot of the Taunus, known as Die Höhe, or the Heights. Hesse-Homburg was created in 1622, when Landgrave George I of Hesse-Darmstadt gave the territory to his youngest son Frederick I. The landgraviate was ruled by a cadet branch of the House of Hesse, although it was administered by Hesse-Darmstadt from 1622 to 1768 and again from 1806 to 1815. It was briefly divided into Hesse-Homburg and Hesse-Homburg-Bingenheim, but the parts were reunited in 1681. In 1815 it became a sovereign principality and gained the Oberamt Meisenheim in the Rhineland, giving it an area of 221 square kilometres. When the ruling family died out in March 1866 the territory returned to Hesse-Darmstadt, which was forced to cede it to Prussia in September after the Austro-Prussian War.