House of Arnstein

The Arnstein family was a noble family from the Saxony-Anhalt region in Germany.

History
The Lords (or Counts) of Arnstein descended from the Swabian von Steusslingen family; their first known member was Walter of Steusslingen (died 1056). Walter was the father of Adalbero, who was in turn father of Werner, Bishop of Münster, and also of Walter I, the first lord of Arnstein in Saxony. Their family name was originally spelled Arnstedt, but were later called Arnstein, this last name possibly deriving from the castle they owned, or the land they ruled.

Arnstein Castle and land
In 1135 they moved to Saxony and built their first known residence: Arnstein Castle, near Aschersleben on the Eastern Harz river. The use of the title Count of Arnstein goes back to the end of the 12th century. In 1289, Walter von Arnstein was burgrave of Freckleben.

The Arnstein dynasty owned land in Mühlingen, in the County of Mansfeld, in the Archbishopric of Magdeburg and in Quedlinburg Abbey (of which they were sub-bailiffs). The Counts of Mühlingen and probably also the Counts of Falkenstein are said to have descended from the family.

Feudal divisions of Arnstein
In 1196, the three children of Walter III (1150–1196) and his wife Gertrude of Ballenstedt (granddaughter of Albert the Bear, divided their patrimony: This line was the last to be extinct. After the death of August Louis in 1659, the family's main possessions were inherited by Saxe-Weissenfels and Anhalt-Zerbst.
 * Albert I inherited the main county of Arnstein. This main line went extinct after the abdication, in 1292, of the two brothers who were co-ruling at the time; both joined the Teutonic Order. Their possessions were eventually inherited to the noble lords of Schraplau, the princes of Anhalt, the counts of Mansfeld and the Archbishopric of Magdeburg. Johann Siebmacher places the end of the family at the beginning of the 14th century, with Günther von Arnstein's death in 1321
 * Gebhard inherited the County of Lindow-Ruppin, which went on to make powerful alliances with eastern German lords as the House of Nikloting of Mecklenburg of the House of Griffins from Pomerania, or even the main Electorate of Saxony. The family eventually survived until 1524, when the last member, Wichmann, died with no descendants. The county was inherited by Brandenburg. A relative of Wichmann sued the Imperial Chamber Court against the seizure of the lordship in 1541, but the case was dismissed in 1562.
 * Walter IV inherited the Lordship of Barby-Mühlingen, which oriented its alliances to the Anhalt region and, like Lindow-Ruppin, to the main Electorate of Saxony. The count itself, in 1494, stretched from Mühlingen in the west, Walternienburg in the east, Rosenburg in the south and Zackmünde in the north. The lordship was elevated to a county in 1497, and achieved, in the same year, Imperial immediacy.

Coats of arms
The coat of arms of the main line of the family shows a silver, gold-armored eagle in black or red.
 * The branch of Lindow-Ruppin replicates the main line's design, with a silver eagle in red.
 * The branch of Barby-Muhlingen adopts a more different version: in its first and fourth quarters, the family adopts a red eagle in silver; in the second and third ones, it can be seen a silver flower with a golden center in red.

Table of rulers
(Note: The rulers in the table follow a single counting (as costumary in sources that call Albert X to the count of Barby who died in 1588), in spite of the different parts from where they ruled. This is not, however, a unanimous point of view; some authors choose to individualize the numberings according to the part; that's why, for example, Albert VII of Barby can be also called by some as Albert III).

Specific sources

 * Gerd Heinrich: Die Grafen von Arnstein (= Reinhold Olesch, Walter Schlesinger, Ludwig Erich Schmitt [Hrsg.]: Mitteldeutsche Forschungen. Band 21). Böhlau Verlag, Köln / Graz 1961, Zweiter Teil. Entstehung und Ausbildung der Herrschaften der Grafen von Arnstein, Grafen von Barby und Grafen von Lindow. VIII. Die Herrschaften Lindau und Möckern
 * Friedrich Heine: Geschichte der Grafschaft Mühlingen. Paul Schettlers Erben GmbH, Köthen 1900 (Online version)

General sources

 * Ernst Heinrich Kneschke: Neues allgemeines deutsches Adels-Lexicon. Band 1, Leipzig 1859, S. 113.
 * Leopold von Ledebur: Die Grafen von Valkenstein am Harze und ihre Stammgenossen: Mit 5 Abbildungen u. 2 Stammtafeln. 1847, S. 94.
 * Christian Friedrich August von Meding: „Nachrichten von adelichen Wapen“. Band 3, 1791, S. 10–11.
 * Karl Friedrich Pauli: Allgemeine preussissche Staats-Geschichte, bis auf gegenwärtige Regierung. Band 1, 1761, S. 588 ff.
 * Heinrich Leo: Vorlesungen über die Geschichte des deutschen Volkes und Reiches. Band 5, Teil 2, S. 1002f.