The Counts of Diepholz

Family legend has it that in the late seventeenth or early eighteenth centuries two brothers, descended from the dukes of Deefholts, made their way from Holland to India and established the roots of the present-day Deefholts family. [1] The town of Diepholz is located in Lower Saxony, now part of modern Germany. [2] The following extract is translated from a local history of the town:
Diepholz Schloss		“Construction of the Wasserburg castle began in the first half of the 12th century. It was completed in 1160 and occupied immediately. The builder named it Deefholt because it stood in a forest on marshy moor land. (Deef comes from the old Saxon devern, which means to tremble, shiver or shimmer. Holt(z) means woods or forest so Deefholt can be translated as ‘shimmering forest’).” [3] More recent investigations have established the construction period as spanning from 980 to 1030, based on dendrochronology carried out on a timber road found adjoining the castle in 1986.[4]
The earliest reference to the von Diepholz is to the nobleman Gottschalk von Diepholz, who was Bishop of Minden from 1097-1112, under opposition from a certain Widelo, who was “anti-bishop” until 1112 and took over as bishop proper from 1112 to 1119. Gottschalk was also Bishop of Osnabrück from 1109-1119, apparently undisputed! Both Minden and Osnabrück were military bishoprics which had been established by Charlemagne in the 9th century "in an effort to secure control over the Saxon wilderness of northern Germany". As Bishop, Gottschalk would have enjoyed considerable power as secular ruler of his own mini-states, including rights of taxation and coinage and to hold a weekly market, as well as judicial powers to enforce law and order. Later in the century, during the reign of the Emperor Frederick I – Barbarossa - there are also documentary references to Konrad (Cono) de Thefholte and his son Wilhelm de Thyefolt, in 1160. Barbarossa died in 1190 on his way to the Third Crusade, in which Richard the Lion Heart took a dominant role. There is no record of any of the Diepholz knights having joined the crusades! [5]			Charlemagne
Diepholz arms	The 13th century sees Konrad von Diepholz serve as Bishop of Minden from 1209-1236, followed by his brother Wilhelm I from 1236 to 1242, again directly succeeded by Johann von Diepholz from 1242-1253 and later by Kuno von Diepholz from 1261-1266. Agriculture remained the driving force of the economy, supplemented increasingly by trade, leading Minden eventually to join the Hanseatic League. There are records of marriages of the von Diepholz to members of the local nobility (eg Counts and Countesses of Hoya, Rietberg, Oldenburg and Limme) and the marriage of Rudolph von Diepholz to Marina, Princess of Sweden, is recorded in 1285. Ermgard von Diepholz, who married the Count of Oldenburg in the late 13th century, was great great grandmother to Christian I, King of Denmark, tracing a direct line to the Hannoverian George I of England.

During the 14^th century an agricultural market town developed around the castle. Now called "Depholte", it survived the Black Plague of 1348-1350, which killed an estimated one third of the population living between India and Iceland. It was granted a City charter by Osnabrück in 1380 during the rule of Johann II, who at the same time introduced a code of law, with Osnabrück courts to act in cases of arbitration.

The following century, Rudolph von Diepholz was at the centre of a major schism over the Bishopric of Utrecht, and ecclesiastical politics were further pursued by his brother Johann III, Graf von Diepholz, 44th Bishop of Osnabrück, from 1424-37. Rudolph himself assumed the seat of Osnabrück (without relinquishing Utrecht) from 1453-1455, and his nephew, Konrad III Graf von Diepholz, was Bishop from 1455-1482 and was buried in the Marienkapelle in St Peter’s Cathedral, Osnabrück. Later in the century, in 1489, Irmgard von Diepholz was invited by the cloister to occupy the abbey of Essen with her entourage. She herself did not become Abbess, but by establishing this connection she may have paved the way for her namesake to do some 85 years later.

The early 16th century saw the reformation take hold, and new protestant churches were built in the region during the tenure of Counts Friedrich I von Diepholz and Johann von Diepholz during the 1520s and 1530s. The castle may have fallen into disrepair during this period since, according to '600 Jahre Stadt Diepholz', it was fully reconstructed around 1550 by "der Edelherr Rudolph (died 1560) together with his wife der Grafin Margerete von Hoya (died 1596)."
	As the family progressively lost its grip on its ancestral seat of power, Irmgard II von Diepholz continued its passion for ecclesiastical politics, when she was chosen by the cloister as Princess-Abbess (Fürstäbtissin or Reichsäbtissin) of Essen in 1561, three years after Elizabeth I had succeeded to the throne of England. The Abbey of Essen, lying soutwest of Diepholz towards the Dutch border, was at that time the largest single landowner in the German Empire, and the Princess-Abbess wielded both ecclesiastical and secular power.

The last Count to reside in the Diepholz castle, Rudolph’s son Friedrich II, married Anastasia, Countess of Waldeck and had one daughter, Anna Margarethe. Friedrich died in 1585 at the age of 30 and was buried in the Marienkirch at Drebben, where his tomb remains intact. Anna Margarethe married Phillip III, Landgrave of Hesse, in 1610, effectively sealing the end of the von Diepholz dynasty as eponymous rulers of the county. She died in 1629. The district was invaded by Spanish troops during the Netherlands War of Independence and suffered further during the 30 years’ war (1618-48), when Gustavus Adolphus, the Lutheran king of Sweden, was doing battle in Northern Germany. Danish troops set fire to the town in 1626, and in 1637 it was conquered by the Swedish General Kretzerstine, who razed the castle. It was rebuilt by Duke Christian Ludwig von Luneburg-Celle between 1650 and 1663. He died (childless) in 1665 and was succeeded by his younger brother, George Wilhelm.

Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden

Following the marriage of Anna Margarethe von Diepholz no further mention has been found of the von Diepholz in Germany, although there are various references to members of the van Diepholt clusters who had settled in the Netherlands. There is also the emergence of several German family clusters, with no apparent direct interconnections and spelt variously Diepholz, Diepholt, Diepholtz and even Dieffoltz. The "von" has disappeared from all versions. These clusters are possibly descendants of collateral lines of the family, but it is equally possible that there is no genealogical connection at all. They occur at various locations, scattered across Hannover and Westfalen (some 50 kilometres south-west of Diepholz) and some in East Friesland, to the North. The Westfalen clusters are all listed as Evangelists and span intermittently from 1743 up to 1876.

There is also a Swedish connection with the birth of Anna Catharina Elisabeth Defholtz to Johan Georg Defholtz in 1741 at "Tyska Fors, Karlskrona, Blekinge, Sweden". Anna was joined by a sister, Beatha Margretha Defholtz, the following year.

Various members of one Diepholz cluster in Westfalen departed for the United States between 1857 and 1881. The central character is a Frederick Wilhelm Diepholz (1832-1923) who emigrated from Germany to Madison County, Illinois in 1857, and married a Christina Buesking later that year. He was followed by two brothers and a sister, and a string of other relatives. Descendants live in Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas, Montana and elsewhere in the USA. [6]

No documentary link has been found between Diepholz and the Deefholts family.

Utrecht

History: Index