County of Montfort

Origins

Hugo, a younger son of the Palatine Count of Tübingen, received lands in Rhaetia around 1200 and named himself after Montfort castle in Vorarlberg. He founded the town of Feldkirch. His descendants divided into several lines, including Werdenberg, Feldkirch, Bregenz and Tettnang, holding lands around the eastern shore of Lake Constance.

Rule and society

The counts ruled castles, small towns and Alpine valleys, often allied with or dependent on the Habsburgs. One of them, Hugo von Montfort of the Bregenz line, was a noted poet of the late 14th century. Successive debts forced sales: Feldkirch passed to Austria in 1375 and Bregenz in stages in the 15th century, leaving the Tettnang line as the main survivor.

Decline and legacy

Deeply indebted after building their palace at Tettnang, the counts sold the remaining county to Austria in 1779, and the line died out in 1787. Tettnang passed to Bavaria and then to Württemberg in 1810, while Vorarlberg remained Austrian.