County of Oldenburg

Origins

Count Elimar I appears in 1108, and his family built Oldenburg castle on the Hunte. The counts expanded over the marshes towards the Weser and the Jade, fighting the free Frisian peasants of Stedingen, who were crushed in a crusade in 1234.

Rule and society

In 1448 Count Christian of Oldenburg was elected King of Denmark as Christian I, founding the House of Oldenburg, which later ruled Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Russia and Greece in its various branches. Count Anton Günther kept Oldenburg out of the Thirty Years' War and was famous for horse breeding. The economy relied on cattle and dyke-building.

Decline and legacy

After Anton Günther died in 1667, Oldenburg passed to the Danish crown. In 1773 Denmark exchanged it with Russia, which gave it to Frederick August of Holstein-Gottorp, and in 1774 it was raised to a duchy. It later became a grand duchy and now part of Lower Saxony.