The County of Leiningen consists on a group of counties (some of them with that were ruled with Imperial immediacy), which were ruled by the Leiningen family. Most of these counties were annexed by the First French Republic in 1793, after French troops conquered the Left Bank of the Rhine during the War of the First Coalition. Several family branches subsequently received secularized abbeys as compensation, but shortly afterwards, these new counties were mediatized and the family lost its immediacy. Today, the only existing branch is that of the Princes of Leiningen. Origins The first count of Leiningen about whom anything definite is known was a certain Emich II (d. before 1138). He (and perhaps his father Emich I) built Leiningen Castle, which is now known as "Old Leiningen Castle" (German: Burg Altleiningen), around 1100 to 1110. Nearby Höningen Abbey was built around 1120 as the family's burial place. The first reliable mention of the family dates back to 1128, when Emicho, Count of Leiningen testified to a document from Adalbert I of Saarbrücken, Archbishop of Mainz. This family became extinct in the male line when Count Frederick II died about 1214 or 1220. Frederick I's sister, Liutgarde, married Simon II, Count of Saarbrücken. One of Liutgarde's sons, also named Frederick, inherited the lands of the counts of Leiningen, and he took their arms and name as Frederick II (d. 1237). Known as a Minnesinger, one of his songs was included in the Codex Manesse. Before 1212, he built himself a new castle called Hardenburg, about 10 kilometers south of Altleiningen. This was outside the county of Leiningen on the territory of Limburg Abbey, of which his uncle was the overlord (Vogt), which caused some trouble. His eldest son, Simon (c. 1204–1234), married Gertrude, heiress of the County of Dagsburg, bringing that property into the family. They had no children and Simon's two brothers inherited the county of Leiningen together: Frederick III (d. 1287) also inherited Dagsburg and Emich IV (d. c. 1276) Landeck Castle; he founded the town of Landau, but the Landeck branch extinguished with his grandson in 1290. Frederick III, who disliked sharing Leiningen castle with his brother, had a new castle built in 1238–41 about 5 kilometres northeast of Leiningen, called Neuleiningen Castle ("New Leiningen"). Frederick III's son, Frederick IV (d. 1316), had two sons, who divided the county into Leiningen-Dagsburg and Leiningen-Hardenburg. History Having increased