The House of Hohenlohe () is a former German princely dynasty. It ruled an immediate territory within the Holy Roman Empire which was divided between several branches. The Hohenlohes became imperial counts in 1450. The county was divided numerous times and split into several principalities in the 18th century. In 1806 the Princes of Hohenlohe lost their independence through mediatisation initialized by Napoleon, and their lands became parts of the kingdoms of Bavaria and of Württemberg by the Act of the Confederation of the Rhine (12 July 1806), a confederation of client states of the First French Empire. In 1806 the area of Hohenlohe was 1,760 km² and its estimated population was 108,000. Having lost their Imperial immediacy, the Princes of Hohenlohe still kept their private possessions. Until the German Revolution of 1918–19, just as other mediatized families, they also retained important political privileges. They were considered equal by birth (Ebenbürtigkeit) to the European sovereign houses. In Bavaria, Prussia and Württemberg the Princes of Hohenlohe received hereditary seats in the Houses of Lords. In 1825, the German Confederation recognized the right of all members of the house to be styled Serene Highness (Durchlaucht), with the title Fürst for the heads of its branches, and princes/princesses for the other members. History The first ancestor was mentioned in 1153 as Conrad, Lord of Weikersheim, who according to some sources was the son of Conrad von Pfitzingen and his wife Sophie, illegitimate daughter of Conrad III Hohenstaufen, King of Germany. His son Conrad jun. called himself Lord of Hohenloch (or Hohlach), after he moved to Hohlach Castle (no longer existing), near Simmershofen, where the family had the Geleitrecht (right of escorting travellers and goods and charging customs) along the Tauber river on the trading route between Frankfurt and Augsburg. His brothers Heinrich I and Albert also took on the name Hohenloch (which later was to become Hohenlohe). The dynasty's influence was soon perceptible between the Franconian valleys of the Kocher, Jagst and Tauber rivers, an area that was to be called the Hohenlohe Plateau. Their main seats were Weikersheim, Hohlach and Brauneck (near Creglingen). Heinrich I of Hohenlohe died in 1183. His younger son Heinrich von Hohenlohe (d. 1249) became Grand Master of the Teutonic Order. His grandsons, Gottfried and Conrad, supporters of Emperor Frederick II, founded the lines of Hohenlohe-Hohenlohe and Hohenlohe-Brauneck in 1230, the names taken from their respective castles. The