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The counts of Berg emerged in 1101 and became the most powerful dynasty in the region. In 1160 the territory was divided into two portions, one of them later becoming the earldom of Mark. In 1280 the counts moved their court from a castle on the Wupper river to the town of Düsseldorf.
The power of Berg was further enlarged in the 14th century. The county of Jülich was united with Berg in 1348. In 1380 the counts of Berg were elevated to dukes.
From 1521 the dukes of Berg ruled the duchy in personal union with Mark and Cleves (Kleve). Much of present North Rhine-Westphalia (except for the clerical states of the Archbishop of Cologne and Bishop of Münster) was ruled by the dukes.
The ducal dynasty became extinct in 1609Events April 4 King of Spain signs an edit of expulsion of all moriscos from Spain April 9 Spain recognizes Dutch independence May 23 Official ratification of the Second Charter of Virginia. July 6 Bohemia is granted freedom of religion. August 25 Galileo, when the insane last duke died. A long dispute about the succession followed, before the territory were partitioned in 1614Events April 5 In Virginia, Native American Pocahontas marries English colonist John Rolfe. October 11 Adriaen Block and a group of Amsterdam merchants petition the States General for exclusive trading rights in the area he explored and named " New Nether: Jülich and Berg were annexed by the Count Palatine of Neuburg, who had converted to Catholicism, while Cleves and Mark fell to the Elector of BrandenburgSurrounding but excluding the national capital Berlin, Brandenburg is one of Germany's sixteen Bundeslander (federal states). Lying in the east of the country, it is one of the new states created in 1990 upon the reunification of the former West Germany a. Upon the extinction of the senior dynasty ruling the PalatinateA palatinate is an area administered by a count palatine, originally the direct representative of the sovereign but later the hereditary ruler of the territory subject to the crown's overlordship. Germany More particularly, the Palatinate (German die Pfal in 1685Events February 6 James Stuart, Duke of York becomes King James II of England and Ireland and King James VII of Scotland. February 18 Fort St. Louis is established by a Frenchman at Matagorda Bay thus forming the basis for France's claim to Texas. June 20, the Neuburg line inherited the Electorate, and generally made Düsseldorf their capital until the Elector Palatine inherited Bavaria as well in 1777Events The Cornish language died out 2nd edition of Encyclopaedia Britannica published January 3 American general George Washington defeats British general Charles Cornwallis at the Battle of Princeton. January 12 Mission Santa Clara de Asis is founded in.
The French annexation of Jülich during the French Revolutionary wars separated the two duchies, and in 1803 Berg was separated from the other Bavarian territories and given to a junior branch of the Wittelsbachs. In 1806, in the reorganization of Germany occasioned by the end of the Holy Roman EmpireThe Holy Roman Empire ( German: Heiliges Romisches Reich was a political conglomeration of lands in western and central Europe in the Middle Ages. Emerging from the eastern part of the Frankish realm after its division in the Treaty of Verdun ( 843), it l, Berg became a Grand Duchy under the rule of Napoleon's brother-in-law, Joachim MuratJoachim Murat ( March 25, 1767 October 13, 1815), a marshal of France, was King of Naples from 1808 to 1815. Born as the son of an innkeeper, he rose in the French army to the rank of a general. He married Napoleon Bonaparte's sister Caroline in 1800, and. When, in 1808, Murat was promoted to the Kingdom of Naples, Napoleon's infant nephew, Prince Napoleon Louis (elder son of Napoleon's brother Louis Bonaparte, King of Holland) became Grand Duke, and the territory was administered by French bureaucrats. The Grand Duchy's short existence came to an end with Napoleon's defeat in 1813, and in the peace settlement that followed, Berg, along with much of the Westphalian region, was annexed to Prussia, forming a part of the Rhein province.