The family of the Raugraves were descended from a division of the Wildgraves around 1148. The first Raugrave was Emich I, second son of the Wildgrave Emich VI and brother of Wildgrave Konrad. Perhaps on account of the rough and mountainous quality of his lordships Emich named himself Raugrave. The second line originated from a first heritage division of the county in Nahegau in 1113 was that of the Counts of Veldenz. The family seat of the Raugraves was the Baumburg near the present-day village of Altenbamberg south of Bad Münster am Stein, which was built before 1146. The sons of Raugrave Emich II divided his possessions, thus establishing the Stolzenberger and Baumburger lines. In 1253 the New Baumburg rose as the seat of a further line and the Stolzenberg line had died out by 1358. In the same year disagreements in arms took place about the Stolzenburg. The lords of Bolanden inherited the lands of the extinct Stolzenberg line and sold Simmern to the Electorate of the Palatinate in 1359. In 1385 the Altenbaumburg line died out and in 1457 the last member of the Neuenbaumburg line died. Most of the estate went to the Electorate of the Palatinate.
When the Raugrave possessions passed to the Electorate of the Palatinate, the Raugrave title was taken over by Charles I Louis, Elector Palatine who purchased the estates. In 1667 it fell to the children of the Elector's second marriage. In 1658 the Elector contracted a morganatic, arguably bigamous second marriage at Frankenthal to Baroness Luise von Degenfeld. From 31 December 1667, the Elector accorded Luise the title of "the Raugravine", and the corresponding titles of Raugrave/Raugravine, without territorial suffix, to each of her children, distinguishing them from his first, dynastic family; the Electress and Amalia, the former of whom managed the estates of her brother-in-law, the renowned general, Meinhard, 3rd Duc de Schomberg, 1st Duke of Leinster. When Luise died her niece, Lady Maria von Schomberg, who had married her mother's cousin, Count Christopher von Degenfeld-Schonberg, inherited Stebbach. The estate remained henceforth among the properties of the Degenfeld-Schonberg counts, even after the town's merger with Gemmingen in 1974.
Property
The main properties of the Raugraves lie south of the Nahe in the Alsenz, south of Kirn, where the seat of the Becherbach, near Alzey, where they were seneschals of the Palatine counts, as well as in Simmern. Their castles were the Altenbaumburg, the Ebernburg, the Stolzenburg, the Naumburg, the Neu Baumburg and a castle in Simmern/Hunsrück.
Coat of arms
The stem arms of the Raugraves were vertically divided red and gold.
Literature
Dotzauer, Winfried: Geschichte des Nahe-Hunsrück-Raumes von den Anfängen bis zur Französischen Revolution; Stuttgart: Steiner, 2001,
Fabricius, Wilhelm: Die Herrschaften des unteren Nahegebietes. Der Nahegau und seine Umgebung; Geschichtlicher Atlas der Rheinprovinz 6; Bonn: H. Behrend, 1914
Köbler, Gerhard: Historisches Lexikon der deutschen Länder. Die deutschen Territorien und reichsunmittelbaren Geschlechter vom Mittelalter bis zur Gegenwart. 6. Auflage. Beck, München 1999,
