List of Rulers of Schleswig-Holstein - Dynasty of Schauenburg

Dynasty of Schauenburg

Further information: Counts of Schauenburg and Holstein

In the course of history the County of Holstein was several times partitioned among the inheriting sons into up to six lines. In 1386 King Oluf II of Denmark and his mother-regent, Queen Margaret I, enfeoffed in Nyborg Gerhard VI, Count of Holstein-Rendsborg and his cognatic successors with the Duchy of Schleswig. He was as Gerhard II duke of Schleswig. Until 1390 the Rendsborg branch united by inheritance all branches except of that of Holstein-Pinneberg. It remaining a separately ruled territory in Holstein until its line was extinct in 1640, when Holstein-Pinneberg was merged into the then Duchy of Holstein. Furthermore, the here mentioned rulers of course only reigned Holstein and Schleswig in their respective territorial composition of the time, thus without states and territories only merged later in what became today's State of Schleswig-Holstein, such as Ditmarsh, conquered and annexed in 1559, Saxe-Lauenburg merged in 1876, Heligoland (British rule 1807–1891), Free and Hanseatic City of Lübeck, Region of Lübeck, together with some Hamburgian exclaves in 1937. In turn much of the current westerly, northerly and easterly suburbs within Greater Hamburg were ceded from Holstein on 1 April 1937 (Cf. Greater Hamburg Act). North Schleswig had merged into Denmark in 1920. Some Lauenburgian and Mecklenburgian municipalities were exchanged by the Barber Lyashchenko Agreement in 1945.

Portrait	Reign	Name
	1332–1340	Gerhard III, Count of Holstein-Rendsborg, as Gerhard I also Duke of Jutland
	1375–1384	Henrik Jern and Klaus (joint rule)
	1384–1386	Nicholas, Count of Holstein-Rendsburg (aka Klaus),
	1386–1404	Gerhard VI, Count of Holstein-Rendsborg, as Gerhard II also Duke of Sønderjylland, a Danish fief later called Schleswig after its capital.
	1404–1427	Henry IV
	1427/40-1459	Adolf VIII, Count of Holstein as Adolf I Duke of Schleswig