The Lordship of Wickrath (sometimes spelled "Wykradt") was a Lordship of the Holy Roman Empire

Holy Roman Empire

The Holy Roman Empire was a realm that existed from 962 to 1806 in Central Europe.It was ruled by the Holy Roman Emperor. Its character changed during the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period, when the power of the emperor gradually weakened in favour of the princes...

 located in western North Rhine-Westphalia

North Rhine-Westphalia

North Rhine-Westphalia is the most populous state of Germany, with four of the country's ten largest cities. The state was formed in 1946 as a merger of the northern Rhineland and Westphalia, both formerly part of Prussia. Its capital is Düsseldorf. The state is currently run by a coalition of the...

 around the castle of Wickrath. The Lordship was bordered by Jülich

Jülich

Jülich is a town in the district of Düren, in the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Jülich is well known as location of a world-famous research centre, the Forschungszentrum Jülich and as shortwave transmission site of Deutsche Welle...

 to the south, west and north, and the Archbishopric of Cologne

Archbishopric of Cologne

The Electorate of Cologne was an ecclesiastical principality of the Holy Roman Empire and existed from the 10th to the early 19th century. It consisted of the temporal possessions of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cologne . It was ruled by the Archbishop in his function as prince-elector of...

 to the east. Wickrath became an immediate Lordship in 1488 afrer it passed to the Knights of Hompesch. It was located in the Lower Rhenish-Westphalian Circle

Lower Rhenish-Westphalian Circle

The Lower Rhenish–Westphalian Circle was an Imperial Circle of the Holy Roman Empire. It comprised territories of the former Duchy of Lower Lorraine, Frisia and the Westphalian part of the former Duchy of Saxony....

, and from 1752 it was an Imperial Estate with a vote in the Bench of Counts of Westphalia

Bench of Counts of Westphalia

The Bench of Counts of Westphalia was one of the four comital benches of the Reichstag in the Holy Roman Empire. Collectively, the Counts exercised one vote...

.

Wickrath during and after the Holy Roman Empire

The first mention of Wickrath occurred in 971 where it was called "Wickenrodero Marca". Wickrath received its first church in 1200. It was ruled by the Lords of Broichhausen. In 1488 the Lordship of Wickrath was raised to an immediate lordship and was given to the Knights of Hompesch. It came to the Lords (later raised to Counts) of Quadt which renamed to Quadt-Wykradt in 1502. They were raised to an immediate state with a vote in the Bench of Counts of Westphalia in 1752. Wickrath, along with all German territory west of the Rhine River, was annexed to France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 in 1794 and the Counts of Quadt were later remunerated for their loss by gaining the City of Isny in modern Baden-Württemberg

Baden-Württemberg

Baden-Württemberg is one of the 16 states of Germany. Baden-Württemberg is in the southwestern part of the country to the east of the Upper Rhine, and is the third largest in both area and population of Germany's sixteen states, with an area of and 10.7 million inhabitants...

 in 1803. The Congress of Vienna

Congress of Vienna

The Congress of Vienna was a conference of ambassadors of European states chaired by Klemens Wenzel von Metternich, and held in Vienna from September, 1814 to June, 1815. The objective of the Congress was to settle the many issues arising from the French Revolutionary Wars, the Napoleonic Wars,...

 awarded Wickrath to the Kingdom of Prussia

Prussia

Prussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...

in 1814.