Vest Recklinghausen
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The Vest Recklinghausen was an ecclesiastical territory in the Holy Roman Empire, located in the center of today's North Rhine-Westphalia. The rivers Emscher and Lippe formed the natural border to the County of Mark and to the Essen Abbey in the south as well as to the Bishopric of Münster in the north. In the east a fortification saved the border to Dortmund and in the west it was bordered by the Duchy of Cleves. The Vest Recklinghausen was approximate to the district of Recklinghausen nowadays. However, additional parts of Gelsenkirchen, Oberhausen and Bottrop belonged to the Vest Recklinghausen.
[edit] History
[edit] Belonging of the Vest Recklinghausen
When the Vest Recklinghausen was first mentioned in 1228 it was possessed by the Archbishopric of Cologne and thus it belonged to the Electoral Rhenish Circle. The gubernatorial lived in castle Westerholt, roughly located in Herten. From 1446 to 1576 it was pleged to the lords of Gemen (now part of the city Borken) and since 1492 to the Lords of Holstein-Schaumburg. The administration of the Vest Recklinghausen was divided in about 1600 in two parts, the eastern part was further on administrated by Recklinghausen but the western part was now governed by Dorsten. The town of Recklinghausen including the parish of Recklinghausen and the parishes Ahsen, Datteln, Flaesheim, Hamm-Bossendorf, Henrichenburg, Herten, Horneburg, Oer, Suderwich, Waltrop and Westerholt appertained to the eastern part of the Vest Recklinghausen. On the contrary, Dorsten and the parishes Dorsten, Bottrop, Buer, Gladbeck, Horst, Kirchhellen, Marl, Osterfeld and Polsum pertained to the western part.
On 4 September 1614 Ferdinand of Bavaria commanded a forbiddance for every non-Catholic to stay in the Vest Recklinghausen for a longer period. Not until 1802 this inhibition was abolished when the Lords of Arenberg received the area. In 1811 it was added to the earldom Berg, which in 1815 became part of the Prussian province of Westphalia. The term ´Vest´, describing a judicial district, is still used in some markings, for instance in a local radio station and in a local museum.
