J States

JEVER

Area: 138 square miles
Population: 20,300 (1852)

Overview
"The inhabitants of this seigniory were anciently governed by their judges, or head-people and advocates, till the Frisians of Ruslingen in the year 1355, unanimously elected Edo Wimmecken Papinga the Elder, a man of war, for their governor, whom the inhabitants of Osringen and Warangen afterwards also accepted, namely in 1359, and who in the very same year began to build the houses and citadels of Jever and Friedeburg. From him were descended the succeeding Lords of Jever. Anna and Maria, heiress-daughters to Edo Wimmecken the Younger, suffered so much from the Count of East-Friesland, that in the year 1532 they made over in some measure their allodial and free seigniory of Jever in fee, together with the town, citadel, lordships, lands and people to the Emperor Charles V, as Duke of Brabant (some say of Burgundy) and Count of Holland, obtaining them again of him in perpetual hereditary fief. The succeeding Lords fought to receive the investiture at the court of Burgundy. In 1573, Maria appointed her cousin John XVI, Count of Oldenburg and Delmehorst, heir to her whole seigniories; whose son, Anthony Gunther, who died in the year 1667, bequeathed the seigniory of Jever in 1663 to John, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst; which princely house is possessed of it to this very day, but the reversion thereof is settled on the house of Oldenburg, in case the male and femal descendants of John of Anhalt-Zerbst should become wholly extinct...." (Busching, pp. 509-510)

Territorial Development & Dynastic History
1330: Chiefdom
1438: The state of Jever was founded, which was the first state to comprise all of Friesland
1573: Inherited by the House of Oldenburg

1575: Annexed to Oldenburg
1667: Annexed to Anhalt-Zerbst as a exclave; "...Anton Gunther of Oldenburg bequeathed Jever to his nephew, Prince John of Anhalt-Zerbst, who entailed it upon his descendants...." (Ungewitter, p. 424)

1793: Annexed to Russia; "...the male line of Anhalt-Zerbst became extinct, the Russian empress Katherine II, belonging to this line, inherited the dominion of Jever and entailed it upon her son and grand-children...." (Ungewitter, p. 424)

1806: French occupation
1807: Ceded by Russia to France
1807: To Kingdom of Holland
1810: To France
1814: Russian occupation
1814: Oldenburg administration
1818: Ceded to Oldenburg; "...the emperor Alexander ceded it to Oldenburg, which in 1823 took formal possession of it...." (Ungewitter)

Rulers of Jever
PAPINGA
1330-1341: Sibeth I Wimken (d. c1359), Lord of Hove & Oldenbrugge
1353-1414: Edo Wimken I, Ruler in Jever
1414-1433: Sibeth II
1433-1442: Havlo Harles, Lord of Wangerland, Ostringen, Rustringen and Bant

1442-1468: Tanne Duren
1468-1511: Edo Wimken II the Younger (in Jever)
1468-1488: Sibeth III (in Sibethsburg)
1511-1517: Christoph
1517-1536: Anna of Oldenburg

1536-1575: Maria

1575-1667: To Oldenburg
1667-1793: To Anhalt-Zerbst
Administrators
17 ?-1718: Haro Joachim von Closter
1718-1720: --- von Kötteritz
1720-1742: Johann Ludwig Fürst von Anhalt-Dornburg..
1793-1807: To Russia.
Administrator
1793-1807: Friederike Auguste Sophie v. Anh.-Zerbst.
1807-1810: To Holland
1810-1813: To France
1813-1818: To Russia
1818-1918: To Oldenburg