Re: von Frankensteins and Scheusslicher Lindworm?

There was a sort of feud within the Frankenstein family and though both sides of the family continued to live within Castle Frankenstein, the older branch lived within the inner castle and were buried in the old chapel, while the younger branch lived in the outer and newer part of the castle and were buried in Nieder-Beerbach at the foot of the mountain.
One Frankenstein was a pilgrim who sojourned to Jerusalem, travelling through Hungary and Transylvania about the time of Dracula's birth 1431-1433.In 1442 the Frankensteins had the support of one of Dracula's bitterest enemies--the Holy Roman (Germanic) emperour Frederick III.
The original immediate feudal suzerains of the Frankensteins were the Katzenelnbogens who died out in 1479. After that, the Landgraves of Hesse themselves were directly their feudal overlords. The ruling Landgrave at the time of the Reformation was Philip the Magnanimous 1504-1567 who wasfiery new convert to Lutheranism (Protestantism). This Landgrave Philip finally had to come to terms with the Holy Roman Emperour Charles V, a Roman Catholic, because Charles was the emperour and Philip had no choice; however, Philip felt differently about the Frankensteins. Because the Frankensteins were his vassals, Philip felt that he could pressure them about their religion. However, Ludwig von Frankenstein stood his ground and remained a Catholic.