Riedesel is a German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 family name that began to appear in legal documents in the early 13th century. They were of the knightly class, though not all had the official status of Ritter

Ritter

Ritter is a designation used as a title of nobility in German-speaking areas. Traditionally it denotes the second lowest rank within the nobility, standing above "Edler" and below "Freiherr"...

or knight

Knight

A knight was a member of a class of lower nobility in the High Middle Ages.By the Late Middle Ages, the rank had become associated with the ideals of chivalry, a code of conduct for the perfect courtly Christian warrior....

. Its exact geographical and temporal origins are uncertain. However, all of the early references are from the area of Hesse

Hesse

Hesse or Hessia is both a cultural region of Germany and the name of an individual German state.* The cultural region of Hesse includes both the State of Hesse and the area known as Rhenish Hesse in the neighbouring Rhineland-Palatinate state...

, and many served as vassals of the Margrave of Hesse in Marburg

Marburg

Marburg is a city in the state of Hesse, Germany, on the River Lahn. It is the main town of the Marburg-Biedenkopf district and its population, as of March 2010, was 79,911.- Founding and early history :...

. In later centuries, the men served a wide variety of higher nobility as men-at-arms, administrators, and counselors.

Lines of the family are known to have had residences and offices throughout Hesse including Frankfurt, Josbach, Camberg, Bellersheim, Melsungen, as well as in Westphalia. The names employed typically used "zu" to designate their main residence, e.g. the Wappen (coat of arms) of Krafft Riedesel zu Josbach dating from 1523 still hang in the church of Saint Elisabeth in Marburg

Elisabeth Church (Marburg)

St. Elisabeth's Church is a religious building in Marburg, Germany, built by the Order of the Teutonic Knights in honour of Elisabeth of Hungary...

. Following the example of the Margrave of Hesse to whom they were vassals, the Riedesels were early converts to the Lutheran faith.

With one significant exception, the various lines of Riedesel knights either died out in the male line by the early 17th century or disappeared into the ranks of unfree peasants. Without hereditary lands, they were dependent on fiefs from higher nobility in exchange for their services.

The exception was the line of Riedesels based in Melsungen. Hermann II (1407–1463) of this line married Margareta von Röhrenfurth after establishing himself as an able knight and adviser in the service of Landgrave Ludwig. Hermann took possession of Schloss Eisenbach near Lauterbach (Hesse), as well as other lands and rights. He also took over the office of Erbmarschall zu Hessen (hereditary counselor to the Hessian courts). With this achievement, the Riedesels of Melsungen-Eisenbach had a permanent, hereditary financial base. Their holdings were substantial in comparison with those of most free knights, but still quite minor within the patchwork of German states, secular and ecclesiastical.

In 1680, five of the male Riedesels were granted the title of "Freiherr zu Eisenbach" by the German Emperor, with that title passing to all of their male descendants who reached majority. The title is usually translated as "Baron" in English. The common property of the family was governed by complex arrangements that have kept it intact. Nevertheless, few had enough income to support the lifestyle of even minor nobility without entering the service of greater powers in their armies or administration. Some continued to live around Lauterbach, but many others resided elsewhere.

The best-known member of the family, in the English-speaking world at least, is probably General Friedrich Adolph Riedesel, Freiherr zu Eisenbach (1738–1800). Erroneously known to American historians as "von Riedesel", he commanded a regiment of soldiers from the Duchy of Braunschweig as part of the British forces during the American Revolution.

The noble Riedesels lost their sovereignty (and feudal rents and services) in the wake of the Napoleonic wars

Napoleonic Wars

The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...

, so pursued other enterprises included brewing and forestry.

Far more numerous in Germany and in America are Riedesels who clearly do not descend from the Riedesel Freiherren zu Eisenbach. Their traceable history begins around 1600 in the former Counties (Grafschaften) of Wittgenstein

Sayn-Wittgenstein

Sayn-Wittgenstein was a county of mediæval Germany, located in the Sauerland of eastern North Rhine-Westphalia. Sayn-Wittgenstein was created when Count Salentin of Sayn-Homburg married the heiress Countess Adelaide of Wittgenstein in 1345...

, immediately west of Hesse

Hesse

Hesse or Hessia is both a cultural region of Germany and the name of an individual German state.* The cultural region of Hesse includes both the State of Hesse and the area known as Rhenish Hesse in the neighbouring Rhineland-Palatinate state...

. A suggested ancestor was from the Riedesel zu Josbach line and settled in Wittgenstein perhaps a century earlier. No member of the Wittgenstein Riedesels is better known than the master builder Mannus Riedesel

Mannus Riedesel

Mannus Riedesel was a master builder in the early 18th century in the Counties of Wittgenstein and surrounding areas, now part of the district of Siegen-Wittgenstein in the state of North Rhine-Westfalen in the Federal Republic of Germany...

 (1662–1726).

Sources

The history of the Riedesel zu Eisenbach has been thoroughly researched and documented in a series of volumes.

1. Vom ersten Auftreten des Namens bis zum Tode Hermanns III. Riedesel 1500 (Dr. E.E. Becker, 1923)

2. Riedeselisches Urkundenbuch 1200 bis 1500 (Dr. E.E. Becker, 1924)

3. Vom Tode Hermanns III. Riedesel 1501 bis zum Tode Konrads II 1593 (Dr. E.E. Becker, 1927)

4. Vom Tode Konrads II 1593 bis zum Vertrag mit Hessen-Darmstadt 1593-1713 (Dr. Fritz Zschaeck, 1957)

5. Vom Reich zum Rheinbund 1713-1806 (Dr. Karl Siegmar Baron von Galéra, 1961)

6. Wege zu neuen Lebensformen 1806-1918 (Dr. Karl Siegmar Baron von Galéra, 1965)

7. Die Riedesel in republikanischen Staatsformen 1918-1965 (Dr. Karl-August Helfenbein, 2003)

The only real source on the Riedesel zu Josbach line and its many branches is:
Die Riedesel zu Josbach und ihre Josbacher Stammgüter. Hessiche Familienkunde Heft 1/1964, Heft 2/1964, Heft 4/1964. Gesellschaft für Familienkunde in Kurhessen und Waldeck e.V. (Dr. Ernst Wagner).

Concerning the origins of the Riedesel name in the county of Wittgenstein, from whence all Americans and most Germans bearing the name descend:
Die Entstehung des Namens Riedesel in der Graftschaft Wittgenstein: Bekanntes und neue Theorien. Wittgenstein, Blätter des Wittgensteiner Heimatvereins e.V., Volume 71, Number 4, 2007. (Dr. Paul Riedesel and H. Stefan Riedesel).

Also Riedesel web site has a variety of references and factual information.