Around 950, the Lords of Lipporn obtained the Esterau (the area near present day Holzappel) from Herman I, Duke of Swabia.
Emperor Ferdinand III raised the small Lordship to the free immediate County of Holzappel as a reward for the services Melander had performed while in the imperial army.
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With her he, had his only child, a daughter named Charlotte Elisabeth, later Countess of Schaumburg-Holzappel.
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He was buried in the princely crypt (the Melandergruft) in the Lutheran St. John church in Holzappel, which was known as Esten at the time.
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The older literature says that he was born in 1585; this was based on an erroneous inscription in his epitaph in the church of Holzappel.
She died in 1772 and was buried in the Melander Crypt in Holzappel.
She allowed refugee Huguenots and Waldensians to settle in the county, and in 1699 founded the Waldensian settlement Charlottenberg near Holzappel which was named after her.
Peter Melander left a fortune that allowed his widow Agnes to purchase the Lordship and Castle of Schaumburg in 1656, and merge it with Holzappel, thus forming the County of Holzappel-Schaumburg.