Dalberg

Noble German family whose ancestors in the 13th century were hereditary chamberlains of the bishop of Worms. The family is now extinct, but its last heiress married an Englishman and her son, John Dalberg-Acton, was created 1st Baron Acton.

Johann Dalberg (1455–1503), Bishop of Worms, was a great Renaissance scholar; he founded the first Greek professorship at Heidelberg University. Karl Theodor von Dalberg (1744–1817), last prince–archbishop of Mainz, ruined his career by siding with Napoleon, who made him prince–primate of the short-lived Confederation of the Rhine in 1807.