GLEICHEN  , two

groups of castles in Germany, thus named from their resemblance to each other (Ger. gleich=like, or resembling) . The first is a group of three, each situated on a hill in Thuringia between Gotha and Erfurt . One of these called Gleichen, the Wanderslebener Gleiche (1221 ft. above the sea), was besieged unsuccessfully by the emperor Henry IV. in ro88 . It was the seat of a line of counts, one of whom, Ernest III., a crusader, is the subject of- a romantic legend . Having been captured, he was released from his imprisonment by a Turkish woman, who returned with him to Germany and became his wife, a papal dispensation allowing him to live with two wives at the same time (see Reineck, Die Sage von der Doppelehe eines Grafen von Gleichen, 1891) . After belonging to the elector of Mainz the castle became the property of Prussia in 1803 . The second castle is called Miihlburg (1309 ft. above the sea) . This existed as early as 704 and was besieged by Henry IV. in Io87 . It came into the hands of Prussia in 1803 . The third castle, Wachsenburg (1358 ft.), is still inhabited and contains a collection of weapons and pictures belonging to its owner, the duke of-Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, whose family obtained possession of it in 1368 . It was built about 935 (see Beyer, Die drei Gleichen, Erfurt, 1898) . The other group consists of two castles, Neuen-Gleichen and Alten-Gleichen .

Both are in ruins and

crown two hills about 2 M . S.E. from Gottingen . The name of Gleichen is taken by the family descended from Prince Victor of Hohenlohe-Langenburg through his marriage with Miss Laura Seymour, daughter of Admiral Sir George Francis Seymour, a branch of the Hohenlohe family having at one time owned part of the county of Gleichen .