House of Liechtenstein
The House of Liechtenstein, from which the principality takes its name, is the family which reigns by hereditary right over the principality of Liechtenstein. Only dynastic members of the family are eligible to inherit the throne. The dynasty's membership, rights and responsibilities are defined by a law of the family, which is enforced by the reigning prince and may be altered by vote among the family's dynasts, but which may not be altered by the Government or Parliament of Liechtenstein.
History
The family originates from Liechtenstein Castle in Lower Austria, which the family possessed from at least 1136 to the 13th century, and from 1807 onwards.The progenitor Hugo von Liechtenstein built Liechtenstein Castle around 1122-36 on a fief that he received from the Babenberg margraves of Austria. He also received Petronell on the Danube and Rohrau Castle, near the then border with the Kingdom of Hungary, at first as a fief, from 1142 as a free property.
Heinrich I, lord of Liechtenstein and Petronell, was given the lordship of Nikolsburg in southern Moravia as free property from Ottokar II of Bohemia, whom he supported politically, in 1249. It remained one of the most important seats until it was sold in 1560. In 1394, John I of Liechtenstein, lord of Nikolsburg, acquired the Feldsberg estate. When he fell out of favor with Albert III, Duke of Austria, for whom he had long conducted government business, he lost his lands south of the Danube, but could keep Nikolsburg because Bohemia and Moravia did not come to the Habsburgs until 1526.
Through the centuries, the dynasty acquired vast swathes of land, predominantly in Moravia, Lower Austria, Silesia and Styria, though in all cases, these territories were parts of countries that were ruled by other dynasties, particularly the House of Habsburg, to whom several Liechtenstein princes served as close advisers.
At the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries, the three brothers Karl, Maximilian and Gundakar initiated a new period in the family history. The nobility and population in Austria, Hungary, and Bohemia had predominantly converted to Protestantism during the Reformation period of the 16th century; however, the three brothers converted back to the Catholic faith at the right time before the outbreak of the mainly religiously motivated Thirty Years' War. The Habsburgs, who ruled the Holy Roman Empire almost continuously until 1806 as Holy Roman Emperors, had always preserved their Catholic faith. The three brothers supported the ultra-catholic Emperor Ferdinand II in crushing the Bohemian Revolt. Maximilian, as Field Marshal, won the Battle of White Mountain. On diplomatic missions, Gundaker prepared the Catholic League, which fought for the Habsburgs in the Thirty Years' War. Karl restored order as Viceroy of Bohemia and oversaw the arrests and executions of the 27 Protestant leaders of the uprising. For this they were all three made Princes of the Holy Roman Empire. In addition, they were able to cheaply acquire huge lands from expelled and dispossessed Protestant nobles in Bohemia and Moravia, especially since Karl himself, as the Emperor's representative, carried out these confiscations. He also received the Duchy of Troppau and the Duchy of Krnov in Silesia from the Emperor. The respective Fürst still holds these two ducal titles to this day.
The Moravian and Bohemian possessions acquired at the time included: Bučovice, Moravská Třebová, Moravský Krumlov, Uherský Ostroh, Šternberk and a palace in Prague. In 1802 Velké Losiny was added. Most of these estates remained in the possession of the princely house until Czechoslovakia expropriated them in 1945. In 1622, Maximilian founded a monastery in Vranov, in whose family crypt almost all Liechtenstein princes were buried, until a new crypt was built in Vaduz in 1960.
Despite all the extensive land acquisitions, the rise of the House of Liechtenstein was still missing the decisive factor: Although they bore the title of Princes in the Empire, this was only an honorary title, because the family did not yet possess any territory with semi-sovereignty within the Empire. All their lands were fiefs granted to them by the Habsburg emperor in his capacity as both Bohemian king and Austrian archduke, but none of them depended directly on the Imperial crown, the group of so-called immediate territories that formed the apex of the fief pyramid and enjoyed the highest prestige and, more importantly, were represented with hereditary seats in the Imperial Diet. The then head of the family, Prince Hans-Adam I, was able to arrange the purchase from the Hohenems family of the minuscule Lordship of Schellenberg in 1699, and the County of Vaduz in 1712. Schellenberg and Vaduz were indeed a lordship and a county respectively, which were directly subordinate to the emperor as feudal lord.
On 23 January 1719, after the purchase had been made, Charles VI as Holy Roman Emperor decreed Vaduz and Schellenberg to be united and raised to the dignity of a Principality by the name of "Liechtenstein", in honour of " true servant, Anton Florian of Liechtenstein", the successor of Hans-Adam I. On this date, the brand new principality of Liechtenstein became a member state of the Holy Roman Empire whereby the ruling princes became the monarchs of Liechtenstein and they finally received the longed-for hereditary seat in the Reichstag. However, the ruling princes did not set foot in their new principality for several decades, a testament to the pure political expediency of the purchases. Since the small country, far away from Vienna and Bohemia, consisted only of farming villages, the administration was installed in the nearest town, Feldkirch in Austria, where the prince had an office building built for his governor. Vaduz Castle, the center of the medieval county of that name, remained unused and was rented out as a restaurant for hikers until the late 19th century.
With the end of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, the Principality of Liechtenstein became sovereign and was recognized in this status by the Congress of Vienna in 1814/1815. Johann I became the first sovereign ruler. He acquired a number of castles and estates in Austria for his numerous sons, which are still mostly inhabited by their descendants today. The reigning princes continued to live in their magnificent Vienna residences, Liechtenstein City Palace and Liechtenstein Garden Palace, and on their Moravian and Bohemian estates, with Lednice and Valtice as their main residence. The border between Austria and Bohemia-Moravia, both member states of the Austro-Hungarian Empire under the Habsburg rule, ran through the park between the two castles. The local administration of the Principality of Liechtenstein was overseen by a governor, and the government office was located at the prince's seat.
It was not until the Occupation of Czechoslovakia by Nazi Germany at the beginning of World War II that the residence was moved from Valtice to Vaduz. The prince had opposed the annexation of Czech territory, including Valtice and Lednice, into Sudetenland, and as a consequence his properties were confiscated by the Nazis, and the family then relocated to Vaduz in 1939. Austria had also been annexed by Germany through the Anschluss in 1938.
After the Second World War, not only were the family's Czechoslovak properties expropriated, but in Allied-occupied Austria most of their properties were also located in the Soviet occupation zone and were therefore inaccessible until the end of the occupation in 1955. Due to the expropriations in Czechoslovakia as a result of the Beneš decrees in 1945, the family lost a large part of their land holdings, with about 1,200 square kilometers, 7.5 times the total area of the Principality itself. It was only able to restore its prosperity, including the upkeep of numerous castles in Austria and of the world-famous art collections, in the last quarter of the 20th century by expanding its small Liechtenstein bank into the internationally operating financial company LGT Group.
According to the Constitution of the Princely House of Liechtenstein of 26 October 1993, all members other than the reigning prince shall bear the titles of Prince or Princess of Liechtenstein and Count or Countess of Rietberg.
Rulers
- Joseph Wenzel, heir of Schellenberg and Vaduz. This nomination was against the family inheritance settlement of 1606, and Joseph Wenzel eventually returned these properties to Anton Florian in exchange for the Lordship of Rumburk.
21st-century princely family
- The Prince
- *The Hereditary Prince and Hereditary Princess
- ** Prince Joseph Wenzel
- ** Princess Marie Caroline
- ** Prince Georg
- ** Prince Nikolaus
- * Prince Maximilian and Princess Angela
- ** Prince Alfons
- * Princess Marie
- ** Prince Moritz
- ** Princess Georgina
- ** Prince Benedikt
- * Princess Tatjana and Baron Philipp von Lattorff
- ** Baron Lukas von Lattorff
- ** Baroness Elisabeth von Latorff
- ** Baroness Marie von Latorff
- ** Baroness Camilla von Latorff
- ** Baroness Anna von Latorff
- ** Baroness Sophie von Latorff
- ** Baron Maximilian von Lattorff
- Prince Philipp and Princess Isabelle
- * Prince Alexander and Princess Astrid
- ** Princess Theodora
- * Prince Wenzeslaus
- * Prince Rudolf and Princess Tılsım
- ** Princess Alienor Faye, deceased
- ** Princess Laetitia
- ** Prince Karl Ludwig
- Prince Nikolaus and Princess Margaretha
- * Prince Leopold Emmanuel, deceased
- * Princess Maria-Anunciata and Emanuele Musini
- ** Georgina Musini
- * Princess Marie-Astrid and Ralph Worthington V
- ** Althaea Georgina Worthington
- ** Aloisia Worthington
- * Prince Josef-Emanuel and Princess María Claudia
- ** Prince Leopold
- ** Prince Nikolai
- The Dowager Marchioness of Mariño
- * María Teresa Sartorius y Liechtenstein
- Princess Maria-Pia of Liechtenstein
- Princess Adelheid, Countess von Coudenhove-Kalergi
- Princess Hedwig, Countess de Quélen Cansou
- Prince Gundakar and Princess Marie
- *Princess Leopoldine
- *Princess Marie Immaculée
- *Prince Johann
- *Princess Margarete
- *Prince Gabriel
- Prince Stefan and Princess Florentine
- *Prince Lukas
- *Prince Konrad
- *Princess Anna
- *Princess Rita