The Lords of Walsee were a German noble family between the 13th and 15th centuries. Taking their name from Bad Waldsee in Upper Swabia, they were originally

ministerials The ''ministeriales'' (singular: ''ministerialis'') were a class of people raised up from serfdom and placed in positions of power and responsibility in the High Middle Ages in the Holy Roman Empire. The word and its German translations, ''Minist ...

(unfree knights) in the service of the abbey of Weissenburg and the Staufers. They grew wealthy in the space between the Danube and the Iller. Under the patronage of a

Habsburg The House of Habsburg (), alternatively spelled Hapsburg in Englishgerman: Haus Habsburg, ; es, Casa de Habsburgo; hu, Habsburg család, it, Casa di Asburgo, nl, Huis van Habsburg, pl, dom Habsburgów, pt, Casa de Habsburgo, la, Domus Hab ...

king, either Rudolf I or

Albert I Albert I may refer to: People Born before 1300 * Albert I, Count of Vermandois (917–987) *Albert I, Count of Namur () *Albert I of Moha *Albert I of Brandenburg (), first margrave of Brandenburg *Albert I, Margrave of Meissen (1158–1195) *Alber ...

, they came to the Ennstal. In 1331, they sold Bad Waldsee to the Habsburgs.Gerhard Köbler
''Historische Enzyklopädie der Länder der Deutschen''
(2014), p. 803. By the acquisition of various lordships, they established several lines in Upper Austria. The lines of Linz and Drosendorf went extinct in 1400, that of Enns in 1483 and that of

Graz Graz (; sl, Gradec) is the capital city of the Austrian state of Styria and second-largest city in Austria after Vienna. As of 1 January 2021, it had a population of 331,562 (294,236 of whom had principal-residence status). In 2018, the popul ...

in 1363. They frequently held the office of '' Hauptmann'' (governor) in Lower Austria and

Styria Styria (german: Steiermark ; Serbo-Croatian and sl, ; hu, Stájerország) is a state (''Bundesland'') in the southeast of Austria. With an area of , Styria is the second largest state of Austria, after Lower Austria. Styria is bordered to ...

. In 1395, they acquired Duino Castle after the extinction of the local lords. They also acquired

Fiume Rijeka ( , , ; also known as Fiume hu, Fiume, it, Fiume ; local Chakavian: ''Reka''; german: Sankt Veit am Flaum; sl, Reka) is the principal seaport and the third-largest city in Croatia (after Zagreb and Split). It is located in Primor ...

and the coast in 1400. In 1465 and 1471, the Emperor Frederick III was confirmed as heir to Fiume.August Dimitz, ''History of Carniola from Ancient Times to the Year 1813 with Special Consideration of Cultural Development, Volume I: From Primeval Times to the Death of Emperor Frederick III (1493)'' (Slovenian Genealogy Society International, 2013 874, pp. 179, 226.Josip Banić, 'The Mystery of Merania: A New Solution to Old Problems (Holy Roman Empire and the Kingdom of Croatia-Dalmatia during the Investiture Controversy)", ''Historical Review, Ljubljana'' 75.162 (2020), pp. 296–327.

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