Fürstenberg-Weitra was a cadet branch of the

princely A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. The fema ...

House of Fürstenberg, originally from

Donaueschingen Donaueschingen (; Low Alemannic German, Low Alemannic: ''Eschinge'') is a German town in the Black Forest in the southwest of the States of Germany, federal state of Baden-Württemberg in the Schwarzwald-Baar ''Districts of Germany, Kreis''. It ...

Swabia Swabia ; , colloquially ''Schwabenland'' or ''Ländle''; archaic English also Suabia or Svebia is a cultural, historic and linguistic region in southwestern Germany. The name is ultimately derived from the medieval Duchy of Swabia, one of ...

, in present-day southwestern

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg ( ; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a states of Germany, German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million i ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. From 1744 onwards the landgravial line resided at

Weitra Weitra (; ) is a small town in the district of Gmünd in the Austrian state of Lower Austria. Geography The municipality is situated amidst the extended forests of the rural Waldviertel region, close to the border with the Czech Republic. It is ...

Castle in the

Archduchy of Austria The Archduchy of Austria (; ) was a major Princes of the Holy Roman Empire, principality of the Holy Roman Empire and the nucleus of the Habsburg monarchy. With its capital at Vienna, the archduchy was centered at the Empire's southeastern periph ...

, a

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

fortress close to the border with

Bohemia Bohemia ( ; ; ) is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic. In a narrow, geographic sense, it roughly encompasses the territories of present-day Czechia that fall within the Elbe River's drainage basin, but historic ...

. Though the Austrian possessions were not part of the Swabian

Principality of Fürstenberg Fürstenberg was a county (), and later a principality (''Fürstentum''), of the Holy Roman Empire in Swabia, which was located in present-day southern Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Its ruling family was the House of Fürstenberg (Swabia), House o ...

, the princely family owns Weitra Castle up to today.

History

Count Frederick IV of Fürstenberg-Heiligenberg (1563–1617) had acquired the remote Weitra estates in the Austrian

Waldviertel The ''Waldviertel'' (; ; Central Bavarian: ; ) is the northwestern region of the Austrian state of Lower Austria. It is bounded to the south by the river Danube, to the southwest by Upper Austria, to the northwest and to the north by the Czech ...

region by marriage in 1607. His grandson Herman Egon was raised to a sovereign prince by the

Habsburg The House of Habsburg (; ), also known as the House of Austria, was one of the most powerful dynasties in the history of Europe and Western civilization. They were best known for their inbreeding and for ruling vast realms throughout Europe d ...

emperor Leopold I in 1664. After the

Fürstenberg-Heiligenberg Fürstenberg-Heiligenberg was a county and later a principality in southern Baden-Württemberg, Germany, located in the historical territory of Heiligenberg. It was created as a partition of Fürstenberg-Baar in 1559, and it suffered one partition ...

line became extinct upon the death of Herman Egon's son Prince Anton Egon (1656–1716), the Fürstenberg-Weitra branch emerged when in 1744 his heir Prince Joseph Wilhelm Ernst of Fürstenberg-Stühlingen united all immediate Fürstenberg territories in Swabia under his rule and passed the Weitra estates to his younger brother

Landgrave Landgrave (, , , ; , ', ', ', ', ') was a rank of nobility used in the Holy Roman Empire, and its former territories. The German titles of ', ' ("margrave"), and ' ("count palatine") are of roughly equal rank, subordinate to ' ("duke"), and su ...

Louis Augustus Egon. Upon Louis' death in 1759, the landgraviate of Fürstenberg-Weitra was partitioned between his son Joachim Egon and his brother Frederick Joseph Maximilian Augustus of

Fürstenberg-Taikowitz Fürstenberg-Taikowitz was a cadet branch of the Princes of the Holy Roman Empire, princely House of Fürstenberg (Swabia), House of Fürstenberg, originally from Duchy of Swabia, Swabia in present-day Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It emerged in 175 ...

Landgraves of Fürstenberg-Weitra

*Louis Augustus Egon Posthumous (1744–1759) *Joachim Egon (1759–1828) *Frederick Egon (1828–1856) *John Nepomuk Joachim Egon (1856–1879) *Eduard Egon (1879–1932) Weitra line extinct, possessions fell back to Prince Maximilian Egon II as head of the House of Fürstenberg.

History

Landgraves of Fürstenberg-Weitra

See also