Baron Pál Esterházy de Galántha (1 February 1587 – 17 January 1645) was a Hungarian noble, son of Vice-ispán (Viscount; ''vicecomes'') of

Pozsony County Pozsony county was an administrative county (Comitatus (Kingdom of Hungary), comitatus) of the Kingdom of Hungary. Its territory is now mostly part of Slovakia, while a small area belongs to Hungary. In 1969, the three villages that remained in H ...

Ferenc Esterházy. He was the founder of the ''Zólyom branch'' of the

House of Esterházy A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air c ...

. His brother was, among others,

Nikolaus, Count Esterházy Baron, later Count Nikolaus Esterházy de Galántha () ( Galanta, 8 April 1583 Großhöflein, 11 September 1645) was the founder of the West-Hungarian noble House of Esterházy which became one of the grandest and most influential aristocratic ...

who served as

Palatine of Hungary The Palatine of Hungary ( or , , ) was the highest-ranking office in the Kingdom of Hungary from the beginning of the 11th century to 1848. Initially, Palatines were representatives of the monarchs, later (from 1723) the vice-regent (vi ...

Life

He converted to

Roman Catholicism The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

from

Lutheranism Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched ...

in his youth. He served as chamberlain of

Gabriel Bethlen Gabriel Bethlen (; 1580 – 15 November 1629) was Prince of Transylvania from 1613 to 1629 and Duke of Opole from 1622 to 1625. He was also King-elect of Hungary from 1620 to 1621, but he never took control of the whole kingdom. Bethlen, sup ...

Prince of Transylvania The Prince of Transylvania (, , , Fallenbüchl 1988, p. 77.) was the head of state of the Principality of Transylvania from the late-16th century until the mid-18th century. John Sigismund Zápolya was the first to adopt the title in 1 ...

. Later he joined to the side of Matthias II of Hungary. He was appointed Knight of the Golden Spur after the coronation of Ferdinand II. Pál fought in the

Thirty Years' War The Thirty Years' War, fought primarily in Central Europe between 1618 and 1648, was one of the most destructive conflicts in History of Europe, European history. An estimated 4.5 to 8 million soldiers and civilians died from battle, famine ...

, against the Bohemian uprising. As a result, he was created Baron in 1619. He was seriously injured in

Moravia Moravia ( ; ) is a historical region in the eastern Czech Republic, roughly encompassing its territory within the Danube River's drainage basin. It is one of three historical Czech lands, with Bohemia and Czech Silesia. The medieval and early ...

. In 1626, he defended the fortress of

Nógrád Nógrád (; ) is a village in Nógrád County, Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to ...

and also participated in other battles against the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

. He acquired the lordships of Zólyom (today: ''Zvolen, Slovakia'') and Dobrovina from his brother Miklós, the Palatine. Baron Pál founded the ''Zólyom branch'' of his family.Esterhazy Wiki
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Family

Baron Pál Esterházy married to Zsuzsanna Károlyi de Nagykároly at first in 1614. They had three children: * Ferenc (1615 – 26 August 1652), killed in the

Battle of Vezekény The Battle of Vezekény () occurred during the 17th century Ottoman Wars in Europe. It was a major Hungarian victory. Tamás Esterházy was killed in the battle along with his younger brother Gáspár and his cousin László László () is ...

* Erzsébet (1616–1668), married to Baron István Hédervári de Hédervár in 1634 * Zsuzsa, died young (c. 1634) His first wife, Zsuzsanna died in 1621. Baron Pál married for the second time to Éva Viczay de Loós, younger sister of Baron Ádám Viczay de Loós. The marriage produced the following children: * Emenne (1626–1631), died young * Rebeka (1631 – after 16 June 1647) * Zsófia (1633 – 20 March 1688), married to Baron György Berényi de Karancsberény (1601–1677) in 1650 * Miklós (1634 – 19 August 1688),

Ispán The ispánRady 2000, p. 19.''Stephen Werbőczy: The Customary Law of the Renowned Kingdom of Hungary in Three Parts (1517)'', p. 450. or countEngel 2001, p. 40.Curta 2006, p. 355. (, , and ),Kirschbaum 2007, p. 315. deriving from title of župan, ...

(Count; ''comes'') of

Zólyom County Zvolen (; ; ) is a city in central Slovakia, situated on the confluence of Hron and Slatina River (Slovakia), Slatina rivers. It is famous for several historical and cultural attractions. It is surrounded by Poľana Protected Landscape Area, Po� ...

, castellan of Buják * Magdolna (1635–1708) * Sándor (1636 – 2 April 1681), heir of the Zólyom lordships * Ilona (1638 – 26 September 1651), died young * Gábor (d. before 1653) * Péter (d. before 1653) * Dániel (d. before 1653)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Esterhazy, Pal 1587 births 1645 deaths

Pal Phase Alternating Line (PAL) is a color encoding system for analog television. It was one of three major analogue colour television standards, the others being NTSC and SECAM. In most countries it was broadcast at 625 lines, 50 fields (25 ...

Hungarian barons Hungarian soldiers Converts to Roman Catholicism from Lutheranism People from Galanta 17th-century philanthropists