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The House of Abensberg und Traun (now usually written Abensperg-Traun) is the name of an ancient Austrian noble family, originally from the Upper Austrian Traungau. It is considered one of the oldest extant aristocratic families in Central Europe.
The Abensberg und Traun family was first mentioned with Pernhart de Trune in 1114. Traun Castle is still today owned by the family. The Trauns are one of the 12 so-called "Apostle Houses", i.e. the families which had already played a historical role during the period of Babenberg rule of Austria (976 to 1246).
They were elevated to Imperial Counts in 1653, receiving the name Counts of Abensperg and Traun, after a Bavarian family, the counts of Abensperg, who had a similar coat of arms, and had ruled the county of Abensberg (Bavaria) from the 12th century until they extinguished with Niclas, Graf von Abensberg in 1485. Only count Ernst von Abensperg und Traun (1608–1668) was very shortly granted the fief of Abensberg when the Habsburg emperor Leopold I occupied Bavaria during the War of the Spanish Succession.
From 1656 the Abensperg and Traun family held a seat on the "Swabian counts' bench" of the Imperial Diet and in 1662 purchased the Lordship of Eglofs, a lordship with Imperial immediacy. It was sold to the Windisch-Graetz family in 1804. [1] [2]
To this day, the Abensperg und Traun family owns large estates in Austria, as well as a number of castles and fortresses.
Abensberg is a town in the Lower Bavarian district of Kelheim, in Bavaria, Germany, lying around 30 km southwest of Regensburg, 40 km east of Ingolstadt, 50 northwest of Landshut and 100 km north of Munich. It is situated on the river Abens, a tributary of the Danube.
Charles VII was the prince-elector of Bavaria from 1726 and Holy Roman Emperor from 24 January 1742 to his death. He was a member of the House of Wittelsbach, and his reign as Holy Roman Emperor thus marked the end of three centuries of uninterrupted Habsburg imperial rule although he was related to the Habsburgs by both blood and marriage. After the death of emperor Charles VI in 1740, he claimed the Archduchy of Austria by his marriage to Maria Amalia of Austria, the niece of Charles VI, and was briefly, from 1741 to 1743, as Charles III King of Bohemia. In 1742, he was elected emperor of the Holy Roman Empire as Charles VII and ruled until his death three years later.
Ludwig III was the last King of Bavaria, reigning from 1913 to 1918. Initially he served in the Bavarian military as a lieutenant and going on to hold the rank of Oberleutnant during the Austro-Prussian War. He entered politics at the age of 18 becoming a member of the Bavarian Legislature and keen participant in politics, endorsing agricultural and voting reforms. Later in life he served as regent and de facto head of state from 1912 to 1913, ruling for his cousin, Otto. After the Bavarian parliament passed a law allowing him to do so, Ludwig deposed Otto and assumed the throne himself. He led Bavaria during World War I.
Otto Ferdinand Graf von Abensperg und Traun, was an Austrian Generalfeldmarschall. The current spelling of the name, and the spelling used in his time, is mostly Abensperg.
The Austrian nobility is a status group that was officially abolished in 1919 after the fall of Austria-Hungary. The nobles are still part of Austrian society today, but they no longer retain any specific privileges. Austria's system of nobility was very similar to Germany's, as both countries were previously part of the Holy Roman Empire (962–1806).
The House of Schönborn[ˈʃøːnbɔrn] is a noble and mediatised formerly sovereign family of the former Holy Roman Empire.
Traun is a city in Austria.
The House of Hohenlohe is a German princely dynasty. It ruled an immediate territory within the Holy Roman Empire which was divided between several branches. The Hohenlohes became imperial counts in 1450. The county was divided numerous times and split into several principalities in the 18th century.
The Battle of Ebelsberg, known in French accounts as the Battle of Ebersberg, was fought on 3 May 1809 during the War of the Fifth Coalition, part of the Napoleonic Wars. The Austrian left wing under the command of Johann von Hiller took up positions at Ebersberg on the Traun river. The French under André Masséna attacked, crossing a heavily defended 550-meter-long bridge and subsequently conquering the local castle, thus forcing Hiller to withdraw. Ebelsberg is now a southern suburb of Linz, situated on the south bank of the Traun, a short distance above the place where that stream flows into the Danube River.
The House of Sinzendorf was a Bavarian-Austrian noble family with Upper Austrian origin, not to be confused with the Lower Austrian noble family Zinzendorf. The family belonged to prestigious circle of high nobility families, but died out in 1822 in the male line.
The House of Harrach is an old and influential Bohemian and Austro-German noble family. The Grafen (Counts) of Harrach were among the most prominent families in the Habsburg Empire. As one of few mediatized families, it belongs to high nobility.
Illerkirchberg is a town in the district of Alb-Donau in Baden-Württemberg in Germany.
The Lordship of Eglofs was an estate of the Holy Roman Empire, in the Württemberg Allgäu, located around the village of Eglofs, now in Argenbühl in the rural district of Ravensburg in southern Baden-Württemberg, Germany. From 1668 it was an Imperial Estate in the Holy Roman Empire with a seat on the Bench of Counts of Swabia. It was owned by Abensperg und Traun until 1804, when they sold it to Windisch-Grätz. Two years later, Eglofs was mediatised to the Kingdom of Württemberg.
The House of Limburg-Stirum, which adopted its name in the 12th century from the immediate county of Limburg an der Lenne in what is now Germany, is one of the oldest families in Europe. It is the eldest and only surviving branch of the House of Berg, which was among the most powerful dynasties in the region of the lower Rhine during the Middle Ages. Some historians link them to an even older dynasty, the Ezzonen, going back to the 9th century.
Hohengeroldseck was a state of the Holy Roman Empire. It was founded by the House of Geroldseck, a German noble family which arrived in the Ortenau region of Swabia reputedly in 948, though the first mention of the family is documented in the 1080s. The family line went extinct in 1634 and was succeeded by the Kronberg and Leyen families. In 1806, the county was raised to a Principality and adopted the family name of Leyen. Late in 1813, the Principality was mediatized by Austria and its name reverted to Hohengeroldseck, but the history of the state ended when Austria ceded it to the Grand Duchy of Baden in 1819 and merged with the district of Lahr in 1831.
The House of Schönburg is an old European noble family of princely and historically sovereign rank. It formerly owned large properties in present-day Saxony, Thuringia and Bohemia. As a former ruling and mediatized family, it belongs to the Hochadel. The family today includes a princely and a comital branch.
The House of Khevenhüller is the name of an old Carinthian noble family, documented there since 1356, with its ancestral seat at Landskron Castle. In the 16th century, the family split into the two branches of Khevenhüller-Frankenburg, Imperial Counts from 1593, and Khevenhüller-Hochosterwitz, raised to Imperial Counts in 1725 and, as Khevenhüller-Metsch, to princely rank (Fürsten) in 1763. The family belongs to high nobility.
Gundakar of Liechtenstein was a member of the House of Liechtenstein and as such the owner of a large estate. He also served the Habsburg dynasty.
The County of Schaunberg was a state of the Holy Roman Empire, located in present-day Upper Austria. It roughly corresponded to the modern Hausruckviertel. Its seat was the castle of Schaunberg, Hartkirchen.
Nikolaus VI Graf Pálffy von Erdőd was a Hungarian nobleman, Imperial Field marshal and Palatine of Hungary.
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