Home > Eltz

The first recorded instance of the name occurred in 1157 when Rudolph zu Eltz was mentioned as witness to the donation of a property deed by Emperor Fredrick I Barbarossa. At that time, von Eltz lived in a small manor on the banks of the River Eltz , in what is now the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate.

The Eltz held power in the Electorates of Mainz and Trier. Jakob von Eltz (b. 1510) was one of the strongest champions of the Counter-Reformation and allied himself with the Jesuits in opposing Lutheran and Calvinist influence in the region.

In 1624, Hans Jakob zu Eltz was given the hereditary office of Field Marshal for the electorate of Trier. This made him the supreme military commander of the region in time of war, including leader of the Imperial vassalsA vassal in European medieval feudalism terminology, is one who through a commendation ceremony (composed of homage and fealty) enters into mutual obligations with a lord, usually military conscription and mutual protection, in exchange for a fief. A bond of this important region of the Holy Roman EmpireThe Holy Roman Empire ( German: Heiliges Romisches Reich was a political conglomeration of lands in western and central Europe in the Middle Ages. Emerging from the eastern part of the Frankish realm after its division in the Treaty of Verdun ( 843), it l.

The Eltz family reached their greatest influence under the Electorship of Philipp Karl zu Eltz (b. 1665). He held both the titles of Prince Elector and Archbishop of Mainz, making him one of the most powerful CatholicGeneral meaning Catholic means universal or whole''. With respect to the Christian Church, the early Christians used the term to refer to the whole undivided church. It is in that sense that all Christians today claim ownership of the term, including Prot princes north of the AlpsThe Alps is the collective name for one of the great mountain range systems of Europe, stretching from Austria in the east, Slovenia, Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Germany, through to France in the west. The highest mountain in the Alps is the Mon.

As a result of their service throughout the troubles of the Reformation and during the wars against the Ottoman EmpireOsmanlı İmparatorluğu Devlet-i Aliye-i Osmaniye The Ottoman Coat of Arms Imperial motto: unknown The Ottoman Empire at the height of its power Official language Ottoman Turkish Capital İstanbul ( Constantinople) Sovereigns Sultans, the elder line of Eltz was raised to the position of CountsThis page is about the European nobility; for the baseball term, see count (baseball). A count is a nobleman in various European countries, of the equivalent rank of a British earl. Originally the title denoted the rank of a high official in the late Roma of the Empire by the Emperor Charles VI in 1733 in Vienna. The additional "Great Palatinate" privilege entitled the Eltz lords to knight others in the name of the Emperor, select notaries public, legitimise illegitimate children, confer coats of arms and crests, appoint judges and clerks, and release serfs from service.

The Eltz family's most important landholding outside Germany was in East Slavonia on the Danube in Croatia. In 1736 the Eltz family acquired the Lordship of Vukovar. This was the main residence of the Grafen von und zu Eltz until the family was expelled by the Yugoslav communist regime in 1945.

Material adapted from http://www.burg-eltz.de