Everything about House Of Esterh Zy totally explained
The
House of Esterházy (also spelled
Eszterházy) was a
Hungarian noble family in
Hungary since the
Middle Ages. From the 17th century they belonged to the great landowner magnates of the Kingdom of Hungary, during the time it was part of the
Habsburg Empire and later
Austria-Hungary.
History
Initially, the Esterházys were part of the low
gentry in the northern part of the
Kingdom of Hungary (today southwest Slovakia).
The family rose to prominence under Count Nikolaus Esterházy (1583-1645) and his son, Prince
Paul Esterházy (1635-1713). In the
17th century, after Nikolaus' acquisitions, the family split into four basic family lines:
- the older Forchtenstein (Hungarian: Fraknó) line : founded by Nikolaus Esterházy, main seat: Eisenstadt (Kismarton)
- the younger Forchtenstein line
- the Zvolen (Zólyom) line: founded by Paul Esterházy (died 1641)
- the Csesznek line: founded by Daniel Esterházy (died 1654)
In 1626 the Esterházys were granted the title of
Count and in 1712, the older Forchtenstein line received the title of (Ruling)
Prince.
The success of the family arose from the steady accumulation of land, and loyalty both to the
Roman Catholic Church and to the
Habsburg Emperor. The latter factor was perhaps the most important. A consistent theme of Hungarian history was an ardent and sometimes violent wish to become free of
Austrian rule, a wish that was finally fulfilled at the end of the
First World War. The Esterházy princes were consistently loyal to the Habsburg monarchy, and on several occasions rendered vital services to it in times of crisis. These included the Turkish
siege of Vienna in 1683 and the outright occupation of
Vienna by
Napoleon in 1809.
The family acquired its property in three principal ways: redistribution of land taken from Protestants in the
Counter-Reformation, redistribution of land conquered from the
Turks, and felicitous marriages. Most of these lands were situated in present-day Austria, Slovakia and Hungary. The family ultimately became the largest landowners in the Hapsburg Empire, and their income sometimes exceeded that of the Emperor.
Homes
The family derived its name from the settlement
Eszterháza,
Kingdom of Hungary near
Dunajská Streda (today Slovakia). The settlement doesn't exist anymore and isn't to be confused with the later castle of the same name which they inhabited since the Middle Ages. Since 1421 they became the owners of a property in
Galanta.
Another important seat of the Esterházys was in
Eisenstadt, in the
Schloss Esterházy, a palace built in the 14th century and rebuilt 1663-1672. Eisenstadt now lies in the Austrian state of
Burgenland, but at the time of the Esterházy princes (and until 1920), it was within the legal borders of the
Kingdom of Hungary.
The Esterházys maintained a number of other residences throughout the Kingdom of Hungary and
Transylvania, and those Esterházy princes who preferred the stylish life of the capital spent most of their time in Vienna. In the 1770s, Prince
Nikolaus Esterházy, who disliked Vienna, had a magnificent new palace constructed in
Fertőd (unification of Eszterháza and Süttör), Hungary. It was built on the site of a former hunting lodge. This is the most admired of the Esterházy homes, often called the "Hungarian
Versailles."
Nomenclature
The main line of the Esterházy family was generally bilingual, in
Hungarian (as a result of their ethnicity) and
German (as they were aristocrats of the Austrian Empire). Esterházys living in parts of the Kingdom of Hungary where other languages were spoken by the population also spoke those languages, especially
Slavic languages in
Slavic areas.
Some family members went by both Hungarian and (rather distinct) German names. Thus, Pál Antal (Hungarian) was the same person as Paul Anton (German), and Miklós József was the same person as Nikolaus Josef. In discussions written in English, the Esterházy princes are occasionally given English versions of their names, as in "Nicholas".
The family name is also rendered variously:
Eszterházy (Hungarian spelling),
Esterházy (German), and
Esterhazy (typographic convenience). The full family name since the 16th century was Eszterházy de
Galántha (later also styled
von/of Galanta).
Haydn
The Esterházy family is perhaps best known for its association with the celebrated composer
Joseph Haydn, who served as their
Kapellmeister. Haydn was hired by Prince Paul Anton in 1761, and worked for most of his years of service (1762-1790) under his successor Nikolaus.
During the following reign, that of Prince Anton (1790-1794), the Esterházy family mostly did without the services of musicians, and Haydn, retained on a nominal appointment, spent most of this time in trips to England. Finally, during the reign of Nikolaus II, Haydn performed largely ceremonial duties, principally consisting of composing an annual
Mass for the
name day of the Prince's wife (and Haydn's friend), Princess Maria Josepha Hermenegild (1768-1845). The aging Haydn continued to perform this annual service until his health failed in 1802.
The lines of the family
The first prominent member of the family was Ferenc Zerházy (1563-1594), who was elevated to the title of baron of Galántha (an estate his family had held since 1421) and took the name Esterházy. Family history since this time is described according to three lines of descent, each originating in one of Ferenc's sons: the Fraknó (or
Forchtenstein) line, the Csesznek line, and the Zólyom line.
The Fraknó (Forchtenstein) line became "the most prominent of the three".
Paul Anton was a musical prince; he played the
violin, the
flute, and the
lute, and compiled a large inventory of musical manuscripts. Paul Anton also played an important role as a patron of music. In 1728, his mother Maria Octavia, "probably at her son's instigation"
Nikolaus II commissioned the six late masses of Haydn noted above, as well as the
Mass in C of
Ludwig van Beethoven. At the first performance of the Beethoven Mass, the Prince criticized the work, and Beethoven left his house in a rage.
The Prince could play the
clarinet, or so it would appear from one of the portraits of him.
The splendour of Nikolaus II's reign was greatly diminished by a financial crisis that shook Austria in 1811.
Prince Paul Anton III [PálAntal] (1786-1866)
Served Austria in series diplomatic posts, and in 1848 was briefly Foreign Minister.
The family encountered financial trouble during his reign, and (according to the 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica), "the last years of his life were spent in comparative poverty and isolation, as even the Esterházy-Forchtenstein estates were unequal to the burden of supporting his fabulous extravagance and had to be placed in the hands of curators."
Prince [MiklósPál] (1817-1894)
Prince [PálAntal Miklós] (1843-1898)
Prince [MiklósPál] (1869-1920)
Prince [PálMaria Alois Antal Miklós Victor] (1901-1989)
The lifetime of this prince witnessed momentous, often catastrophic changes for the Esterházy family. At the end of the First World War, the Austro-Hungarian Empire was split up, and the family's land holdings thus came to be located in several different countries. The Second World War, however, was far more disastrous: the family was scattered during the war years, and at the end of the war the new Hungarian government carried out a comprehensive
land reform, "confiscating the land of gentry with estates of more than 50 hectares" . Only the land in Austria remained in the family's possession. Further, in the years after 1945 Hungary came under the rule of an authoritarian Communist regime sponsored by the
Soviet Union. Prince Paul endured a
show trial and was imprisoned in solitary confinement for 15 years.
Prince [AntonRudolf Marie Georg Christoph Hubertus Johannes Karl Aglaë] (born 1936)
The heir to the line is
Prince Paul-Anton Nikolaus Maximilian, born in Munich in 1986. The title of Prince has no legal standing in Hungary today, as noble titles were abolished in 1947.
Other members of the Esterházy family
A minor member of the Esterházy family was
Ferdinand Walsin Esterhazy, notorious for his role in the
Dreyfus affair.
Another was Joseph Eszterházy (nephew to Palatine Paul), the
ban of
Croatia between 1733 and 1741. Francis Eszterházy also held that title between 1783 and 1785, but he was opposed by Francis
Széchenyi.
The renowned contemporary Hungarian writer
Péter Esterházy is the grandson of count Móric Esterházy (1881-1960), prime minister of Hungary and one of the five biggest landowners of Hungary. After the regime change in 1989, Péter Esterházy refused to accept the return of any land or valuables nationalised by the communists.
Márton Esterházy is the younger brother of Péter. He was an excellent soccer player, playing for the Hungarian national team between 1980-1988 and took part in the world championship of
1986, in Mexico. He obtained 29 caps and scored 11 goals. At the club level, Márton played for Budapest Honvéd and also AEK Athens.
Count
Paul Oscar Esterházy was an immigration agent, who, in 1886, settled south of the present town of
Esterhazy, in
Saskatchewan, Canada with 35 Hungarian families from the vicinity of Kaposvár. His claim to the Esterházy name was never recognized by the Esterházy family, although he claimed he'd "incontrovertible proof of the legality of my claim and of birth right."
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