Country Austria | Founded 1903 (1903) | |
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Titles von Ronspergheim (awarded in 1918) Founder Heinrich von Coudenhove-Kalergi | ||
Coudenhove-Kalergi is a noble Bohemian family of mixed European descent formed when Franz Karl Coudenhove (1825–1893) married Maria Kalergi (1840–1877). The Coudenhoves had been Counts of the Holy Roman Empire since 1790 and rose to great estate in the Netherlands and Belgium. After the upheaval of the French Revolution, they followed their dukes from the Low Countries into Austria. Maria's family enjoyed high status in Crete.
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History
The Coudenhove family dates back to the Duchy of Brabant nobleman and crusader Gerolf I de Coudenhove (died 1259) and, after it fought for the Habsburgs in the Dutch Revolt, it moved to Flanders before the Habsburgs and Coudenhoves were both driven to Austria by that war.
The Kallergis, who are Greeks claimed descent from the Byzantine Phokas family, which produced several generals and an emperor (Nikephoros II). During the Venetian rule over Crete, the Kallergis family was one of the most important Greek Orthodox families in the island.
The two families united when, on 27 June 1857 in Paris, Count Franz Coudenhove married Marie Kalergi, only daughter of Polish pianist Marie Nesselrode and her husband Jan Kalergi. The lands thus combined included the Zamato estate in the Carinthian mountains, the castle of Ottensheim in Upper Austria and the Ronsperg (Czech: Poběžovice) estate and castle in western Bohemia. Franz and Marie's daughter had 6 children, including Heinrich, the first graf to use the double-barrelled name. When his son Johannes Evangelist Virgilio Coudenhove-Kalergi was 24 years old, he asked the Emperor to give him the title Coudenhove-Kalergi of Ronspergheim (von Ronspergheim) and the Emperor granted his request.