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Nikolaus III, Prince Esterházy (Hungarian: Esterházy III. Miklós, German: Nikolaus III Esterházy (Regensburg, June 25, 1817 - Vienna, January 28, 1894) was the ninth prince of the Hungarian House of Esterházy.
Life
Unlike his ancestors, Nikolaus didn't spent his youth in the Schloss Esterháza in Hungary, but in England, where his father, Paul III Anton, Prince Esterházy, was Ambassador for the Austrian Emperor. Nikolaus married the English Sarah Frederica Caroline Child Villiers (1822–1853), daughter of George Child Villiers, 5th Earl of Jersey and Lady Sarah Sophia Fane.
After his return from England, Nikolaus entered in the service of the new Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria, and accompanied him on his travels through Hungary and Transylvania. Like most of his ancestors, he received in 1862 the Order of the Golden Fleece.
In 1866, he succeeded his father, but under very difficult circumstances. In 1865 the Esterházy estates had been placed in the hands of curators until 1898, because of the enormous debts caused by his father's and grandfather's extravagance.
Nikolaus was forced to sell the family's collection of paintings to the Kingdom of Hungary. These paintings constitute the core of the collection of the present-day Museum of Fine Arts (Budapest).
He had 3 sons and was succeeded by the eldest, Paul IV, Prince Esterházy.