Coudenhove-Kalergi


The Coudenhove-Kalergi family is a noble Bohemian family of mixed European descent, which was formed after Count Franz Karl von Coudenhove married Marie Kalergi. The Coudenhoves were Counts of the Holy Roman Empire since 1790 and were prominent in the Netherlands and Belgium. After the upheaval of the French Revolution, they went to Austria. The Kallergis family had enjoyed high status in Crete having been sent there by Byzantine emperor Alexios II Komnenos in the mid-12th century. They remained there during the Venetian occupation 1204-1669 and subsequently moved to Venetian held Ionian Islands. Their palazzo in Venice is still there.

History

The Coudenhove family dates back to the Duchy of Brabant nobleman and crusader Gerolf I de Coudenhove and after it fought for the Habsburgs in the Dutch Revolt, the family moved to Flanders before the Habsburgs and Coudenhoves left after the Austrian Netherlands was taken by the Revolutionary French Republic.
The Kallergis family is a Cretan family and claimed descent from the Byzantine Phokas family, which produced several generals and an emperor. During the Venetian rule over Crete, the Kallergis family was one of the most important Greek Orthodox families on the island.
The two families united when, on 27 June 1857 in Paris, Count Franz Karl von Coudenhove married Marie Kalergi, only daughter of Polish pianist Maria Nesselrode and her husband, Jan Kalergis. The lands thus combined included the Zamato estate in the Carinthian mountains, the castle of Ottensheim in Upper Austria, and the Ronsperg estate and castle in western Bohemia.
Franz and Marie had six children, including Heinrich, the first count to use the double-barrelled name. In 1917 when Heinrich's eldest son, Johannes Evangelist Virgilio Coudenhove-Kalergi, was 24 years old, he asked Emperor Charles I of Austria to give him the title Coudenhove-Kalergi of Ronspergheim, and the Emperor granted this request.

Family members

Coudenhove family