Principality of Auersperg | ||||||||||
Fürstentum Auersperg | ||||||||||
State of the Holy Roman Empire | ||||||||||
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Capital | Tengen | |||||||||
Languages | Alemannic | |||||||||
Government | Princely County | |||||||||
Historical era | Early modern era | |||||||||
• | To Habsburg Further Austria | 1522 | ||||||||
• | Auersperg raised to princely status | 17/18 September 1663 | ||||||||
• | Joined Council of Princes | 1664 | ||||||||
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Mediatised to Baden |
1806 | ||||||||
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The House of Auersperg (Slovene: Auerspergi or Turjaški) is an Austrian noble family with its roots in Carniola (present-day Slovenia). Former ministeriales in the Holy Roman Empire and the Habsburg Monarchy, they rose to princely status in 1653 and were appointed Dukes of Münsterberg one year later. From 1663 the Princes of Auersperg also held immediate estates around Tengen (in modern Baden-Württemberg, Germany).
The former edelfrei family was first mentioned as Ursperch in an 1162 deed issued by Duke Herman II of Carinthia at his residence St. Veit. Their ancestral seat was Turjak Castle in the March of Carniola, according to an engraving on site built in 1067 by one Conrad of Auersperg. The family name may derive from Ursberg in Swabia, their ancestors probably settled in Lower Carniola after the victory of King Otto I of Germany over the Hungarian forces at the 955 Battle of Lechfeld. The Auersperg coat of arms originally displayed an aurochs (German: Auerochs(e) or Ur), they held large estates from Grosuplje in the north down to Velike Lašče and Ribnica, rivalling with the Meinhardiner counts of Görz, the Carinthian Ortenburg dynasty and the Patriarchs of Aquileia.