Eggenberg family
The Counter-Reformation with its struggles between the Catholic court of the Habsburgs and the Protestant nobility belongs to those moving times in which the destiny of some families changed abruptly.
While old, Protestant-minded nobles lost power and their native lands, families loyal to the emperor were raised to new nobility and garnered great wealth.
Upon the death of his father, Ulrich, Balthasar Eggenberger († 1493) inherited a stately property and successfully continued the commercial business and coin-minting operations.
This narrow connection with the imperial house and Balthasar's distinctive economic talent led naturally to a substantial increase of the Eggenberger wealth and fortunes.
Thus, he was also made director of the royal finance chamber of Hungarian king Matthias Corvinus, archrival of Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor.
It was the younger cousin of Ruprecht, Hans Ulrich von Eggenberg, from the main Graz line who brought the family to their ultimate prominence.
It was during this period that Hans Ulrich, having received a very good Protestant education at the Tübinger Stift, converted to Catholicism in order to serve his lord, Archduke Ferdinand.
In 1619, at the onset of The Thirty Years War, Archduke Ferdinand was elected Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor and, owing to his own faith and the strong influence of his devoted mother, Archduchess Maria Anna of Bavaria he prosecuted the Counter-Reformation in the Habsburg hereditary lands and the Holy Roman Empire which led to the Thirty Years War between Protestant and Catholic Princes in the Empire as well as the House of Habsburg and the House of Bourbon.
Hans Ulrich was awarded the Order of the Golden Fleece (an honor rare outside of the Habsburg Royal Family), appointed Governor of Inner Austria as well as First Minister of the Emperor, Duke of Krumlov and President of the Geheimrat.
Due to both his service to the Emperor and his cunning business prowess, Eggenberg amassed a large fortune and, in addition to the family seat in Graz, extensive territorial holdings throughout the southern regions of the Habsburg hereditary lands from Český Krumlov to Ptuj.
It was in 1625, as he was appointed to Governor of Inner Austria, while Ferdinand busied himself with the duties of imperial office in Vienna, that Hans Ulrich had the medieval family seat transformed into a lavish palace of the late Renaissance and early Baroque.
Today, this palace, Schloss Eggenberg stands as a museum and UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site owned by the State of Styria in Austria and managed by the Universalmuseum Joanneum.
The only son of Hans Ulrich, Johann Anton I von Eggenberg, Holy Roman Prince (1610–1649) enjoyed his education at, among others, the Jesuit University in Graz.
[4] Johann Seyfried focused his primary attention on the splendid arrangement of the Inner Austrian possessions awarded to him, above all, the completion of the accouterments of the Graz residence.
[4] Blazon: In the middle of a silver field a golden helmet-crown, trefoil shaped, accompanied by three golden-crowned, black-highlighted, red-tongued ravens, in the posture of a normal heraldic eagle each with head to crown.
What is unusual is the prominent use of this coat of arms on the grave of a middle-class merchant citizen whose family would not achieve noble status until the next generation.
