House of Hatzfeld


Hatzfeld, also spelled Hatzfeldt, is a German noble family.

History

They belonged to high nobility originally from Hesse. The family is first mentioned in 1138 and has its ancestral seat in Hatzfeld. In 1418 the family inherited Wildenburg Castle near Friesenhagen, a Lordship with Imperial immediacy, from the Lords of Wildenburg.
Melchior von Hatzfeld, field marshal in the Thirty Years' War, became the first count in 1635.
Franz Phillip Adrian became the first Prussian Fürst in 1741. The Hatzfeldt-Werther-Schönstein branch inherited Trachenberg and became Prussian Princes of Hatzfeldt and Trachenberg in 1803 and Prussian Dukes of Trachenberg in 1900. The Hatzfeld-Wildenburg-Weisweiler branch inherited Crottorf, Schönstein, Kalkum as well as numerous other properties in 1794 and became Prussian Princes of Hatzfeld-Wildenburg in 1834.

Members