Eltz

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Eltz is the name of a noted German noble family.

The first recorded instance of the name occurred in 1157 when Rudolph zu Eltz was mentioned as witness to the donation of a property deed by Emperor Fredrick I Barbarossa. At that time, Eltz lived in a small manor on the banks of the River Eltz, in what is now the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate.

The Eltz held power in the Electorates of Mainz and Trier. Jakob von Eltz (b. 1510) was one of the strongest champions of the Counter-Reformation and allied himself with the Jesuits in opposing Lutheran and Calvinist influence in the region.

In 1624, Hans Jakob zu Eltz was given the hereditary office of Field Marshal for the electorate of Trier. This made him the supreme military commander of the region in time of war, including leader of the Imperial vassals of this important region of the Holy Roman Empire. The Eltz family reached their greatest influence under the Electorship of Philipp Karl zu Eltz (b. 1665). He held the title of Prince Elector and Archbishop of Mainz, making him the most noble and one of the most powerful Catholic princes north of the Alps.

As a result of their service throughout the troubles of the Reformation and during the wars against the Ottoman Empire, the elder line of Eltz was raised to the position of Counts of the Empire by the Emperor Charles VI in 1733 in Vienna. The additional "Great Palatinate" privilege entitled the Eltz lords to knight others in the name of the Emperor, select notaries public, legitimate illegitimate children, confer coats of arms and crests, appoint judges and clerks, and release serfs from service.

The Eltz family's most important landholding outside Germany was in East Slavonia on the Danube in Croatia. In 1736 the Eltz family acquired the Lordship of Vukovar. This was the main residence of the Grafen von und zu Eltz until the family was expelled by the Yugoslav communist regime in 1945. After Croatia declared independence from Yugoslavia, Jakob Eltz returned to Croatia and became a member of the new Croatian parliament, where he represented Vukovar. During the Battle of Vukovar, the Eltz Manor in Vukovar was destroyed by intense shelling and the bodies in the Eltz tomb desecrated by Serbian forces.