| Country | Austria |
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Coudenhove-Kalergi is a noble Bohemian family of mixed European descent formed when Franz Karl Coudenhove (1825-1893) married Maria Kalergi (1840-1877). The Coudenhoves had been Reichsgrafs since 1790 and rose to great estate in The Netherlands and Belgium. After the upheaval of the French Revolution they followed their dukes from the Low Countries into Austria. Maria's family had a great name in Grecian Crete.[1]
The Coudenhove family dates back to the Duchy of Brabant nobleman and crusader Gerolf I de Coudenhove (died 1259) and, after it fought beside the Habsburgs in the Dutch Revolt, it moved to Flanders before the Habsburgs and Coudenhoves were both driven to Austria by that war.[2]
The Kalergis were descended from Nikophor Phokas (from the Byzantine Empire) and were at one stage rulers of Crete. They created their surname of Kalergis (later changed to Kalergi) in the 13th century, from kalon (beautiful) and ergon (action).
The two families united when, on 27 June, 1857 in Paris, Count Franz Coudenhove married Marie Kalergi, only daughter of Polish pianist Marie Nesselrode and her husband Johann or Jan Kalergi. The lands thus combined included the Zamato estate in the Carinthian mountains, the castle of Ottensheim and the Ronsperg estate and castle. Franz and Marie's daughter had 6 children, including Heinrich, the first graf to use the double-barrelled name.[3]