Ficquelmont family

House of Ficquelmont
House of Ficquelmont, Coat of Arms[1]
Country	Duchy of Lorraine Holy Roman Empire Kingdom of France Austrian Empire Austro-Hungarian empire Russian Empire Kingdom of Belgium French Republic
Titles	Counts of Ficquelmont and of the Holy Roman Empire Counts of Ficquelmont (Austria) Counts of Ficquelmont de Vyle Counts of Parroy Counts of Mars-la-Tour Counts of Chaumont
Founded	c. 1030
Founder	Gerard de Ficquelmont
Cadet branches	Ficquelmont de Vyle Ficquelmont (French line) Ficquelmont (Austrian line) Ficquelmont (Dutch-Belgian line) Clary-und-Aldringen

The Ficquelmont family is a European aristocratic dynasty. This nine-century-old^[2] comital family originated in the Duchy of Lorraine where the Ficquelmonts have been lords of the name and knights from as far as 1030 and barons from as far as 1277. The family rose to opulent prominence as it became comital in the early 14th century. One of Lorraine's most illustrious lineage, the Ficquelmonts have spread across Europe as the Duchy merged into the Habsburg Empire then into the Kingdom of France and once again after the burst of the French Revolution. As a result of which changes, the family has been divided into several lines which have ranked among the prominent noble families of the Holy Roman Empire, Lorraine, Austria and Hungary, France, Russia, the Netherlands and Belgium. Since 1948, the family has lived on through cognatic lines.

Origins

According to the legends, the House of Ficquelmont traces its origin back to the Merovingian times, some authors^[3] have listed its members since "Conrad de Ficquelmont, who they say lived in 781".^[4] However, the family -comital since the 14th century^[5]- is formally known since the early 11th century with the named Gerard de Ficquelmont, knight, in the year 1030 and the complete proven genealogy begins with the descendance of Erard de Ficquelmont, knight, before 1277.^[6]

Because it is a Lorrainer family, it owns a dual nobility, both French and German. According to the classes of the French nobility, it is part of both the Noblesse chevaleresque^[7] and the Noblesse d'épée (Nobility of the Sword).^[8] According to the classes of the German nobility, it is part of the Uradel^[9] and Hochadle (with the form of address Hochgeboren then Erlaucht). The family's estates were originally surrounding their ancestral castle set in the ancient locality of Ficquelmont,^[10] in the current French region of Lorraine . From there the family has risen within the Lorrainer, Holy Roman, French and Austrian nobilities and eventually spread all across Europe following the French Revolution. Therefore, the ten-century-old^[2] high nobility Lorrainer family ranks among the most prominent high nobles of the Holy Roman Empire, Lorraine, Austria and Hungary, France, Russia and Belgium.^{[11][12][13][14]}

Lorraine and the Holy Roman Empire

Lorrainer Coat of Arms

the senior nobility of Lorraine

The House of Ficquelmont "belongs to the very ancient Chivalry of Lorraine, [where] it has long been one of the most prominent noble family due to its antiquity and alliances".^[15] Descending from the Capetian Royal dynasty,^[16] it is one of the oldest European continuous noble lineage^[2] as it has at been referred to as part of the nobility at least since the eve of the Holy Roman Empire.

The family members own numerous titles among which are Counts of Ficquelmont, of Parroy, of Champcourt, of Bathelémont, Counts of the Holy Roman Empire,^[17] Barons in Lorraine and Knights of Lotharingia. For centuries, members of the House of Ficquelmont had been some of the most significant Great Officers of the Ducal Court of Lorraine: lords chamberlain, lords master of ceremonies or lords commander of the Dukes. In the 17th and 18th century were:

- Count Leonard de Ficquelmont^[18] colonel of Charles IV, Duke of Lorraine, commanding the prestigious Blainville regiment;

- Count Robert de Ficquelmont, Great-chamberlain of Charles III, Duke of Lorraine;

- his grandson, count Jean-François de Ficquelmont,^[19] Great-chamberlain and colonel of the guard of Leopold I, Duke of Lorraine, commanding the dukal cavalry;

- his son, Reichsgraf Charles de Ficquelmont Great-chamberlain of Francis I of Lorraine, Holy Roman Emperor, colonel of HIM's cuirassiers commanding the imperial guard's cavalry;

- his son, Reichsgraf Jacques-Charles de Ficquelmont,^[19] colonel of the guard and Great-chamberlain of Francis I of Lorraine, Holy Roman Emperor, commanding the cavalry regiment of Kalchreuth then of Thun.

The Ficquelmonts, true to their knightly origin (European noblemen were originally mounted warriors who swore allegiance to their Sovereign and promised to fight for him), took part of the chivalry Orders of Saint John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and of Malta, of the Golden Fleece^[20] and of the Dragon. They also often fought as warlords at the service of France, Spain and the Papacy.^[21] The perfect illustration being Count Leonard de Ficquelmont,^[22] colonel of King Philip V of Spain who died in 1709 during the War of the Spanish Succession in Cataluna.

France and Austria

After Empress Maria Theresa of Austria had married Emperor Francis of Lorraine, the family entered the Austrian nobility, serving under the rule of the Habsburgs. But, by the Treaty of Vienna, the Duchy of Lorraine became part of the Kingdom of France. As member of the high nobility, the House of Ficquelmont was allowed by Royal decree to choose to serve and live as they pleased either in France or in the Empire.

Some Ficquelmonts who had followed Emperor Francis of Lorraine to the Imperial Court and therefore already established themselves as part of the Austrian nobility, chose to settle in Austrian territory. Of that tight branch are Reichsgraf Charles de Ficquelmont,^[19] Great-chamberlain of Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor, colonel of HIM's cuirassiers commanding the imperial guard's cavalry and his son, Reichsgraf Jacques-Charles de Ficquelmont,^[19] colonel of the guard and Great-chamberlain of Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor, commanding the cavalry regiment of Kalchreuth then of Thun. By the end of the 18th century, they had settled in large estates in the then Austrian Netherlands.^[23]

However, most of the family had chosen France. Count Charles Henri introduced all of his children to the Sovereign at the Royal Court of Versailles, such presentations were only granted to the members of the most senior noble families^[24] and established the Ficquelmonts among their French peers within France's high nobility. They start living between the Royal Court of Versailles and their ancestral estates in Lorraine where they sat as hereditary members of the upper house of the Parlement de Nancy, the ruling institution of French Lorraine that also served as the courts of appeal of the Royal province. During that period, the Ficquelmonts' primary seats were the grand châteaux of Dieuze^[25] and Parroy and their Hôtel of Nancy. The Ficquelmonts were also instrumental in founding and funding several Lorrainer religious institutions such as the Holy Cross College of Nancy, the Cathedral of Metz and the abbeys of Remiremont and Flavigny.

But such a life was bringing to a close as the Ancien Régime collapsed. By 1789, the French Revolution has started following the Storming of the Bastille, bringing sorrow to the family. The Ficquelmonts, as aristocrats, were targeted by the Revolution, and several members of the family were beheaded leaving the remaining ones no other choice than fleeing the country, joining fellow aristocrats as émigrés.

Europe

As a consequence of the French Revolution, the Ficquelmont family spread across Europe and remained divided into three main lines.^[26]

Austrian Empire

Count Charles Louis de Ficquelmont

Elisabeth-Alexandrine de Ficquelmont, princess Clary-und-Aldringen and her daughter

Part of the French Ficquelmonts chose to emigrate to Austria where the family had kept close ties (for instance, Reichsgraf Charles de Ficquelmont (1724–1792), had followed Francis I of Lorraine, Holy Roman Emperor at the Imperial Court of Vienna when he was 12 and had stayed there ever since serving as colonel of the Imperial guard and (from 1764) Great-chamberlain of Emperors Francis I and Joseph II^[27]) various estates and strong supports all the way to the Habsburgs themselves (for instance, Archduchess Marie-Christine personally placed count Joseph de Ficquelmont in Emperor Leopold II's care in a letter dated from January 30, 1792^[28]).

This branch took part of the counter revolutionary's Army of the Princes and Imperial Austrian Army. It is best represented by:

- Charles Louis, Count de Ficquelmont and of the Holy Roman Empire (Reichsgraf von Ficquelmont), born in the castle of Dieuze on March 23, 1777; he became one of the most powerful Austrian diplomat and statesman of his time and even succeeded Prince Klemens von Metternich as acting Minister-President of the Austrian Empire.

Count Charles-Louis married countess Dorothea von Tiesenhausen, granddaughter of Prince Mikhail Kutuzov, Masrshall of the Russian army and hero of the Napoleonic wars. Dorothea and Charles-Louis only had one child:

- Elizabeth-Alexandrine, countess de Ficquelmont by birth and princess Clary-und-Aldringen by marriage, last countess of the Austrian branch.

Netherlands and Belgium

Countess Ficquelmont de Vyle

The last descendants of the first Austrian branch had settled in what was Austrian Netherlands (nowadays Belgium) prior to the French Revolution. They had fled the country as it was occupied by the French during the French Revolutionary Wars then integrated into the Napoleon's Empire. But, following the fall of the First French Empire, the Austrian Netherlands became part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands that had just been created by the Treaty of Vienna, and the Dutch Ficquelmonts returned to establish themselves as part of the nobility of the newly founded kingdom. This branch had two lines:

- the first one, founded by Count Antoine-Charles de Ficquelmont (1753-1833), was allowed to bear the title count de Ficquelmont (graaf/gravin de Ficquelmont) which was recreated within the Dutch nobility.^[14] The Dutch counts de Ficquelmont, now extinct, remained faithful to King William I of the Netherlands following the Belgian Revolution of 1830. That line is extinct since the early 20th century.

-While the other line, founded by Count Florimond Aloïs de Ficquelmont (1763-1818), was allowed to bear the title count de Ficquelmont de Vyle (graaf/gravin de Ficquelmont de Vijle) recreated within the Dutch nobility;^[14] his grandson took up Belgium nationality in 1884 and therefore entered the Belgian nobility. That line is extinct in male line since 1948 and in cognatic line since 1991 but the surname has lived on through adoption with Jean d'Albis de Ficquelmont.^[29]

France

Count Maximilien Marie de Ficquelmont, French mathematician

Countess Clotilde de Vaux, Philosopher Auguste Comte's muse

Nonetheless, the French branch of the Ficquelmont family has subsisted through the progeny of Henriette Joséphine de Ficquelmont. Married to Mr Joseph Simon Marie, the surname has lasted as Marie de Ficquelmont. This branch descends from those of the counts of Ficquelmont who decided to remain in or return to France despite the Revolution and the subsequent wars: by the time of the Bourbon Restauration, count Charles-Henri and four of his five remaining children were to be found in France (the 5th one being count Charles-Louis de Ficquelmont^[30](see above)). To this day this branch of the family has been most prominent in French military, scientific and business fields: each generation has been distinguished by France's highest honor the Legion of Honor^[31]- almost a unique case in the Legion's history. From that branch are:

- Clotilde de Vaux (1815–1846), who gave philosopher Auguste Comte the inspiration for the Religion of Humanity entirely organized around the public veneration of Humanity through a Goddess (the Nouveau Grand-Être Suprême or New Supreme Great Being) made after her;^[32][33]

- Maximilien Marie de Ficquelmont (1819–1891), famous French mathematician who resolved one of the most difficult problem of equational mathematics by inventing the imaginary number i;^[34]

- Armand Marie de Ficquelmont (1909–1998), French physicist whose researches helped discovering heavy water and therefore developing nuclear physics;^[35][36][37]

- Eric Marie de Ficquelmont (born 1954), French businessman, historian and author,^[38] former managing director of multinational environment conglomerate Veolia.^[39]

Marriages and residences

view of "Ficquelmont Palace", St-Petersbourg

View of "Palazzo Ficquelmont-Clary", Venice

Marriages

The family is tied to various European noble families along which are the sovereign families de Vaudémont-Lorraine, de Salm, von Hohenzollern-Hechingen; the princely families von Clary und Aldringen, Kutuzov, Yusupov, Radziwill, de Ligne, Esterházy von Galatha; the dukal families d'Haraucourt, de Choiseul, du Chatelêt, de Joyeuse; the marquesal families de Beauvau, de Custine; the comital families de la Marche, Gournay de Clémery, von Butler of the Holy Roman Empire, von Tiesenhausen, Chotek, Sumarokov, de Baillet-Latour and many others.

Residences

There are Ficquelmont palaces in Venice (Palazzo Ficquelmont-Clary), Vienna and St.Petersburg (Ficquelmont Palace). The original family's castle in the locality of Ficquelmont (Thumeréville, current region of Lorraine, France) was burned down in 1877. However, many other estates were properties of the family over the ages including the Lorrainer châteaux of Parroy and Dieuze (those two serving as primary homes and center of administration of the Ficquelmont family during the late 18th century), Mars la Tour, Bathelémont, Moustier, Champcourt, Puxe. The Ficquelmonts also owned hotel particuliers in Nancy, Karlsruhe, Strasbourg and Prague.

View of "château de Puxe" (c. 1914)

View of "château de Woippy"

View of "château de Mars-la-Tour"

Titles and Blazon

House of Ficquelmont, Coat of Arms^[1]

Titles

^[40] The Ficquelmont family is comital since the 14th century^[5] and has been raised to Counts of the Holy Roman Empire^[41] with the style of address of Erlaucht (Illustrious Highness) in the 18th century by Francis I of Lorraine, Holy Roman Emperor.

• Lords of Ficquelmont and hereditary knights of Lorraine (known before 1130);
• Barons of Ficquelmont and Puxe (1277);
• Counts of Ficquelmont (1346);^[42]
• Counts of Mars la Tour (1473);
• Barons of Moustier (1507);
• Counts of Chaumont (1605);
• Counts of Parroy (1709);
• Counts of Ficquelmont and of the Holy Roman Empire (1736).^[43][44]
• For Count Antoine-Charles de Ficquelmont (1753–1833) and his descendants:
  • Counts of Ficquelmont (Title recreated within the Dutch nobility July 16, 1816), became extinct in male line in 1909; used as a courtesy title (France and Belgium) ;
• For Count Florimond Aloïs de Ficquelmont (1763-1838) and his descendants:
  • Counts of Ficquelmont de Vyle (Title recreated within the Dutch nobility 1822, then became Belgian after the 1830's Revolution), became extinct in male line in 1948; used as a courtesy title (France and Belgium).

Furthermore, the Ficquelmonts have been seigneurs (lords) of Puxe, la Tour en Voivre, Dieuze, Champcourt, Bathelémont, Flin and others estates.

Coat of Arms

The blazon of this family coat of arms is: Or, gules three enhanced pickets, ensigned with a passant wolf sable.

The family's motto is "Nul ne m'atteint"^[45] (modern French translation) (literally: "No one reaches me") meaning both "No family is more noble" and "No one could defeat me" referring to their 10-century-old noble legacy and their warlike origin.

Bibliography

• Alain Petiot, Au service des Habsburg, 1999
• Alain Petiot, Les Lorrains et l'Empire, 2005

References

Sources

• Alain Petiot, Au service des Habsburg, 1999
• Alain Petiot, Les Lorrains et l'Empire, 2005
• The French Nobility Book: Régis Valette, Catalogue de la noblesse française (Robert Laffont, Paris, 2007)
• Jougla de Morénas, Grand armorial de France, n° 15355
• Woelmont de Brumagne, Notices généalogiques, 7e série, p. 340.
• Poplimont, La Belgique héraldique: recueil historique, chronologique, généalogique et biographique..., t. IV, Paris : 1866.