Beaufort-Spontin

Beaufort-Spontin is a noble family which held prominent posts under the Holy Roman Emperors in the Austrian Netherlands, their family seat having originally been in Namur.[1][2] A notable member of the family was Frederic August Alexander of Beaufort-Spontin, who became the first Duke of Beaufort-Spontin in 1782.[3] Cadets bear the title of Count or Countess. The members of this family now reside in Austria, but their origins are in territories in what is today Belgium.[4][5]

Beaufort-Spontin
noble family
Country Holy Roman Empire
Austrian Netherlands

United Kingdom of the Netherlands
Kingdom of Belgium

Austria-Hungary
Titles

History

The family is descended from the Counts of Beaufort, who held land near Huy in the early 11th century. The original family split into several branches, including those of Spontin and of Vêves (the present Counts of Liedekerke-Beaufort descend from the latter). The branch of Beaufort-Spontin settled in Freÿr in the early 15th century.[5]

Dukes of Beaufort-Spontin
  • Frederic August Alexander of Beaufort-Spontin (1751–1817), Count of Beaufort, Marquis of Spontin and of Florennes, was the son of Charles Albert (1713-1753), made Marquis of Beaufort-Spontin with princely rank in 1746, and of his wife Countess Marie-Marguerite de Glymes (1732-1755), heiress of the Counts of Glymes.[1] He was elevated to the rank of Duke in the Austrian Netherlands in 1782 and to Imperial count in 1789.[1] He was the Chamberlain of Archduke Charles of Austria in Brussels, and the Governor-General of the Netherlands on behalf of the Sixth Coalition Powers in 1814. He was also President of the Privy Council, Chamberlain, and Grand Marshal of the Court of King William I of the Netherlands.[6][1]
  • Frederic Louis Ladislas, 2nd Duke of Beaufort-Spontin (1809–1834).[7]
  • Alfred Charles August, 3rd Duke of Beaufort-Spontin (1816–1888),[8] son of the first duke's second marriage to Countess Ernestine of Starhemberg, became a hereditary member of Austria's House of Lords, receiving the title of Prince von Beaufort and the style of Serene Highness in 1876.[1]
  • Friedrich Georg Maria Anton Michael, 4th Duke of Beaufort-Spontin (1843–1916), was the son of Duke Alfred by his first wife, Pauline de Forbin-Janson. Although born in Brussels, he died on the family's entailed Bohemian estate of Petschau during World War I. By his marriage to Princess Marie Mélanie de Ligne he was the father of the fifth duke.[1]
  • Heinrich Maria Eugen, 5th Duke of Beaufort-Spontin (1880–1966), born in Paris, he too served in Austria's upper house until the abolition of the Austro-Hungarian empire in 1918, having in 1910 wed Countess Marie-Adelheid von Silva-Tarouca, by whom he was the father of the sixth duke. He died in Graz, Austria.[1]
  • Friedrich, 6th Duke of Beaufort-Spontin (1916–1998), was born in Bohemia and died in Graz, having been a farmer in Steiermark.[1]
  • Friedrich Christian, 7th Duke of Beaufort-Spontin (born 1944) is the son of the sixth duke by his 1943 marriage to Christiane Steinheuer. Born at Petschau, he is a physician specializing in nuclear medicine, formerly a professor at Graz University, and lives in Steiermark, Austria. As neither he nor his brother, Count Christian de Beaufort-Spontin (born 1947), has sons by their marriages, the ducal and princely titles have no heirs in the next generation.[1]

Notes
  1. ghda 2007, p. 7370-373.
  2. De Stein d'Altenstein 1867, p. 9.
  3. Goethals 1859, p. 294.
  4. Beaufort-Spontin 2009.
  5. Eupedia staff 2014.
  6. Poplimont 1863, p. 445.
  7. Gotha 1834, p. 75.
  8. De Stein d'Altenstein 1848, p. 60.
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References
  • Beaufort-Spontin, Frederic (8 November 2009), A word from Frederic, Castle and Gardens of Freÿr / Meuse (Belgium), retrieved 2017-05-01 — includes a photograph of the 7th Duke
  • De Stein d'Altenstein, Isidore, ed. (1848), Annuaire de la noblesse de Belgique (in French), Brussels: Auguste Decq, p. 60
  • De Stein d'Altenstein, Isidore, ed. (1867), Annuaire de la noblesse de Belgique (in French), Brussels: Auguste Decq, p. 9
  • Eupedia staff (2014), "Beaufort-Spontin", History of the ducal and princely families in Belgium, Eupedia.com
  • Genealogisches Handbuch des Adels (in German) (Fürstliche Häuser XVI ed.), Limburg an der Lahn: C.A. Starke Verlag, 2007, pp. 370–373, ISBN 978-3-7980-0841-0
  • Goethals, Félix-Victor (1859), "Frédéric-Auguste-Alexandre, duc de Beaufort-Spontin", Histoire généalogique de la maison de Beaufort-Spontin (in French), Brussels: Polack-Duvivier, p. 294
  • Almanach de Gotha (in French), Gotha: Justus Perthes, 1834, p. 75
  • Poplimont, Ch (1863), La Belgique héraldique: recueil historique, chronologique, généalogique et biographique complet de toutes les maisons nobles reconnues de la Belgique (in French), 1, Brussels, pp. 445-453

Further reading
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