HOHENLOHE, a German princely family, who took their name from the territory of Hohenlohe in Franconia, which, originally a countship and afterwards a principality, lost its independence in 1806, and is now included partly in Wiirteinberg and partly in Bavaria. They are first mentioned as possessing in the 12th century the castle of Holloch near Llffenheim. At an early period they extended their influence into several of the Franconian valleys, including those of the Kocher, the Jagst, the Tauber, and the Gotlach. The first count of the name was Gottfried, who was on terms of intimacy with the emperor Henry VI., and whose sons founded the lines of Hohenlohe-Bruneck and Hohenlohe-Holloch. The former became extinct in the fourth generation, and the latter in 1340 divided into the lines of Hohenlohe-Hohenlohe and Hohenlohe-Speckfeld. Of these the former became extinct in 1412, after the most of the possessions had been alienated through the marriage of the female heir; and the latter in 1551 divided into the present lines of Hohenlohe-Neuenstein and Hohenlohe-Waldenburg, which were elevated, the former in 1764 and the latter in 1744, to principalities of the empire. Hohenlohe-Neuenstein, which adopted Protestantism, became divided into the lines Hohenlohe-Neuenstein-Oehringen and Hohenlohe-Neuenstein-Langenburg, the former of which separated into the branches of Hohenlohe-Weickersheim and Hohenlohe-Oehringen, the one becoming extinct in 1756 and the other in 1805, after which their possessions were inherited by the Hohenlohe-Neuenstein-Langenburg line, which latter became divided into three branches—the Hohenlohe-Langenburg, the Hohenlohe-Langenburg-Oehringen, and the Hohenlohe-Langenburg-Kirchberg, the last becoming extinct in 1861. The line of Hohenlohe-Waldenburg, ...which remained Catholic, and in which was established in 1754 the order of the Phoenix, divided itself into two branches, the Hohenlohe-Waldenburg-Bartenstein and the Hohenlohe-Waldenburg-Schdlingsfürst, the former subdividing into the branches of Hohenlohe-Bartenstein and Hohenlohe-Jagstberg. Of the Hohenlohe family the following members are noted as having attained individual eminence.
I. Friedrich Ludwig (1746-1818), prince of Hohenlohe-Ingelfingen, a Prussian general, was born 31st January 1746. Entering the Prussian service at an early age he became colonel in 1788, and in the campaigns of 1792 and 1793, where he was commander of a division, he distinguished himself in several engagements. In 179 4 he gained a brilliant victory at Kaiserslautern, and in 1796 he was promoted lieutenant-general and appointed to the command of the army of the Ems. In the same year he succeeded to the principality of his father. Having been appointed general of infantry in 1800, he in 1805 commanded a Prussian corps between the Saale and the Thuringian Forest. He was severely defeated at Jena in 1806, and after the duke of Brunswick was mortally wounded at Auerstädt, he succeeded to the chief command, and led to the Oder the fragments of the Prussian army which capitulated at Prenzlau on the 28th October. On account of the blame to which this disaster exposed him, he had to retire from the army. He died at Slawentzitz, Silesia, 15th February 1818.
II. Ludwig Aloysius (1765-1829), prince of Hohenlohe-Waldenburg-Bartenstein, marshal and peer of France, was born 18th August 1765. In 1784 he entered the service of the palatinate, which he quitted in 1792 in order to take the command of a regiment raised by his father for the service of the emigrant princes of France. He greatly distinguished himself under Prince Condé in the campaigns of 1792-1793, especially at the storming of the lines of Weissenburg. Subsequently he entered the service of Holland, and, when almost surrounded by the army of General Pichegru, conducted a masterly retreat from the island of Bommnel. From 1794 to 1799 he served as colonel in the Austrian campaigns; in 1799 he was named major-general by the archduke Charles; and after obtaining the rank of lieutenant-general he wasappointed by the emperor of Austria governor of the two Galicias. Napoleon offered to restore to him his principality on condition that he adhered to the confederation of the Rhine, but as he refused, it was united to Würtemberg. After Napoleon’s fall in 1814 he entered the French service, and in 1815 he held the command of a regiment raised by himself, with which he took part in the Spanish campaign of 1823. In 1827 he was created marshal and peer of France. He died at Lunéville, May 30, 1829.
III. Alexander Leopold Franz Emmerich (1794— 1849), prince of Hohenlohe-Waldenburg-Schillingsfürst, priest and reputed miracle-worker, was born at Kupferzell near Waldenburg, 17th August 1794. By his mother, the daughter of an Hungarian nobleman, he was from infancy destined for the church; and she entrusted the care of his early education to the ex-Jesuit Riel. In 1804 he entered the “Theresianum” at Vienna, in 1808 the academy at Bern, in 1810 the archiépiscopal seminary at Vienna, and afterwards he studied at Tyrnau and Ellwangen. He was ordained priest in 1815, and in the following year he went to Rome, where he entered the society of the “Fathers of the Sacred Heart.” Subsequently, at Munich and Bamberg, he was blamed for J esuit and obscurantist tendencies, but obtained considerable reputation as a preacher. His first so-called miraculous cure was effected, in conjunction with a peasant Martin Michel, on a princess of Schwarzenberg who had been for some years paralytic. Immediately he acquired such fame as a performer of miraculous cures that multitudes from various countries flocked to partake of the beneficial influence of his supposed supernatural gifts. Ultimately, on account of the interference of the authorities with his operations, he went in 1821 tρ Vienna and then to Hungary, where he became canon at Grosswardein, and in 1844 titular bishop of Sardica. He died at Vöslau near Vienna, 17th November 1849. He was the author of a number of ascetic and controversial writings, which were collected and published in one edition by Brunner at Ratisbon in 1851.
See Paulus, Quintessenz aus Anfang. Mitte, und Ende der Wun-dercurversuche, welche zu Würzburg und Bamberg durch Mart. Michel und den Prinzen von Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst unternommen worden sind, Leipsic, 1822.
[1,041 words — estimated reading time: 6 minutes]
