Primi oder ultimi inter pares? : zum Titularaufstieg der Liechtensteiner im 17.–18. Jahrhundert (aus der Sicht der Länder der böhmischen Krone)

The study examines the issue of the acquisition of a princely title by Karl of Liechtenstein, which was granted to him in 1608 by the Austrian archduke, Hungarian king and Moravian margrave Matthias. In the first part, it focuses on the issue of the authority through which Matthias could award one of the highest aristocratic titles in the Holy Roman Empire including the Habsburg monarchy. A historical-legal, diplomatics and sigillography analysis of the origin of the princely privilege proves that Matthias did so in the form of an "usurpation" of the traditional imperial ennoblement right. The first part of the study simultaneously concerns the question of the historical circumstances which led to the Liechtensteins' titular elevation. In the second part of the study, the author indicates the efforts made by Karl of Liechtenstein, his brothers and especially Karl's descendants to gain for recognition of the princely title from the direct imperial power and its use for the acquisition of immediate imperial principality, which through the Liechtenstein primogeniture would ensure the exceptionally politically and socially prestigious membership of the collegium of the imperial princes. This aim was in fact fulfilled only in the first half of the 18th century by the purchase of the Schellenberg and Vaduz estates and their elevation to immediate imperial principality. Although the Liechtensteins were the first of a number of so-called new princes from the milieu of the Habsburg monarchy of the 17th century, as they strove to rise among the elite of imperial society they were overtaken by other new princes: the Wallensteins, Auerspergs, Lobkowitzs, Dietrichsteins and Schwarzenbergs.