Counts of Cilli

The Counts of Cilli (Grafen von Cilli; cillei grófok, Celjski grofje) or the Counts of Celje were the most important late medieval noble family on the territory of present-day Slovenia. They managed the County of Cilli.

Risen as vassals of the Habsburg dynasty, at the time the comital house died out they held the rank of immediate counts (Reichsgrafen) and Princes of the Holy Roman Empire as well as many other titles in territories of present-day Central Europe.

Name and origins
The Lords of Sanneck Castle were elevated to comital status by Emperor Louis IV in 1341 at Munich, and received the title Cylie or Cilli derived from name of the Celje Castle in Lower Styria. In the early 14th century they had allied with the Austrian Habsburgs in their conflict against the Meinhardiner duke Henry VI of Carinthia around the Kingdom of Bohemia, making them Habsburg vassals in 1308. The Lords of Sanneck inherited the large possessions of the late Counts of Heunburg in 1322; the Celje estates itself became a property of the dynasty in 1333, not before years of feud against several rivalling noble dynasties. Frederick I, Lord of Sanneck, finally prevailed with the support of Otto the Merry, the Habsburg duke of Styria.

In a short period of time the Counts of Cilli owned more than 20 castles all over the territory of modern Slovenia and beyond through the marriages of their daughters. With their acquiring large estates in the adjoining duchies of Styria and Carinthia, in the March of Carniola as well as in the territories of the Hungarian Crown (including Croatia and Slavonia) their influence rose and they became one of the most powerful families in the area. Count Ulrich I of Cilli, a leader of mercenary soldiers, joined King Louis I of Hungary on his 1354 campaign into Dalmatia and, shortly afterwards, the Rex Romanorum Charles IV to his coronation at Rome. His son William married Anna of Poland, daughter of the Polish king Casimir III the Great. The Counts of Cilli were related by marriage with rulers of Bosnia and Polish and Hungarian kings. Also through the Barbara of Cilli the Counts were in kinship with kings of Bohemia.

Savior of the king
Their rapid rise continued after the 1396 Battle of Nicopolis against the Ottoman Empire, where Count Hermann II of Cilli saved the life of King Sigismund of Hungary, the son of late Emperor Charles IV. As a reward the king donated (1397–99) the city of Varaždin, the county of Zagorje, and many estates in Croatia to the family. In 1401 the Counts of Cilli were among Sigismund's supporters against the relucting Hungarian magnates. Their alliance with the Imperial House of Luxembourg became even closer through the marriage of Hermann's daughter Barbara of Cilli to the king in 1405. In 1418 Count Hermann II inherited the Carinthian and Carniolan estates of the extinct Counts of Ortenburg.

In 1410 Sigismund had been elected King of the Romans and was crowned Holy Roman Emperor in 1433. In 1436 he elevated the Counts of Cilli to the rank of Princes of the Holy Roman Empire (although they retained their title of Graf (grof)). The Habsburgs, whose strongest rivals they had become, reacted with a war that lasted until 1443, when an agreement of mutual inheritance was signed.

Count Ulrich II of Cilli was the most powerful member of the Cilli family. In 1432 he married Katarina Branković (c1418–1492), daughter of the Serbian despot Đurađ Branković. Ulrich held a large influence in many courts, which originated from the relationships the Cilli family had made in the past. Upon the death of the Habsburg king Albrecht II in 1439, he tried to get regency of Hungary, Bohemia and Austria through control over Albert's minor son Ladislaus the Posthumous. With such ambitions he got many opponents and rivals, such as the Hungarian Hunyadi family. After an unsuccessful claim to the Bosnian crown, Cilli obtained some territories in Croatia and Slavonia and in 1452 finally succeeded in forcing Emperor Frederick III to hand over the boy king Ladislaus to his keeping. Thus, Ulrich II became de facto regent of Hungary.

Murder in Belgrade
In 1456 after the death of his rival John Hunyadi, Ulrich II succeeded him as Captain General of Hungary. That initiated a plot by the Hunyadi family against Ulrich II, and he was assassinated by the men of John Hunyadi's son Ladislaus on 8 November in Belgrade.

With the death of Ulrich II the male line of the Counts of Cilli died out, and after a war of succession all of their estates and property were handed over to the Habsburgs on the basis of the inheritance agreement.

Legacy
Part of their coat of arms - the three golden stars on a blue background, which, as Lords of Sanneck, they had inherited from the once powerful Carinthian Counts of Heunburg in 1322 - was incorporated into the Emblem of Yugoslavia in 1920s and the Slovenian coat of arms in 1991. It is also the current coat of arms of Celje. In addition, all European monarchs descended from Christian IX of Denmark and his wife, Louise of Hesse-Kassel (a direct matrilineal descendant of Barbara of Cilli) are descended from the family.

The Lords of Sanneck or Barons of Soune, Counts of Cilli
The Lords of Sanneck (Žovnek) or Barons of Soune