House of Schaffgotsch

The Schaffgotsch family is one of the oldest noble Silesian families extant, dating back to the thirteenth century.

The Schaffgotschs were first mentioned in the St. Gallen book of documents in 804 and 809, when they were domiciled in the Margraviate of Meissen, Franconia, and the Tyrol. Around 1240, the first Schaffgotsch appears in a Silesian document as "Sibotho de nobili Familia Ovium" ("ovium" is the Latin word for "sheep", the translation of the German word Schaf(f)). According to tradition, Sibotho came in the entourage of Hedwig of Andechs and Henry I the Bearded.

One of Sibotho's successors, the knight Gotsche II Schoff (who died in 1420), bought extensive possessions in the foreland of the Riesengebirge Giant Mountains and Iser Jizera Mountains at the end of the fourteenth century: the Kynast and Greiffenstein dominions. In 1403, Gotsche II donated the church at Warmbrunn to the Cistercian provost. His family cherished the memory of Gotsche II Schoff, the originator of their wealth, by adopting the sobriquet "Gotsch". Later, both names were connected as Schaffgotsch.

Gotsche II's son Hans (who died in 1469) was the first of the family to be chancellor, court judge, and governor (German: Landeshauptmann) of the Principality of Schweidnitz-Jauer (Świdnica-Jawor). With his sons Anton, Kaspar, and Ulrich, the Schaffgotsch family split into three branches.

Anton (who died in 1508) established the Bohemian branch, whose Seifersdorf and Kreppelhof-Reußendorf-Ullersdorf lines died out in the seventeenth century. This branch became Bohemian barons in 1674 and counts in 1681. The most notable members of the branch were Christoph Wilhelm (1687–1768), who was Landeshauptmann (governor) of Silesia; Johann Ernst Anton (1685–1768); senior burgrave of Prague; Johann Prokop (1748–1813), bishop of Budweis (now České Budějovice); and Anton Ernst (1804–70), bishop of Brünn (now Brno). The branch, which until 1945 resided chiefly in eastern Bohemia, died out in 1993.

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