Wurmbrand-Stuppach is an old noble family of Austria, and the name of the County they ruled. During the 17th and 18th centuries, the Counts of Wurmbrand-Stuppach gained notability in wars against the Turks in the Balkans, and Prince Eugene gained fame fighting against the French in the Netherlands. The Counts and Princes of Wurmbrand-Stuppach were highly decorated advisors to the Habsburg Emperors. Wurmbrand-Stuppach was temporarily raised to a Principality in 1607, and was made an County of the Holy Roman Empire 31 August 1701. It was mediatised to Austria in 1806.

The founding of the house of Wurmbrand-Stuppach, and the origins of the name, occurred during the Crusades. The Count of Stuppach had disappeared seven years earlier fighting in the Holy Land, and the knights were getting impatient on waiting for his wife and successor to remarry. A lindworm (a mythological two-legged wyvern-like creature) had entered the County and began to terrorise the land. The knights demanded she marry a brave nobleman to fight it.

The Countess asked for four weeks' delay, and when that time had passed she said to the knights "I asked God. He likes my husband to return to me, if he still lives. To my sadness he did not come. Give me still four weeks period." But the people would not have another four weeks delay due to the lindworm, so she instead announced that she would marry whoever slayed the beast.

Silently, the knights left. Those which went to slay the lindworm did not return. One day, a poor farmer was on the Burglach making fences when the lindworm appeared. It lunged at the farmer, which speared the lindworm in the mouth with a stake he was using to build the fences. Other farmers who were nearby saw it, and they carried him to the countess to be married. The wedding lasted a week.

In 1806 the count of Wurmbrand-Stuppach was mediatised.

...
Wikipedia