The Dukes of Arenberg

The history of the noble Arenberg family presented in an accessible and attractive way for the general public.

From its origins in medieval times to the present day, the Arenberg family has been one of Europe’s leading noble families. With origins in the German Eifel region, the Arenbergs became sovereign Princes and later Dukes in the Holy Roman Empire. Their ranks included active officers on many battlefields, important decision makers, and cunning diplomats in the Low Countries, France, and Germany. This book relates the history of this still important and influential noble family and shows how the Dukes of Arenberg have maintained their position in the highest echelons of society throughout the ages. Richly illustrated with numerous paintings, photographs and colour drawings from the family’s well-preserved archives, The Dukes of Arenberg offers the reader not only the military and political history of the Arenberg family, but also an overview of more than a thousand years of European history, in which they have often played an important role.

Prologue

Chapter 1
The Lords of Arenberg as Burgraves of Cologne
From the earliest records until the thirteenth century

Chapter 2
A tree with seven branches
From the thirteenth century until the sixteenth century: from river Rhine to river Meuse

Chapter 3
The marriages of two exceptional women
The legacy of Marguerite de La Marck-Arenberg and Anne of Croÿ in the sixteenth century

Chapter 4
The Arenberg Family & the Spanish House of Habsburg
Philip of Arenberg and his relatives on the battlefields of the seventeenth century

Chapter 5
The Arenberg Family & the Austrian House of Habsburg
The long careers of three Dukes during the eighteenth century

Chapter 6
The challenges of a new political order
The consequences of the French Revolution in the long nineteenth century

Chapter 7
Arenberg, a ‘transnational’ family caught up in nationalism
The First World War and its aftermath

Chapter 8 | Duke Leopold of Arenberg
A European family looking towards the future
The House of Arenberg today

Epilogue | Duke Leopold of Arenberg
The Arenberg Foundation
Promotion of European History and Culture

Explanatory maps

Format: Monograph - hardback

Size: 220 × 245 mm

224 pages

full colour

ISBN: 9789083201610

Publication: May 29, 2024

Languages: English

Isabelle Vanden Hove is director of the Arenberg Foundation where she manages the family's private archives. She has started a research project on the history of the Arenberg-Croy-Chimay and Arenberg-Ligne-Barbançon family branches during the 17th century in anticipation of a book about frontier policy at the time of the Spanish Netherlands (1555-1715).

For centuries the Arenbergs were one of Europe's leading noble houses. This work, authored by an expert in the field, is a major achievement, offering the first survey of a family with a truly continental past that ranged from Brussels to Madrid to Vienna. - William D. Godsey, Austrian Academy of Sciences