Apponyi family

The House of Apponyi, also known as Apponyi de Nagy-Appony, was a prominent and powerful Hungarian family of the high upper nobility of the Kingdom of Hungary, whose members remained notable even after the kingdom's dismemberment in the successor states of Hungary and Czechoslovakia.

While tracing its origins to the High Middle Ages, the family became prominent in the 18th century with its elevation to the rank of Counts of Nagy-Appony in 1739 and the acquisition of seventeen grand domains between 1760 and 1800. In the last century of the Habsburg monarchy, four of its members received the Order of the Golden Fleece, a total held in a draw among the European nobility by the houses of Esterházy, Batthyány, Cziráki [de] and Pálffy (4 each). In addition, Albert Apponyi received the Order in 1921 shortly after the end of the monarchy. In addition to this the Apponyi family sat within all Hungarian Kings and then Habsburg private courts which was reserved only for the most powerful and important members of the Kingdom.

The family's name refers to Appony, now Oponice, a region located North of Nitra in present-day Slovakia, in which the family established itself in the late 14th century. Nagy-Appony ("Greater Appony") is the southern part of the area, which was long ruled by the Apponyi family.

Many Apponyis were active in the military, politics, and/or the Catholic Church, as was customary in Hungarian aristocratic families. More distinctive of the Apponyi family was its tradition of Diplomacy for the Kingdom of Hungary then the Habsburg monarchy, and briefly for Interwar Hungary in the significant case of Albert Apponyi. Bibliophilia was another distinguished Apponyi family tradition, the most prominent legacy of which is the Apponyi Library, now a part of the Slovak National Library and still located in the former Apponyi Castle in Oponice.

The Apponyis, like other Hungarian magnates, juggled different languages when it came to given names. They were typically bilingual in Hungarian and German and educated in other languages as well, and went by corresponding names depending on context. Thus, the Hungarian name Apponyi Antal refers to the same individual as Anton Apponyi (German), Antoine Apponyi (French), or Antonius Apponyi (Latin) - Latin having remained widely used as a written language in Hungary well into the modern era. English-language historiography generally displays the first given name in Hungarian, but with the family name put last as customary in Europe outside of Hungary, e.g. Antal Apponyi. During Josephinism and its aftermath until around the Compromise of 1867, however, the use of Hungarian was suppressed in nobility families such as the Apponyis, and German names were more customary.

The Apponyis claimed ancestors among the Magyar tribes through the Péc clan. Beyond genealogy, little is known of the family history until the Late Middle Ages.

In Miklós's time the family was granted the fortress of Appony (now Oponice) by King Sigismund in 1392, upon which it took up the Apponyi name.

Brothers Péter and Pál were made Barons in June 1606 by King Rudolf in recognition of their fight against the Ottomans. They were signatories of the Peace of Vienna with Stephen Bocskai in the same year. They died without heirs, which meant no sons could carry on the baronial title.