Sułkowski family

The House of Sułkowski (Polish plural: Sułkowscy) is a Polish princely family and gentry who owned palaces in Rydzyna and Bielsko. The family later became incorporated into the German and Austrian nobility.

Family motto: All for the Fatherland.

The origins of the Sułkowski family are relatively obscure. The Sułkowski family originally lived in a village known as Sułków, now known as Sułkowo Borowe, in the Mława district 100 kilometers (62 mi) north of Warsaw. Of the family manor house, only a single gatepost remains. Close by there is a wooden church built in 1644. The earliest records are from the 16th century. For the first four generations only the oldest son has been recorded.

According to some sources, Elżbieta Szalewska had a liaison with Augustus II the Strong and bore him an illegitimate son. Her husband, Stanisław Sułkowski, gave this child, Aleksander Józef Sułkowski, his last name. On March 18, 1754, he gained from Queen Maria Theresa of Austria the title of Reichsfürst, along with the right of primogeniture. Additionally, in the same year, the princely title was granted to every descending member of the Sułkowski family.

In 1752, the State Country (Status Maiores) of Bielsko was purchased by Aleksander Józef. In that same year, the State Country was changed to the status of a principality (Fürstentum). On November 2, 1754, Bohemian Queen Maria Theresa of Austria created the Duchy of Bielsko (Herzogtum Bielitz). The next owners of the nominal Duchy had the right to the title of Herzog (Duke), while other members of the family were titled Fürst (Prince).

Aleksander Józef was the progenitor of the Bielsko line and the first of the Bielsko ordynats. Antoni, who established the Sułkowski Ordynat, was the progenitor of the "Wielkopolska", or Rydzyna, line of the Sułkowski family. The Rydzyna line became extinct in 1909 along with the death of the sixth and last Ordynat of Rydzyna, Antoni Stanisław. His two sons having produced no heirs, according to the rules of the ordynat, his fortune of over 10,000 hectares of land went into the possession of the Prussian government.

August Kazimierz's second youngest brother, Franciszek, did not join the Sułkowski Ordynat and obtained for himself an inheritance, to which entered the Bielsko castle and its fortune. The Bielsko ordynat was inherited by his son Aleksander, and after him, Jan. After Jan, the ordynat passed into the hands of his son Ludwik Jan Nepomucen, and next it was inherited by his son Jozef Maria Ludwik. Aleksander Ludwik was the last Ordynat of Bielsko. The descendants of this line have continued to the present day in Australia, Canada, Austria and Germany.

On May 6, 1776, Aleksander Józef's oldest son, August Kazimierz, created the Rydzyna Ordynat (also known as the Sułkowski Ordynat), thus causing the younger Rydzyna line to separate from the older Bielsko line created by his father. His inheritances were placed into this ordynat. The Ordynat fortune was willed to the Komisja Edukacjna Narodowa in the moment of the death of the last male heir of the family. The Ordynat was to then take the name of Fundacja Książat Sułkowskich.