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The House of Urach is a morganatic cadet branch of the formerly royal House of Württemberg. Although the Württemberg dynasty was one of many reigning over small realms in Germany into the 20th century, and despite the fact that marital misalliance in these dynasties usually disinherited the descendants thereof, the Dukes of Urach unusually managed to elicit consideration for candidacy for the thrones of several European states, ''viz.'' the Kingdom of Württemberg, the Principality of Monaco, the abortive Kingdom of Lithuania and even the Principality of Albania. Although none of these prospects came to fruition, they reflected monarchical attempts to accommodate the rapid shifts in national allegiance, regime and international alliances that intensified throughout the 19th century leading up to and following Europe's Great War of 1914-1918. ==Origins== The Duchy of Württemberg in southwest Germany often found itself in the theatre of war as French and Austrian armies fought to extend the hegemony of the rival houses of Bourbon and Habsburg on the European continent. During the 17th and 18th centuries the duchy resisted repeated French invasions.〔Britannica.com, (House of Württemberg ), Encyclopædia Britannica. retrieved 14 August 2014.〕 Although Württemberg's Duke Frederick III was nominally a subject of the Holy Roman Emperor Francis II, as an ally of Napoleon I he assumed the higher title of Elector in 1803, and when the Holy Roman Empire was abolished in 1806 leaving the Duchy of Württemberg without a suzerain, the Elector embraced complete independence, assuming the title King of Württemberg. The Kingdom of Württemberg survived until 1918 as part of the Confederation of the Rhine and later the German Empire, and was ruled by four kings: # Frederick I (1806–1816) # William I (1816–1864) # Charles I (1864–1891) # William II (1891–1918) The House of Urach was founded by the secret marriage of Duke Wilhelm of Württemberg (1761-1830), a younger brother of the reigning Duke Frederick III (later King Frederick I), with Wilhelmine Rhodis von Tunderfeld (1777-1822) at Coswig, Anhalt on 28 August 1800. Although she signed the wedding contract as "Baroness von Tunderfeld-Rhodis", the bride's father Karl August Rhodis held no barony, and his family had assumed ''Burgrave von Tunderfeld'' as a hereditary title since an ancestor had once held the post of burgrave at Narva. Although by dynastic arrangement Duke Wilhelm's wife was officially recognised as a Württemberg princess on 30 April 1801 and the marriage was acknowledged publicly on 1 August 1801,〔 Duke Wilhelm's formal renunciation of his dynastic rights in Württemberg was also accepted on the latter date.〔''Genealogisches Handbuch des Adels, Fürstliche Häuser'' XVIII. "Urach". C.A. Starke Verlag, 2007, pp. 120, 430-438. ISBN 978-3-7980-0841-0.〕 The male-line, non-dynastic descendants of this marriage constitute the House of Urach. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「House of Urach」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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