User:Otranto 1759/sandbox/(von) Schmelzing

Schmelzing, von Schmelzing, or von Schmelzing und Wernstein is the name of an Austro-Prussian family with roots in the Upper Austrian-Bavarian border region.

History
A member by the name of Seiz Schmelzing first appears in a list of Nuremberg merchants with privileges in the Venetian Fondaco dei Tedeschi in 1418. Seiz, along with other Nuremberg merchants, subsequently was bankrupted during the trade war between the Holy Roman Empire and the Venetian Republic, during Emperor Sigismund's reign.

Several family members participated on the side of Emperor Charles V in the Italian Wars. As a reward, the family was ennobled in 1567, and took its seat at Castle Zwickledt in the town of Wernstein am Inn, which still bears elements of the family crest. In 1601, the family was also admitted into the Austrian knightly estate. By 1610, Ludwig Schmelzing commanded troops on the side of Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor during the Passau Rebellion. In the wake of the rising religious tensions across Europe, his brother Niklas Schmelzing emigrated to the Dutch States, to participate in the Eighty Years War against Spain. He rose to the position of Lieutenant-Governor of the province of Overijssel upon recommendations of the Maurice, Prince of Orange, and commanded cavalry regiments in several key engagements, including the Siege of Bergen-op-Zoom. In later years, he frequented at the court in The Hague, where the poet Constantijn Huygens dedicated a poem to the exiled Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia and Schmelzing. In 1623, his nephew Wolf Friedrich Schmelzing inherited his real estate and art collections.

During the late 19th century, the main branch of the family gained Prussian citizenship, relocating to the Wiesbaden area. Wilhelm Hugo von Schmelzing served as the final commander of the 5th Prussian Cavalry Regiment "Herzog Friedrich Eugen von Württemberg" during World War One, when it was involved in battles over Romania and the Siegfried Line. He later died in Berlin in 1944.