Lin House

House Lin ( Ligne ) - the oldest of the existing (after the house of Capeta ) family from the territory of the South Netherlands , first Baron , then princely . Mentioned on the pages of sources from the XII century . The family residence is the palace and castle of Beleuil , 10 km south of the city of As in Hainaut . The youngest branch of this kind is made up of the princes and dukes of Arenberg .

Tench
D'or à la bande de gueules
Period	XII — XXI centuries
Title	princes
Branches of the genus	Arenbergs
Homeland	Genenegau
Palaces	Beleisk Palace , Antoine Castle

Senoria Lin lies within the borders of modern Belgium , between Tournai and Asa. During the Crusades, the Barons of Lin are referred to as the closest of the Counts of Gennegau . The chronicler describing the battle of Bouvin (1214) noted their great nobility. In 1302, the head of the family laid his head in the Battle of Golden Spurs . His closest heirs in Gennegau wore the title of peers and stewards of court ceremonies.

After the passage of Gennegau to the dukes of Burgundy, the Barons of Lin faithfully served these latter. Michel III de Lin (d. 1469) divided the family estates between the sons Jean and Guillaume. From them come the two lines of the Lin house, which continue to this day - the princely (princes de Lin) and the ducal (dukes of Arenberg ).

The princes (or princes) de Lin come from the marriage of the aforementioned Jean de Lin with Jacqueline de Croix, the youngest daughter of Antoine the Great . For his assistance in the administration of the Burgundian Netherlands under Karl Smel and his daughter Maria, he was awarded the Order of the Golden Fleece . The center of his possessions was the city of Roubaix . In 1479 he was captured by the French and was able to free himself only at the cost of making a large ransom. He participated in the suppression of the resistance of Ghent and Bruges to Habsburg rule.

Jean's only son, Antoine de Lin , became famous for his valor in battles with the French, earning them the nickname le Grand Diable . In particular, he won the French crown of Tournai, La Fer and Mortagne . Antoine was married to Filipotte of the Luxembourg family. Emperor Maximilian allowed him to take the title of Count Falkenberg , and Henry VIII - Prince of Mortany. In the last years of his life, Antoine founded the Knight's Order of the Wolf and proceeded to rebuild the castle Beleuil, in which his father died.

Belei residence of Linay

Bringing Belyay to his present form became the work of ten subsequent generations of Linya. Each of them added new points to the family title. The son of Antoine, Jacques , in 1544 became the first Earl de Lin, and his son Philip inherited from his mother the title of Burggraph of Leiden .

Philip's son, Lamoral de Lin (1563-1624), increased family wealth by marriage with the heiress of the Melensky House , whose property was confiscated by the Spanish crown for participating in the Netherlands Revolution . This marriage union brought the Principality of Epenois and the county of Roubaix in southern Flanders, as well as the castle of Antoine, to the house of Linus . In 1601, Emperor Rudolph II granted Lamoral the princely dignity of the Holy Roman Empire .

Lamoral's son, Prince Floris de Lin , married the granddaughter of the Duke of Mercury from the Lorraine House . The French government, led by the Duke of Sully, returned Epenoit to the Melen family, but Floris compensated for the loss by acquiring the title of Prince d'Amblize from Baron Burlemont. (This title since 1416 was worn by the ancestors of the baron from the families of the Apremons and Anglyurs). The descendants of Floris throughout the XVII century preferred to live in Brussels and did not show anything outstanding in the service of the Spanish kings.

After the transition of the Southern Netherlands to the Austrian Habsburgs, Prince Claude-Lamoral and his son Charles-Joseph rose to the rank of Field Marshal in Vienna and were admitted to the imperial state council. Claude Lamoral was married to the representative of the Salm House , and Charles Joseph to the daughter of Prince Emanuel Lichtenstein . He consisted in regular correspondence with Voltaire and Russo and left interesting memoirs , in particular, about his service with Potemkin . Died during the Vienna Congress .

Castle antoine

The eldest son of Prince Lin - Charles (1759-1792), was under Suvorov near Ishmael , was wounded and, on the proposal of Suvorov, was awarded the Order of St. George III class. Soon after, he died in a battle with the French. From his marriage with the Polish princess Masalskaya (from the Rurikovich ), he left his daughter Sidonia, who married her half-brother (stepson of her mother) Senator Count Franciszek Stanisław Potocki .

After the death of the elderly field marshal, his titles and possessions were inherited by his grandson, Prince Eugene de Lin . He was known as one of the wealthiest people in Belgium and spent millions on rebuilding Viollet-le-Duque, the family castle of Antoine in the neo-Gothic style. Also did not skimp on decorating a mansion in Brussels; Strauss himself came from Vienna to conduct the orchestra at his balls. After the creation of the Kingdom of Belgium, Prince Lin was one of King Leopold 's most trusted representatives, representing him at events such as the coronation of Alexander II in the Kremlin .

The offspring of Eugene de Lin, like himself, gravitated rather to French culture and Parisian tastes. For four generations, the spouses of the princes came from among the French aristocracy: Larochefoucault , Talleyrands , Noai . Prince Eugene II (1893–1960) headed the Belgian embassies in India (1947–1951) and Spain (1951–1958). Then at the head of the family stood his son, Prince Antoine de Lin (1925-2005). His wife is the sister of Jean , Grand Duke of Luxembourg; the son is married to the Brazilian princess of the Orleans home ; sister is married to the youngest son of the Austrian emperor Karl . With the death of Antoine, the house was headed by his son Michel (born in 1951).

In 1957-1959, Prince Antoine made an expedition to the Antarctic . His plane disappeared from the radar screens. The search continued for two days and ended happily: the Soviet pilot Victor Perov picked up the traveler prince.