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Jim Craig Heydenrych
| | Posted on Wednesday, December 26, 2007 - 6:52 pm: | |
Those tracing the origins of the distinguished Heydenrych family back to pre-christian Austria, might be interested to know that it would have found them living during a time when this country bore the name, Noricum. Noricum was a Celtic kingdom, but those contemporary antecedants of the Heydenrych family who resided in this region during the first century B.C. would have found themselves under Roman rule, as Noricum was occupied by the Romans in the year 14 B.C. In fact, those of the Heydenrych family who had reason to visit or who may have dwelled in Vindobona, a Roman military station, were in fact on the site of what is today the beautiful city of Vienna, as Vindobona was the Latinised name given to Vienna by the Romans. The Danube river, whose beauty was no doubt enjoyed by those of the Heydenrych family living in this vicinity,was the Roman line of defence in Central Europe and indeed, the emperor Marcus Aurelius died of an illness on Austrian soil while leading the defence against barbarian invaders. The river, which the German speaking ancestors of the noteworthy Heydenrych family would have called the Donau, runs across Northern Austria and Hungary, and has for centuries been an important highway for trade between Central and Eastern Europe. It is believed to take it's origin from the Latin, Danuvius,in turn, derived from the Celtic term "Danu",meaning "river","flowing". With the fall of Rome, those contemporary predecessors of the Heydenrych family were living in an epoch which saw the region invaded by the Marcomanni and Quadi in the 2nd century and by the Huns in the fifth century.In the sixth century A.D., the year being 590, the Heydenrych family were living at a time when the Slovenes invaded and later found themselves under the rule of the Avars.
The eighth century progenitors of the Heydenrych lineage were contemporaries of that great European monarch, Charlemagne (742 - 814), who destroyed the Avars and who, for those of the Heydenrych family, living in the region, created a thoroughly Christian and Germanic entity which became known as "the Eastern realm", the basis of the modern official name of the country, "Osterreich". Charlemagne himself was recognized as King of the Franks in 768 and any distinguished members of the Heydenrych family who by accident or choice, were in Rome on Christmas Day in the year 800, could not but have joined in the celebrations caused by the crowning of Charlemagne as Emperor of the Holy Empire, by Pope Leo III. The origins of the Austrian surname Heydenrych, lie in a patronym, that is to say, it is derived from the personal name of the father of the initial bearer. In this instance, the surname Heydenrych derives from the German medieval given name "Heidenreich". Thus, it can be interpreted as "son or descendant of Heidenreich". The latter is composed of the Middle High German element "heiden", from the Old High German "heidano", which is apparently a derivation of "heida", meaning "infidel,heathen", and the element "reich", meaning "power,rule". However,according to German etymologists, this name was probably in origin, a variation by folk etymology, of "Hetterich", which derives from the Germanic personal name, "Haduric", composed of the terms "hadu" meaning "battle,strife" and "ric" which signifies "rule". The name "Heidenreich" was extemely popular at the time of the Crusades, the sense of "power over heathens", being attributed to it. This surname is also found in the variant forms of, Heidenreich, Heydenreich, Hadrich,Heidenrich and Heidrich. The name has been recorded in Germany since the eighth century. As a surname it is found recorded in the fourteenth century, when one Petrus Heydenrych was documented in Erfurt in 1399. Ambros Hedenreich was recorded in Leipzig in 1471, and Andres Heydenreich was documented in Stadtsteinach in 1479. Nickel Heidenreich was a citizen of Jena in 1519. In 1526, one Hans Heyderich was recorded as an ironmonger in Alsfeld. Among the nobility of Germany, there was a family named Heydenrich, whose member, Lienhard Heydenreich was ennobled by the Emperor Friederich III,in Neustadt(east of Dresden, on the eastern border between Germany and Czechoslavakia), on May 23rd, 1472. There was a noble family from Gueldre(Holland) whose members bore the variant form of Heydenryck. A family named Heydenreich from Saxony was granted the title of nobility of the Holy Roman Empire, in 1790.
During the period of time that hereditary family names, such as the honourable Heydenrych name, were being employed in the region, Austria was a duchy under the Babenburg dynasty. Then after a period of rule by Ottokar II (1253-1278), who was himself king of the Slav region of Bohemia, those of the Heydenrych family living within it's borders, came under the rule of the House of Hapsburg, in the person of Rudolf I. He had defeated Ottokar in the year 1278 and in doing so, established a royal dynasty under which the Heydenrych family,who resided in the empire,lived for over six hundred years. During the first three centuries, the Habsburgs assembled an extensive domain which had Bohemia,Hungary and Austria proper at it's centre. This realm endured, with several constitutional changes, the most notable being the "Dual Monarchy", which was formed in 1867 and which comprised the Empire of Austria and the Kingdom of Hungary, both being ruled by the same monarch, which at the time of it's formation, was Francis Joseph(1848-1916). Thus, for those members of the Heydenrych family living in Austria proper, Francis Joseph was their emperor while to a branch of the family who may have resided in Hungary, he was their King. This arrangement existed until the First World War. With such a glorious past, how could one not take pride in a family such as the Heydenrych family, the lives of whose members have been interwoven into the fabric of Austrian history, a magnificent history, rich in culture and tradition! |
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