Schaffgotsch family

The Schaffgotsch family is an old and influential Silesian nobility which dates back to the thirteenth century. Some of its members played important roles in the public life of Bohemia, then Habsburg monarchy and later Prussia.

History

Around 1240, the first Schaffgotsch appears in a Silesian document as Sibotho de nobili Familia Ovium (ovium is the Latin word for "sheep", the translation of the German word Schaf(f)). According to tradition, Sibotho came in the entourage of Duke Henry I the Bearded and his wife Hedwig of Andechs.

One of Sibotho's successors, the knight Gotsche II Schoff (†1420), bought extensive possessions in the foreland of the Giant Mountains (Riesengebirge) and Jizera Mountains (Isergebirge) at the end of the fourteenth century: the Kynast and Greiffenstein dominions. The Schaffgotsch family thus became the most important noble family in the Jelenia Góra Valley (Hirschberger Tal). In 1403, Gotsche II donated the church at Warmbrunn to the Cistercian provost. His family cherished the memory of Gotsche II Schoff, the originator of their wealth, by adopting the sobriquet "Gotsch". Later, both names were connected as Schaffgotsch.

Gotsche II's son Hans (†1469) was the first of the family to be chancellor, court judge, and governor (German: Landeshauptmann) of the Principality of Świdnica-Jawor (Schweidnitz-Jauer).