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- BIOGRAPHY
Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen is the cadet branch of the senior Swabian line of the Hohenzollern dynasty, less known however than the Franconian branch whose members became the burgraves of Nuremberg and later ruled Brandenburg, Prussia and ultimately Germany in the centuries to 1918. The princes of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen ruled over a small principality in southwest Germany. Unlike the Hohenzollerns of Brandenburg, the Hohenzollern-Sigmaringens and their cousins of Hohenzollern-Hechingen remained Catholic.
Karl II was born on 22 January 1547, the son of Karl I, Graf von Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, and Markgräfin Anna von Baden-Durlach. On his father's death in 1576 the Swabian branch of the Hohenzollerns was divided into the Hechingen, Sigmaringen and Haigerloch lines. Karl succeeded his father as Graf von Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen. His elder brother Eitel Friedrich I became the first Graf von Hohenzollern-Hechingen. His younger brother Christoph became Graf von Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen zu Haigerloch; however Christoph's four children did not have progeny, and that line died out in 1634 with his son Karl.
In 1569 Karl II married Gräfin Euphrosyne von Oettingen-Wallerstein, daughter of Friedrich V, Graf von Oettingen-Wallerstein and Gräfin Euphrosyne von Oettingen-Wallerstein. Karl and Euphrosyne had fifteen children of whom six would have progeny. Their fourth son Eitel Friedrich became a cardinal in 1621, serving in the Curia in Rome, and as bishop of Osnabrück in 1623.
Karl was renowned for his experienced and knowledgeable legal mind, serving emperors Maximilian II and Rudolf II. He stood in close contact with the central figures of the opposition to the Reformation and played a leading role in the conversion to Catholicism of Markgraf Jakob III von Baden-Hachberg. When Jakob suddenly died in 1590 shortly after his conversion, Duke Wilhelm V of Bavaria and Karl (as executors of Jakob's will) tried in vain to convert Jakob's regions back to Catholicism.
In 1590 Euphrosyne died, and the following year Karl caused a great stir when he abducted Jakob's widow Elisabeth van Pallant in a surprise attack, brought her to Sigmaringen and married her. She was the only child of Floris I van Pallant, Graaf van Culemborg, and his first wife Gräfin Elisabeth von Manderscheid-Virneburg. Karl and Elisabeth had ten children, of whom two daughters would have progeny.
Karl undertook an extensive renovation of Schloss Sigmaringen. Between 1576 and his death he had an arch built over the castle drive from the round towers (main gate) up to the keep, and he had the church next to the castle rebuilt. In 1595 he purchased the estate of Krauchenwies, which remained closely tied to the county of Sigmaringen, and only became Prussian when the dukedom of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen was incorporated into Prussia in 1850. Karl died on 8 April 1606.
In 1623 the Hechingen and Sirmaringen lines were raised to the status of Reichsfürsten (princes of the Empire). The Hechingen line died out in 1869, but the Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen line has continued to this day. The annexation of the Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen and Hohenzollern-Hechingen dukedoms by Prussia did not mean the end of the importance of the House of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen. The last prince, Karl Anton, served as minister-president of Prussia from 1858 to 1861. Karl Anton's second son Karl Eitel Friedrich became prince (1866-1881) and then king (1881-1914) of Romania, under the name Carol - Romanian for 'Karl' - and the house remained on the throne until the end of the monarchy in 1947. French opposition to the candidacy of Carol's elder brother Prince Leopold for the throne of Spain triggered the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871), which led to the founding (in January 1871) of the German Empire.
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