by Susan Flantzer
© Unofficial Royalty 2025

Liechtenstein is a micro-state in Alpine Central Europe bordered by Switzerland and Austria. The House of Liechtenstein which takes its name from Liechtenstein Castle in Lower Austria, near Vienna, built circa 1140, has ruled in the area since the 12th century. Over the centuries, the family gained land in Moravia, Lower Austria, Silesia, and Styria. Several Liechtenstein princes served as close advisors to the Habsburg family.

In 1608, Karl I, Baron of Liechtenstein was made the Fürst (Prince) of Liechtenstein by Holy Roman Emperor Matthias after siding with him in a political battle. The family purchased the Lordship of Schellenberg in 1699 and the County of Vaduz in 1712 from the Hohenems family. Then, in 1719, Karl VI, Holy Roman Emperor elevated the territory to a Fürstentum (Principality). Franz Joseph II, Prince of Liechtenstein (reigned 1938 – 1989) was the first sovereign prince to live full-time in Liechtenstein.

The succession to the throne of Liechtenstein is based upon agnatic primogeniture which forbids women to succeed. A United Nations committee raised concerns regarding gender equality with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. In 2007, Prince Hans-Adam II explained that the succession law is older than the Principality of Liechtenstein itself, it is a family tradition that does not affect the citizens, and the Constitution of Liechtenstein states that succession to the throne is a private family matter.

• Unofficial Royalty: Principality of Liechtenstein Index
• Unofficial Royalty: Line of Succession to the Throne of Liechtenstein

His Serene Highness and Her Serene Highness

Liechtenstein is a principality. A principality is a sovereign state reigned by a monarch with the title of Prince or Princess. As stated above, Liechtenstein forbids female succession so, in the past and currently, a Sovereign Princess is not allowed. The reigning Prince of Liechtenstein and the other Princes and Princesses of Liechtenstein are all styled His Serene Highness and Her Serene Highness. This is the usual style for the Princely Family of a Principality. The same practice is used in the Principality of Monaco except Monaco’s succession is male-preference primogeniture, where males take precedence over females and older children take precedence over younger ones. Monaco had one reigning Princess, Louise Hippolyte, who reigned for ten months in 1731 before she died from smallpox.

The Monarch of Liechtenstein

His Serene Highness Prince Hans-Adam II is the current reigning Prince of Liechtenstein. On August 26, 1984, Prince Franz Josef II appointed his son Prince Hans-Adam as his deputy, handing over most of his duties as Head of State. Franz Josef died on November 13, 1989, and Hans-Adam became the reigning Prince of Liechtenstein, Hans-Adam II. In a similar move, in 2004, Prince Hans-Adam II appointed his son Hereditary Prince Alois as his deputy. While Prince Hans-Adam remains Head of State, Hereditary Prince Alois assumed most of the duties of the Head of State. The reigning Prince bears the titles Prince of Liechtenstein, Duke of Troppau and Jägerndorf, Count of Rietberg, and Ruler of the House of Liechtenstein.

The Consort of Liechtenstein

The wives of the reigning Prince of Liechtenstein have been styled Her Serene Highness Princess <name> of Liechtenstein. Currently, there is no Consort of Liechtenstein. Prince Hans-Adam II’s wife Princess Marie of Liechtenstein, born Countess Marie Aglaë of Wchinitz and Tettau, in 1940, in Prague, Czechoslovakia, now in the Czech Republic, died in 2021. The Consort bears the titles Princess of Liechtenstein, Duchess of Troppau, Duchess of  Jägerndorf, and Countess of Rietberg, and retains these titles while a widow.

The Heir to the Throne of Liechtenstein – Hereditary Prince of Liechtenstein

The title Hereditary Prince of Liechtenstein is held by the heir apparent to the throne of Liechtenstein. The eldest son of the Prince of Liechtenstein automatically becomes the Hereditary Prince of Liechtenstein when his father succeeds to the throne. The current Hereditary Prince of Liechtenstein is His Serene Highness Hereditary Prince Alois of Liechtenstein, the eldest son of Hans-Adam II, Prince of Liechtenstein.

The right to succeed to the throne of Liechtenstein is reserved for male patrilineal descendants of Prince Johann I Joseph (reigned 1805 – 1836), who were born to married parents, excluding those born of a marriage to which the sovereign did not consent. If there is no eligible male patrilineal descendant, the reigning Prince of Liechtenstein has the right to adopt an heir presumptive. There is no scenario under which a woman could succeed to the throne of Liechtenstein.

Hereditary Prince Alois’ wife is Her Royal Highness Hereditary Princess Sophie of Liechtenstein. However, Sophie is styled Her Royal Highness and not Her Serene Highness, like the other members of the Liechtenstein Princely Family. Sophie is the eldest of the five daughters of Prince Max-Emanuel, Duke in Bavaria, and descends in a direct line from the last Bavarian King Ludwig III, her great-great-grandfather. Sophie’s uncle Franz, Duke of Bavaria is the current pretender to the throne of the former Kingdom of Bavaria. Franz never married, so his heir is his brother, Sophie’s father, Prince Max-Emanuel, Duke in Bavaria. In 1973, Sophie’s father inherited the family name and style Duke in Bavaria from his great-uncle Duke Ludwig Wilhelm of Bavaria who had adopted him as heir in 1965. From birth, Sophie was styled Her Royal Highness Duchess Sophie in Bavaria, Princess of Bavaria. On her marriage in 1993, she became Her Royal Highness Hereditary Princess Sophie of Liechtenstein, with the Principality of Liechtenstein recognizing and retaining her use of the style Her Royal Highness.

Sophie is a member of the House of Wittelsbach, formerly the reigning house of the Kingdom of Bavaria. The Jacobites sought to restore the British crown to King James II of England after he was deposed in the Glorious Revolution of 1688, and subsequently, to his heirs. The current Jacobite heir is Sophie’s childless uncle Franz, Duke of Bavaria, who has never pursued the claim. Franz’s heir is Sophie’s father, Max-Emanuel, Duke in Bavaria who only has five daughters. As the eldest of her father’s daughters, Sophie will be her father’s heir to the Jacobite claim, and her eldest son Prince Joseph Wenzel (born 1995) will be her heir and the Jacobite claim to the British throne will reside in the House of Liechtenstein.

See Unofficial Royalty – The Jacobite Succession – Pretenders to the British Throne for more information including a line of the the Jacobite succession.

Prince of Liechtenstein and Princess of Liechtenstein

Prince Nikolaus of Liechtenstein, son of Prince Franz Josef II of Liechtenstein, and his wife Princess Margaretha of Liechtenstein, born a Princess of Luxembourg

Members of the Princely House of Liechtenstein are the reigning Prince of Liechtenstein and all those who descend in the male line from Prince Johann I of Liechtenstein (reigned 1805 – 1836) and are the result of a marriage consented to by a reigning Prince of Liechtenstein. Members of the Princely House of Liechtenstein are styled and titled His/Her Serene Highness Prince/Princess <name> of Liechtenstein, except for Her Royal Highness Hereditary Princess Sophie as noted above.

A Princess of Liechtenstein by birth does not lose her membership in the Princely House of Liechtenstein when she marries. However, her children do not acquire membership in the Princely House by birth and are not Princes or Princesses of Liechtenstein. The wives of the Princes of Liechtenstein become members of the Princely House at their marriage and are styled Her Serene Highness Princess <name> of Liechtenstein.

Count of Rietberg and Countess of Rietberg

All dynastic members of the House of Liechtenstein and their wives bear the title Count or Countess of Rietberg along with their princely title. The County of Rietberg was a state of the Holy Roman Empire, located in the present-day German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It was an independent territory from 1237 to 1807 when the County of Rietberg was redistributed to the Kingdom of Westphalia. The House of Liechtenstein claimed the County of Rietberg in 1848 when the last member of the Moravian branch of the Kaunitz family, Prince Aloys von Kaunitz-Rietberg, died.

Duke of Troppau and Duke of Jägerndorf

The Duchy of Troppau, now in the Czech Republic, was a territory split off from the Margraviate of Moravia circa 1269 by King Ottokar II of Bohemia to provide for his illegitimate son, Nicholas I, the first Duke of Troppau. When that branch became extinct in 1464, the Duchy of Troppau reverted to the Bohemian Crown, and in 1526, it became part of the Habsburg monarchy. Prince Karl I of Liechtenstein was invested with the Duchy of Troppau in 1614 by Holy Roman Emperor Matthias.

In 1377, the Duchy of Jägerndorf (also known as the Duchy of Krnov), now in the Czech Republic, emerged from the Duchy of Troppau. It was a Hohenzollern territory since 1523. However, the Habsburg rulers of the Holy Roman Empire regarded the duchy as a reverted fief, and after the 1620 Bohemian Revolt, Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II confiscated the Hohenzollern possessions in his Bohemian lands. Ferdinand’s loyal supporter Prince Karl I of Liechtenstein, received the Duchy of Jägerndorf which was merged with the Duchy of Troppau in 1623.

The Duchy of Troppau and the Duchy of Jägerndorf were dissolved with the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1918, however, the titles of Duke of Troppau and Duke of Jägerndorf still exist, and belong to the reigning Prince of Liechtenstein.

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Works Cited

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• Das Fürstenhaus von Liechtenstein. admin. (2021. Fuerstenhaus.li. https://fuerstenhaus.li/en/
• Flantzer, Susan. (2021). The Jacobite Succession – Pretenders to the British Throne. Unofficial Royalty. https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/the-jacobite-succession-pretenders-to-the-british-throne/
• Wikipedia Contributors. (2024). Duchy of Krnov. Wikipedia; Wikimedia Foundation.
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• Wikipedia Contributors. (2024). Duchy of Troppau. Wikipedia; Wikimedia Foundation.
• Wikipedia Contributors. (2025). Monarchy of Liechtenstein. Wikipedia; Wikimedia Foundation.
• Wikipedia Contributors. (2024). Succession to the Liechtensteiner throne. Wikipedia; Wikimedia Foundation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Succession_to_the_Liechtensteiner_throne