The Lobkowitz family (also Lobkovic or Lobkowicz family) is an Old Bohemian knightly and later lordly nobility dating back to the end of the 14th century. The princely title was given to Zdeněk Vojtěch Popel of Lobkowitz, who became the first ruler of the House of Lobkowitz in 1624. In the middle of the 18th century, the family split into two princely branches, the primogeniture Roudnice branch (from which the branches of Křimice and Dolnoberkovice were later separated) and the secondary branch, known as the Mělník or Mělník-Horín branch (its founder was Jan Jiří Kristián of Lobkowice). These four branches have their continuation in Bohemia even today.
Until 1919 they were spelled from Lobkowitz (phonetically transcribed German form of Czech from Lobkovice after the village Lobkovice near Mělník). In 1919 the then head of the family, Ferdinand Zdeněk, decided that the family would be spelled Lobkowicz instead of Lobkowitz (i.e. Old Czech instead of German).
see family tree
