Esterházy was originally a minor Baronial family in the southwest of modern Slovakia. The name Esterházy was first used by the family in the sixteenth Century, when Francis was made Baron of Galántha, an estate held by the family since 1421. After his death in 1598, his sons divided the house into three lineages, the Forchtenstein (Fraknó) line (which was the most significant), the Csesznek line, and the Zvolen (Zólyom) line. All three lines were raised to Counts by the Emperor in 1626. The Forchtenstein line quickly partitioned into elder and younger lines. The Elder line was raised to Imperial Princes in 1712. In 1804 the elder line was made immediate in the Holy Roman Empire, although two years later Esterházy was mediatised. In 1809 Prince Nicholas II Ferdinand rejected Napoleon Bonapa