Honour of Annaly - Feudal Principality & Seignory Est. 1172

Acquisition of a Territorial Principality and Assumption of the Territorial House Name

(Examples of Famous European Houses that Assumed the Territorial Names )

1) House of Annaly–Teffia

• Modern acquirer: George Mentz

• Principality Territory acquired: Annaly–Teffia (Longford / ancient Teffia)

• Date of acquisition: 2018

• Method: Purchase and conveyance of the Honour and Seignory of Longford, representing the historic territorial successor of the 1,500 year old Principality and Territory of the Kingdom of Annaly–Teffia

• Result:
  The territorial house identity House of Annaly–Teffia was assumed by lawful acquisition of the historic territorial estate, following the European practice that house identity follows land, but in this special situation also follows multiple Irish, Scotish, and European bloodlines.

• Historical depth:
  The territory itself traces to Gaelic Celtic kingship beginning c. 5th century, giving the House a territorial antiquity of approximately 1,500 years, independent of modern sovereignty questions.

2) House of Grimaldi of Monaco

• Original family name: Grimaldi (Genoese patrician family)

• Territory acquired: Monaco

• Date of acquisition:

  • Initial seizure: 1297

  • Purchase and confirmation of seignory: 1346–1355

• Result:
  The family adopted the territorial style “of Monaco”, with the territory defining the house identity thereafter.

3) House of Liechtenstein

• Original family name: von Liechtenstein (Austrian noble family named after Liechtenstein Castle)

• Territories acquired:

  • Lordship of Schellenberg (1699)

  • County of Vaduz (1712)

• Purpose of acquisition:
  Purchase of land with imperial immediacy.

• Result:
  The territorial name Liechtenstein became the permanent house name.

4) House of Savoy

• Original family name: Humbertian dynasty (Counts of Maurienne)

• Territory acquired: Savoy

• Date of acquisition: c. 1003–1032, expanded through the 11th–13th centuries

• Method: Purchase, exchange, and dynastic consolidation

• Result:
  The house permanently assumed the territorial name Savoy, eclipsing the earlier family designation.

5) House of Orange-Nassau

• Original family name: Nassau

• Territory acquired: Principality of Orange

• Date of acquisition: 1530

• Method: Purchase and inheritance

• Result:
  The Nassau family adopted Orange as a dynastic identifier, retaining it even after loss of the territory.

6) House of Medici of Tuscany

• Original family name: Medici (Florentine banking family)

• Territory acquired: Tuscany

• Date of acquisition: 1532 (Duchy), elevated 1569

• Method: Purchase of territorial control, political dominance, Papal and Imperial confirmation

• Result:
  The Medici became styled “of Tuscany,” transforming a mercantile family into a territorial house.

7) House of Hohenzollern of Brandenburg–Prussia

• Original family name: Hohenzollern (Swabian nobility)

• Territory acquired: Electorate of Brandenburg

• Date of acquisition: 1415

• Method: Financial alienation and imperial grant

• Result:
  The family became identified primarily with Brandenburg, later Prussia, rather than its ancestral Swabian origin.

8) House of Bourbon

• Original family name: Capetian cadet branch

• Territory acquired: Lordship of Bourbon

• Date of acquisition: 10th–11th centuries

• Method: Purchase and consolidation

• Result:
  The territorial name Bourbon became the permanent house name, later associated with multiple kingdoms.

The Established European Principle

• A territory is lawfully acquired (often by purchase),

• The territorial name becomes the house or dynastic name,

• House identity follows land, not bloodline,

• Antiquity of the territory may greatly predate the modern holder,

• This practice is orthodox and widespread in European history.

One-Sentence Summary (Reusable)

Commissioner George Mentz who is also Lord of the Bailiwick of Ennerdale and Seigneur of the Fief Blondel of Normandy facilitated the 2018 acquisition of the rights to The House of Annaly–Teffia direct from the rights of the Famous Earl of Westmeath which follows a well-established European pattern in which a lawful purchaser of a historic territory assumes its territorial house name, as seen with Monaco (Grimaldi), Liechtenstein, Savoy, Orange, Tuscany, Brandenburg–Prussia, and Bourbon—where dynastic identity derives from land, not ancestry.