28 WEALTHY GERMAN FAMILY. CHAP. XVI. 



One branch of this family has been already 

 noticed in this inquiry 1 , which was settled in Spain. 

 Another branch at Antwerp lent to our Henry 

 VIII., after he had dissipated the treasure be- 

 queathed by his father, one hundred and fifty-two 

 thousand pounds ; and to Edward VI., when the 

 coinage in his reign was reformed, one hundred 

 and twenty-nine thousand Caroline florins. There 

 are notices also of the same family in Genoa, 

 Milan, and Ghent. Their commerce was still 

 continued, and seems not to have been held dero- 

 gatory to the rank of nobility, or even that of 

 sovereignty which they had attained. They are 

 said to have purchased, within ninety years, two 

 entire earldoms, six baronies, and fifty-seven 

 manors, which were possessed among them as late 

 as 1762, besides houses and lands of great value 

 in and around the city of Augsburg. 



The two principal branches of the house still 

 exist among the ranks of the mediatised princes 

 of Germany. Though now distinguished by some 

 privileges among the subjects of Bavaria and 

 Wirtemburg, they are without political power; but 

 their estates are said to comprehend twenty-one 

 German square miles, or near three hundred 

 thousand English acres, and to be peopled with 

 forty thousand inhabitants, chiefly dependent on 

 the cultivation of their lands. 



1 Vol. i. p. 274. 



