Page "Counts of Celje" Paragraph 4

The Lords of Sanneck Castle were elevated to comital status by Emperor Louis IV in 1341 at Munich, and received the title Cylie or Cilli derived from name of the Celje Castle in Lower Styria.

In the early 14th century they had allied with the Austrian Habsburgs in their conflict against the Meinhardiner duke Henry VI of Carinthia around the Kingdom of Bohemia, making them Habsburg vassals in 1308.

The Lords of Sanneck inherited the large possessions of the late Counts of Heunburg in 1322 ; the Celje estates itself became a property of the dynasty in 1333, not before years of feud against several rivalling noble dynasties.

Frederick I, Lord of Sanneck, finally prevailed with the support of Otto the Merry, the Habsburg duke of Styria.