Rosenberg

The Rosenbergs were the mightiest noble house of southern Bohemia and a branch of the Vítkovci clan. Around 1250 they settled at Rožmberk Castle and soon after built Český Krumlov, their seat for three centuries; their arms bore a red five-petalled rose on silver.

Jindřich III led the League of Lords against King Wenceslaus IV, while his son Oldřich II backed Emperor Sigismund during the Hussite Wars. Oldřich's daughter Perchta inspired the family's White Lady legend.

Under William of Rosenberg, High Treasurer and High Burgrave of Bohemia, the house reached its last peak: he rebuilt Český Krumlov as a Renaissance residence and commanded the Bohemian army against the Ottomans in 1566. After his death in 1592, his brother Peter Vok was forced to sell Krumlov to Emperor Rudolf II in 1601 and died at Třeboň in 1611, the last of his line.