Žovneški

The Žovneški, or Lords of Sanneck, were a free noble family seated at Žovnek Castle in the March of Savinja in Lower Styria, first mentioned around 1130.

Ulrich of Sanneck fought beside King Rudolf I at the Battle on the Marchfeld in 1278, and in 1308 he surrendered his lands to the Habsburg dukes to receive them back as a fief, binding the Savinja valley to Styria. Ulrich's second marriage to Catherine of Heunburg enabled their son Frederick to claim the Heunburg inheritance, including Celje Castle, which entered the family's hands in 1333.

In 1341 Emperor Louis IV raised Frederick to imperial count, and the house took its name from Celje as the Counts of Cilli. They later became princes of the Holy Roman Empire until their extinction in 1456, when the Habsburgs inherited their domains.