succession to the principality of Schwarzburg in the event of the extinction of males of its Sondershausen and Rudolstadt branches was put forth by the German jurist, Hermann Schulze in 1883. He noted that inter-dynastic inheritance pacts contracted by semi-sovereign vassals of the Holy Roman Emperors remained legally enforceable in the German Empire after the abolition of the Holy Roman Empire itself in 1806, and conferred rights on male heirs superior to those of female heirs inheriting by semi-Salic primogeniture. In 1433 Count Heinrich of Schwarzburg and his son entered a pact with Botho, Count of Stolberg whereunder, if the Schwarzburg male line became extinct then Stolberg and the Counts of Hohenstein would share the majority of the Schwarzburg territories. With the extinction of the House of Hohenstein the houses of Schwarzburg and Stolberg renewed the pact on 28 January 1594. Philipp, 5th Prince zu Stolberg-Wernigerode (born 1967) is the seniormost male descendant by primogeniture of Botho of Stolberg. Phlilipp's first marriage in 2001 to Countess Caroline von Waldburg-Wolfegg-Waldsee (b. 1971) ended in a divorce. He then remarried in 2006 to Countess Leonille Douglas and has three children by her. Ancestry References External links House Laws of Schwarzburg 1901 births 1971 deaths People from Bautzen (district) German princes House of Schwarzburg Pretenders to the Schwarzburg thrones People from the Kingdom of Saxony German people of French descent