The lordship was constituted in the 9th century by
Charlemagne, and purchased to the Counts of
Vaduz in 1437, becoming
de facto a dependency united to the
County of Vaduz. After the
Swabian War in 1499, both came under
Austrian suzerainty. Different dynasties of counts bought and sold them, until their purchase in 1699 by
Hans-Adam I, Prince of Liechtenstein, for 115,000
guilders; he had been granted princely status in 1706, but needed to acquire a territory with imperial immediacy in order to vote in the Diet of the Princes of the Empire. In 1712, the
Liechtenstein dynasty also purchased the nearby County of Vaduz, for 290,000 guilders. The Holy Roman Emperor
Charles VI, formally united Vaduz and Schellenberg in 1719 as the
Principality of Liechtenstein. ==See also==