By the 18th century the Esterházys had become the largest landowners in Hungary, and they came to possess a private fortune even larger than that of the Habsburg emperors whose supporters they were. The various members of the family continued to hold important governmental, ecclesiastical, diplomatic, and military posts in Hungary well into the 20th century.
Ferenc Zerházy (1563–94), deputy lord lieutenant of the county of Pozsony (now Bratislava, Slovakia), was the first family member of historical importance. He took the name Esterházy upon becoming baron of Galántha, an estate the family had acquired in 1421. With his sons the family was divided into the lines of Fraknó, Csesznek, and Zólyom.
Miklós (1582–1645) founded the Fraknó line, which became the most prominent of the three. He opposed the Protestant champions Gábor Bethlen and György Rákóczi I while upholding the idea of freeing Hungary from Turkish dominance through a consolidation of Habsburg dynastic power. He was honoured by the Holy Roman emperors Matthias and Ferdinand II, and at the Diet of Sopron (1625) he was appointed palatine (imperial governor) of Hungary.
Miklos’ third son, Pál (1635–1713), founded the princely branch of the Fraknó line. Distinguishing himself in wars against the Turks, he was made commander in chief of southern Hungary in 1667 and participated in the deliverance of Vienna in 1683, two years after his election as palatine. For his devotion to the Habsburgs, he was created prince of the empire in 1687. A devotee of the arts and sciences, Pál also wrote several religious works.
Prince Pál Antal (1711–62) was a grandson of the first prince and became a field marshal. Prince Miklós József (d. 1790), brother of Pál Antal, was also an outstanding soldier and a patron of the arts. He rebuilt Esterháza, the family castle, in such magnificent Renaissance style that it came to be known as the Hungarian Versailles, and he employed Joseph Haydn as conductor of his orchestra for 30 years.
Prince Miklós (1765–1833), the grandson of Miklós József, is best remembered for his great collection of paintings and engravings in Vienna and for his actions against the French during the Napoleonic Wars. He raised a regiment at his own expense to fight the French in Austria, and, despite Napoleon’s overtures to him in 1809 suggesting the Magyars elect Miklós as king, he refused the honour and continued to defend Habsburg interests. His son Prince Pál Antal (1786–1866) served as a diplomat in London and Paris. During the Napoleonic Wars Pál Antal was secretary of the Austrian embassy in London and later (1807) in Paris under Klemens von Metternich. After the peace settlement (1815), he became ambassador to England. He represented Austria at the coronation of Charles X of France and at the London conference (1830–38). He served as minister of foreign affairs in Hungary’s first responsible cabinet in 1848, but he resigned that post after finding no satisfactory way to reconcile court and nation and spent his final years in obscurity.
The counts of the Fraknó line belonged to the junior branch of the Fraknó Esterházys, which was split into three lines by the sons of Ferenc Esterházy (1641–83), brother of the first prince, Pál. Count Antal (1676–1722), the first son of Ferenc, distinguished himself in wars both against and in league with Ferenc Rákóczi II, an anti-Habsburg Magyar noble and national hero. Antal accompanied Rákóczi in 1710 to Poland and later to France and to Turkey, where he died in exile.
Count Miklós Bálint (1740–1806), whose father, József Bálint, was Count Antal’s son, had entered the service of France. Miklós Bálint became a favourite of Marie Antoinette and also stood in favour with the Count d’Anjou (later Charles X of France). During the French Revolution Miklós Bálint helped many royalists emigrate.