Mongolia I could hug you! If Ulan Bator jumped up and down yesterday at a silver medal in the Women’s 25m Pistol, they must have generated a 3.0 magnitude quake when Mongolia won a gold in the Men’s up to 100kg Judo group today. It’s just a shame that I have no knowledge of Mongol otherwise I would congratulate the nation in their own language. And it doesn’t stop there, due to the cancellation of today’s events in the sailing and rowing several small nations are still in the hunt for medals (so expect my small nation medal table to have a few new names on it).

But on the subject of small nations, tomorrow is a very special day for one of them. August 15th is the national day of Liechtenstein which is one of the smallest nations in Europe with a population of just over 35,000. The Liechtenstein dynasty, from which the principality takes its name, comes from Castle Liechtenstein in faraway Lower Austria, which the family possessed from at least 1140 to the thirteenth century, and from 1807 onward. Through the centuries, the dynasty acquired vast swaths of land, predominantly in Moravia, Lower Austria, Silesia, and Styria, though in all cases, these territories were held in fief under other more senior feudal lords, particularly under various lines of the Habsburg family, to whom several Liechtenstein princes served as close advisers. Thus, and without any territory held directly under the Imperial throne, the Liechtenstein dynasty was unable to meet a primary requirement to qualify for a seat in the Imperial diet, the Reichstag.

The family yearned for the added power a seat in the Imperial government would bring, and therefore sought to acquire lands that would be unmittelbar, or held without any feudal personage other than the Holy Roman Emperor himself having rights on the land. After some time, the family was able to arrange the purchase of the minuscule Herrschaft (”Lordship”) of Schellenberg and countship of Vaduz (in 1699 and 1712 respectively) from the Hohenems. Tiny Schellenberg and Vaduz possessed exactly the political status required; no feudal lord other than their comital sovereign and the suzerain Emperor.

Thereby, on January 23, 1719, after purchase had been duly made, Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor, decreed Vaduz and Schellenberg were united, and raised to the dignity of Fürstentum (principality) with the name “Liechtenstein” in honour of “[his] true servant, Anton Florian of Liechtenstein”. It is on this date that Liechtenstein became a sovereign member state of the Holy Roman Empire. As a testament to the pure political expediency of the purchases, the Princes of Liechtenstein did not set foot in their new principality for over 120 years. As the national language is German, I would like to take this chance to wish Liechtenstein “ein sehr glücklicher Nationaltag”