Branković family (Military Frontier)
The Branković family was a Serb noble family based in the Military Frontier of the Habsburg Empire during the 18th and 19th centuries. The family traced its nobility back to Đorđe Branković (1645–1711), who was created an Imperial Count in 1688. After his death, his title was passed on to his relative Jovan Branković (1675–1734), who served as an officer in the Habsburg army in the Military Frontier, as did most of his male descendants. They participated in various wars waged by the Habsburgs. The last Count of Podgorica died in 1856, ending the male line of Jovan Branković. Jovan Branković Đorđe Branković, born in 1645, was a Transylvanian Serb diplomat, writer, and self-proclaimed descendant of the medieval Serbian Branković dynasty. In 1688, the Habsburg Emperor Leopold I created him an Imperial Count, but had him arrested in 1689. From 1690 until his death in 1711, Đorđe Branković lived as a captive in Vienna and Cheb. Since at least 1700, his personal attendant was his relative Jovan Branković born in around 1675 in the Transylvanian town of Lipova. The exact kinship relation between Jovan and Đorđe, who had no children, remains unclear. As Jovan was not a descendant of Đorđe,