“Grip fast!” Bartholomew—or Bartolf, the legendary founder of the Leslie family—allegedly called out to his protegee, Margaret, Queen of Scots, who nearly fell off a horse. For her safety, he then allegedly added two more buckles to the belt holding her on the horse. This eleventh-century legend also found its echo in the Leslies’ coat of arms featuring three buckles and the wording “Grip fast!”
Over the following centuries, the Leslie family spread throughout Scotland. The branch from which the subsequent Austrian Leslies descended had its seat in Balquhain near Aberdeen. In the early seventeenth century, the head of this branch was John Leslie, the tenth Baron of Balquhain, who proved to be a poor master. That led one of his sons, Walter, to leave his homeland and seek his fortune on the continent—just at the time when it was being ravaged by the Thirty Years’ War. He first offered his services in the Netherlands and later fought on the side of Emperor Ferdinand II in Bohemia, where he embroiled himself in a conspiracy against General Albrecht Wallenstein in February 1634 and was one of those directly responsible for his death. The emperor, who ordered his murder and thus rid himself of the insubordinate general, showered the conspirators with lavish gifts. Leslie was granted the position of imperial chamberlain, command of two regiments, and a landed estate in Bohemia, in the town of Nové Město nad Metují. Three years later, in March 1637, immediately after assuming the throne, the new emperor, Ferdinand III, granted him the title Count of the Holy Roman Empire. Thus, a new Leslie family branch was founded, which survived in its male line until the beginning of the nineteenth century.
Over the subsequent years, Leslie consolidated his influence at the imperial court by performing numerous diplomatic missions for the emperor. He also exhibited an increasing interest in the southeastern part of the empire; in 1650, he became the general of Slavonia and Petrinja and purchased several landed estates in Styria (Graz) and Croatia (Varaždin). One of his most important territorial acquisitions was the seigniory of Zgornji Ptuj with its seat at Ptuj Castle, which he purchased from the Jesuits at an auction in Zagreb in 1656. Leslie immediately embarked on the restoration of the castle building and converted it into a comfortable and prestigious noble residence. To memorialize the construction work, he mounted a panel with a pediment above the entrance to the inner courtyard with a magnificent stone heraldic plaque featuring the Leslie family coat of arms, supported by a pair of griffins. Below the coat of arms runs the inscription in red letters: WALTERVS SAC: ROM: IMPERII COMES DE LESLIE D[OMI]N[U]S NEVSTADII IN BOH.a ET PETTOVII IN STYRIA, SAC: CAES: MAI: CVBICVLARIVS, CONSIL: INTIMVS, GENERALIS CAMPI MARSCHALCHVS, ET GEN.LIS CONFINIORVM SCLAVONIAE ET PETRINIAE, RENOVAVIT HOC CASTELLVM ANNO D[OMI]NI M.DC.LVII.
The memory of the Leslies is also maintained by numerous depictions of their coat of arms throughout the castle; for example, on stove tiles, above the window of the ceremonial hall and the castle chapel, and as a fresco on the façade of the inner courtyard. Their coat of arms once also graced some tapestries that have not been preserved.
The Leslies’ heritage was largely preserved by their successors at Ptuj Castle, the Dietrichsteins and the Herbersteins. Johann Josef Count von Herberstein-Proskau, a major admirer of the Leslies, and especially of Walter, renovated the castle in the early twentieth century. Once the renovation work was completed, he had his coat of arms, displaying a wording like that below the coat of arms of the Leslie family, carved in the interior of the pediment, to juxtapose the Leslies’ coat of arms on its exterior side.

Sources:
Ciglenečki, Marjeta: Družini Leslie in Herberstein ter oprema njihovih gradov Hrastovec, Vurberg in Ptuj. In: Srečanje z Jutrovim na Ptujskem gradu. Ptuj, 1992, pp. 43–52.
Ciglenečki, Marjeta: Zapuščina rodbine Leslie na ptujskem gradu. In: Zapuščina rodbine Leslie na ptujskem gradu (ed. Polona Vidmar). Ptuj, 2002, pp. 57–71.
Jakič, Ivan: Vsi slovenski gradovi. Ljubljana: DZS, 1999, p. 266.

Rodbina Leslie – iz kraljestva Stuartov v habsburško cesarstvo / Leslie family – from the House of Stuart to the Habsburg Empire (ed. Tatjana Štefanič). Ptuj: Pokrajinski muzej, 2009.

Weigl, Igor: V kaftanu k cesarju, s hajduki po Gradcu in s knjižnico na Ptuju. Grofje Leslieji ter njihova mestna in podeželska bivališča v 17. in 18. stoletju. In: Zapuščina rodbine Leslie na ptujskem gradu (ed. Polona Vidmar). Ptuj, 2002, pp. 45–55.