When Hans Schack died of illness on 27 February 1676, he was buried with great pomp and splendor in Trinitatis Church in Copenhagen, as befits one of Denmark's greatest generals. He left behind a distinguished legacy in the form of the county of Schackenborg and approximately 2,500 acres of land, which in the following many hundreds of years and generations were inhabited and run by Hans Schack's descendants.
Schackenborg was first inherited by Hans Schack's son Otto Didrik Schack, who like his father was closely connected to the Danish royal house. However, Otto Didrik died already in 1682, after which his widow Sophie Dorothea Schack took over the administration of Schackenborg. She beautified Schackenborg and got, among other things, created the park south of Schackenborg by the road into Møgeltønder.
And so history continued its course at Schackenborg, where each generation left its own mark on the castle and the area. Some left a bigger mark on history than others – e.g. Hans Schack 2nd, who was nicknamed the Silver Arm when he lost an arm in battle and was given a silver prosthesis. His widowed Countess Anna Sophie Schack, on the other hand, was nicknamed The Evil Countess, due to an unusually harsh attitude towards an unwanted daughter-in-law as well as her steep and harsh management of the running of Schackenborg. But despite the unflattering nickname, this was one of Denmark's history's strongest women, who at her death was one of Denmark's largest landowners.
Hans Schack 5. became a recognized Egyptologist and a skilled photographer. It was also him who in the 1870s completed Schackenborg's transition from inheritance to property and bought several properties for the estate. His son, Viscount Otto Didrik Schack 5th, played a large and important role in a difficult period in the history of Schackenborg and Southern Jutland, namely in the years when Southern Jutland became a small and distant province in the Great German Empire.
Otto Didrik Schack 5. had a great understanding of the German minority, who with the new border drawing had now become Danish. In all respects, Otto Didrik Schack worked to create relaxation in the border country's contradictions, and he was a highly respected county commissioner for Tønder until his death in 1949.
The last Schack at Schackenborg was Hans Schack 6th, as the third child and only son of Otto Didrik Schack. Hans Schack was married to Karin Grethe Olsen, and since they had no children, Hans Schack 6 handed over the castle to His Royal Highness Prince Joakim in 1978 – when the prince was only nine years old. Hans Schack died aged 70 in 2000. He is buried at Møgeltønder Cemetery.