Maximilian Ulrich von Kaunitz

Governor of Moravia (1679–1746)

Maria Ernestina Franziska von Cirksena-Rietberg

(m. 1699)

Children16, including
Wenzel Anton, Prince of Kaunitz-RietbergHonoursKnight of the Golden Fleece

Count Maximilian Ulrich von Kaunitz-Rietberg (Czech: Maxmilián Oldřich z Kounic-Rietbergu; 27 March 1679 – 10 September 1746^[1]^[2]) was an Austrian diplomat and politician who served as governor of Moravia from 1720 until his death.^[3] He was the father of the powerful state chancellor of Maria Theresa, Holy Roman Empress and Queen Regnant of Bohemia and Hungary, Wenzel Anton, Prince of Kaunitz-Rietberg.

Early life

Maximilian Ulrich was born in Vienna^{[citation needed]} to a wealthy Moravian noble family as the third son^[1] of Count Dominik Andreas I von Kaunitz [de; cs] (1655–1705),^[2] Baron of Šlapanice^{[citation needed]} and Countess Maria Eleonora von Sternberg [de; cs]^[1]^[2] (died 2 December 1706),^[4] daughter of Count Adolph of Sternberg, the Supreme Burgrave of Bohemia.^{[citation needed]} He was appointed an imperial chamberlain at a young age, and in 1706, he was made an imperial councillor.^[1]

Career

At least from the summer of 1716,^[1] Maximilian Ulrich was active as imperial envoy to various German princely courts.^[2] On 21 September 1720, he was named geheimrat, imperial secret councillor.^[1] In 1721, he served as imperial ambassador to Rome, witnessing the papal conclave that elected Benedict XIII after the death of Innocent XIII.^[2] In the same year he returned to the place of origin of his family, Moravia, becoming its governor.^[1]

He laid claim to the ancestral lands of his wife, the County of Rietberg,^[1] fighting a long and costly legal battle against the princely family of Liechtenstein and the king of Prussia.^[2] After he had won the suit in 1718, he changed the name of his family to 'Kaunitz-Rietberg'^[1] and was admitted to the Lower Rhine-Westphalian Imperial College of Counts [de].^[2] As part of the Rietberg inheritance, he and his descendants also assumed the lordship of Esens, Stederdorf, and Wittmund in East Frisia, despite these lands being under Prussian occupation.^[1]

Governor of Moravia

Maximilian Ulrich was a devoted governor^[1] who established and oversaw many beneficial and charitable institutions,^[2] among them the State Academy of Olomouc.^[1] He worked on making the river Morava navigable and had a road built between Brno and Olomouc; he regularised the tax system of Moravia, increasing royal income^[1]^[2] and enacted a partial reform of the provincial administration.^[3] He also introduced restrictions on the lives of the significant Jewish population of the region and ordered the expulsion of Romani people.^[2]

Personal life

On 6 August 1699, he married Prinzess Maria Ernestina Franziska von Cirksena-Rietberg [de]^[1]^[2] (1683^[5]/1686–1758^[1]), heiress of the House of Cirksena as the only child of Ferdinand Maximilian von Ostfriesland-Rietberg [de], Count of Rietberg^[1] and Countess Johanna Franziska von Manderscheid-Blankenheim.^[6] One source claims that the two had been betrothed in 1697 and that Maria was fourteen and Maximilian Ulrich seventeen,^[5] while another states that the groom was twenty and the bride thirteen at the time of their wedding.^[1] Maximilain Ulrich died in Vienna in 1746, aged sixty-seven.^[2]

Issue

From his marriage, Maximilian Ulrich had sixteen children, eleven sons and five daughters:

Maria Johanna Franziska (born 1704);
Dominika Josepha (1705–1736);
Maria Josepha Agnes (18 May 1706 – 7 December 1726);
Maria Antonia Josepha Justine (15 June 1708 – 14 July 1778), who married Count Johann Adam von Questenberg [de] in 1738 and had no issue, naming named their nephew Dominik Andreas II [de; cs] as their heir, thus founding the line of Kaunitz-Rietberg-Questenberg;
Johann Dominik I (23 February 1709 – 1751);
Wenzel Anton, Prince of Kaunitz-Rietberg (2 February 1711 – 27 June 1794), state chancellor to Maria Theresa from 1753 and prince of the Holy Roman Empire from 1764. On 6 May 1736, he married Countess Maria Ernestine von Starhemberg and had issue, among them Dominik Andreas II from whom the Kaunitz-Rietberg-Questenbergs descend;^[7]
Maximilian Joseph (1712–1736);
Franz Leopold (born 1713, died young);
Johann Wilhelm (born 1713, died young);
Franz Thaddäus (1714–1722);
Karl Joseph (26 December 1715 – 31 March 1737);
Emanuel Joseph (9 September 1717 – 10 May 1727);
Ludwig Joseph (4 September 1720 – 12 March 1745);
Maria Eleonore (8 April 1723 – 7 May 1776), married Count Rudolph Pálffy;
Johann Joseph Alois (21 June 1726 – 10 March 1743);
Rudolph Joseph (1727–1728).^[4]

Honours

Holy Roman Empire: Knight of the Golden Fleece (1744)^[1]^[2]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ ^o ^p ^q ^r Felgel, Anton Victor (1882). "Kaunitz-Rietberg, Max Ulrich". Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie [The Universal German Biography] (in German). München: Historische Kommission bei der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften. pp. 486–487. ISBN 978-3-7537-1114-0 – via Wikisource.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m Wurzbach, Constantin von (1856–1891). "Kaunitz-Rietberg, Maximilian Ulrich Graf". Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich [Biographical Dictionary of the Austrian Empire] (in German). Vienna. ISBN 978-3-7434-3954-2.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^ ^a ^b Jeřábek, Tomáš; Kroupa, Jiří (2005). Brněnské paláce. Stavby duchovní a světské aristokracie v raném novověku [The Brno Palaces. The Buildings of the Clergy and Wordly Aristocracy in The Early Modern Times] (in Czech) (1st ed.). Brno: Barrister a Principal - Národní památkový ústav. ISBN 80-7364-016-3.
^ ^a ^b Wurzbach, Constantin von (1864). "Genealogische Tafel des Fürsten- undGradenhauses Kaunitz" [Genealogical Table of the Princely and Countly House of Kaunitz]. Biographisches Lexikon des Kaisertums Österreich [Biographical Dictionary of the Austrian Empire] (in German). Vol. 11. Vienna. ISBN 978-3-7434-3954-2 – via Austrian Literature Online.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^ ^a ^b Wurzbach, Constantin von (1856–1891). "Zirksena-Rietberg, Maria Prinzessin". Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich [Biographical Dictionary of the Austrian Empire] (in German). Vienna. ISBN 978-3-7434-3954-2 – via Wikisource.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^ Zeitschrift für vaterländische Geschichte und Altertumskunde [Journal of Patriotic History and Antiquities] (in German). Münster: Verein für Geschichte und Altertumskunde Westfalens. 1852. p. 175 – via Google Books.
^ Kroupa, Jiří (2006). Alchymie štěstí. Pozdní osvícenství a moravská společnost 1770-1810 [The Alchemy of Happiness. The Late Enlightenment and the Moravian Community 1770-1810] (in Czech) (2nd, expanded and revised ed.). Brno: Era. ISBN 80-7366-063-6.