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.
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]
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 PrinzessMaria 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;
^
abJeřábek, 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.
ISBN80-7364-016-3.
^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.
ISBN80-7366-063-6.
Heribert Sturm (1984). Biographisches Lexikon zur Geschichte der böhmischen Länder.[Biographical Dictionary of the History of the Czech Lands] (in German) Vol. 2. München: Oldenbourg Verlag. pp. 121–122.
ISBN3-486-52551-4.
Roman von Procházka (1973). "Stammfolge Kaunitz (z Kunicz, Kaunitz-Rittberg, Kaunitz-Rietberg-Questenberg)" Genealogisches Handbuch erloschener böhmischer Herrenstandsfamilien. Neustadt an der Aisch. p. 138.
ISBN3-7686-5002-2.
Alfred von Arneth (1900). Biographie des Fürsten Kaunitz: Ein Fragment. [Biography of The Kaunitz Princes: A Fragment] In: AÖG. 88. pp. 8–10.
Grete Klingenstein (1975). "Wenzel Anton von Kaunitz" Der Aufstieg des Hauses Kaunitz. Studien und Herkunft und Bildung des Staatskanzlers. [The Rise of the House of Kaunitz. Studies and Origin and Education of the State Chancellor]. Göttingen.
ISBN3-525-35906-3.