Hans Ulrich von Eggenberg

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Prince Hans Ulrich von Eggenberg (1568–October 18, 1634), was an Austrian statesman, a son of Siegfried von Eggenberg (died 1594).

He began life as a soldier in the Spanish service but around 1596 he became a trusted servant of the archduke of Styria, and later of the emperor Ferdinand II. He converted to Roman Catholicism and soon became the chancellor and chief adviser of Ferdinand, whose election as emperor he helped to secure in 1619.

He directed the imperial policy during the earlier part of the Thirty Years' War, and was in general a friend and supporter of Albrecht von Wallenstein, and an opponent of Maximilian I, duke of Bavaria, and of Spain. He was largely responsible for Wallenstein's return to the imperial service early in 1632, and retired from public life just after the general's murder in February 1634, dying at Laibach, on October 18, 1634.

Eggenberg's influence on Ferdinand was so marked that it was commonly said that Austria rested upon three hills (Berge): Eggenberg, Questenberg and Werdenberg. He was richly rewarded for his services to the emperor. Having received many valuable estates in Bohemia and elsewhere, he was made a prince of the Empire in 1623, and duke of Krumau in 1625.

[edit] References

• H. von Zwiedineck-Sudenhorst, Hans Ulrich, Furst von Eggenberg (Vienna, 1880)
• F. Mare's, Beitrage zur Geschichte der Beziehungen des Fursten J. U. von Eggenberg (Prague, 1893)
• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.