Wenzel Anton Graf Kaunitz

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Wenzel Anton Count of Kaunitz-Rietberg
Wenzel Anton Count of Kaunitz-Rietberg

Wenzel Anton Graf[1] Kaunitz (Czech: Václav Antonín hrabě Kounic-Rietberg) (February 2, 1711 – June 27, 1794) was an Austrian statesman.

Kaunitz was born in Vienna to an old Bohemian noble family settled in Moravia. It was intended that Kaunitz should become a clergyman when he was a boy, but he soon decided otherwise and studied law instead. During his career, he was Austria's ambassador in Turin (1741), then minister in the Austrian Netherlands during the absence of its ruler Prince Charles of Lorraine, October 1744 to June 1746; he was virtually the head of government after the death of the governor, Archduchess Maria-Anna, sister of Maria Theresa in December 1744.[2] The following the French advance forced his retreat with the governmewnt of the Austrian Netherlands, first to Anvers, then to Aachen, where Kaunitz represented Austria at the Congress of Aachen at the close of the War of the Austrian Succession (1748) and was ambassador at Versailles 1750-53, where he cooperated in laying the groundwork for the future Bourbon-Habsburg alliance.

Kaunitz's most important and extremely influential office was that of the chancellor of state and minister of foreign affairs, which he held 1753-92 and where he had Maria Theresa's full trust. Thanks in large part to him, Habsburg Austria entered a treaty (1756) with her old enemy France (and later Russia and Sweden) against the Kingdom of Prussia to win back Silesia, which Austria lost to Prussia during the Silesian Wars.

Wenzel Anton Count of Kaunitz-Rietberg (part of the Maria Theresa monument in Vienna)
Wenzel Anton Count of Kaunitz-Rietberg (part of the Maria Theresa monument in Vienna)

Kaunitz founded the Austrian Council of State, the Staatsrat, 1761, oversawing the reorganization of the army under Daun and worked towards the goal of subjecting the church to the state. He followed the thoughts of the Age of Enlightenment and among his aims was also the better education of the commoners.

From 1764 Kaunitz was styled Reichsfürst[3] von Kaunitz-Rietberg (Imperial Prince of Kaunitz-Rietberg), his father having been Maximilian Ulrich von Kaunitz, and his mother having been Marie Ernestine von Ostfriesland-Rietberg.

Although Joseph II generally shared such ideas, his reforms moved too fast and too thoroughly for Kaunitz. whose influence grew less during Joseph's reign (1765–90), and even less when Joseph's brother Leopold II reigned; he resigned his office at the accession of Francis II. Kaunitz died in Vienna.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Regarding personal names: Graf is a title, translated as Count, not a first or middle name. The female form is Gräfin.)
  2. ^   "Wenzel Anton Kaunitz". Catholic Encyclopedia. (1913). New York: Robert Appleton Company. 
  3. ^ Regarding personal names: Reichsfürst is a title, translated as Prince of the Empire, not a first or middle name. The female form is Reichsfürstin. Titles using the prefix Reichs- were not created after the fall of the Holy Roman Empire.