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Prince of Auersperg
Prince
Johann Weikhard of Auersperg
(also spelled
Johann Weichard von Auersperg
; 11 March 1615 at
?u?emberk
Castle ? 11 November 1677 in
Ljubljana
) was
Prime Minister
of
Austria
and Knight of the
Order of the Golden Fleece
. He was the first
Prince of Auersperg
, and also
Imperial Prince
of
Tengen
and
Duke of Munsterberg
.
Life
[
edit
]
He was a descendant of the elder line of the
Auersperg
family from
Carniola
.
[1]
His parents were Dietrich II of Auersperg and Sidonia
Gall von Gallenstein
.
Johann Weikhard held several positions at the Austrian court. From 1640, he was
Obersthofmeister
(Lord Chamberlain) and teacher of
Ferdinand IV
, who was
King of the Romans
at the time. In 1641 he was sent to The Hague and later he took part in peace negotiations at
Osnabruck
, which ultimately ended the
Thirty Years' War
with the
Peace of Westphalia
(1648).
[2]
In 1653, Emperor
Ferdinand III
raised him to
Imperial Prince
and in 1654, in his capacity as King of Bohemia, enfeofed him with the
Duchy of Munsterberg
and the City of
Frankenstein
. He then styled himself
Duke of Munsterberg
.
[3]
He held great political influence during the first decade of the rule of Emperor
Leopold I
. As prime minister of Austria (1665-1669), he concluded a secret treaty with
France
on 19 January 1668 about the division of the Spanish
monarchy
and worked towards a
Catholic
triple alliance between
Austria
,
France
and
Spain
. He was, however, suspected of having had secret talks with King
Louis XIV
of France, who was alleged to have promised him a post as
Cardinal
and was suddenly relieved of his duties on 10 December 1669 and banished from the court. He was sentenced to death, however, this sentence was never effectuated. He lived the rest of his life on his estates in Carniola.
In 1673, he inherited the Lordships of
Gottschee
and
?u?emberk
from his elder brother Wolf Engelbrecht, Count of Auersperg.
Marriage
[
edit
]
Johann Weikhard married Countess Marie Katharine of Losenstein (1635?1691). They had three sons and five daughters. He was succeeded as Duke of Munsterberg by his sons
Johann Ferdinand
and
Franz Karl
.
References
[
edit
]
- Gustav Adolf Metnitz (1953),
"Auersperg,
Johann Weikhard Furst
(seit 17.9.1653)"
,
Neue Deutsche Biographie
(in German), vol. 1, Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, pp. 437?438
- Grete Mecenseffy:
Im Dienste dreier Habsburger. Leben und Wirken des Fursten Johann Weikhard Auersperg (1615?1677)
. in:
Archiv fur osterreichische Geschichte
, vol. 114, 1938, p. 295?509.
- Adam Wolf (1875), "
Johann Weichard Graf v. Auersperg
",
Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie
(in German), vol. 1, Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot, p. 640
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International
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National
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People
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Other
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- ^
Marek, Miroslav.
"Genealogy of Auersperg"
. Genealogy.EU.
- ^
Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. “Johann Weikhart, Prince Von Auersperg.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 9 Nov. 2018, www.britannica.com/biography/Johann-Weikhart-Prince-von-Auersperg.
- ^
Herbert Schmidt:
Der Silbererzbergbau in der Grafschaft Glatz und im Furstentum Munsterberg-Oels. Von den mittelalterlichen Anfangen bis zum Niedergang
, Tectum-Verlag, Marburg, 2003,
ISBN
3-8288-8500-4
, p. 18