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Charles Egon II, Prince of Fürstenberg

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Charles Egon II, Prince of Fürstenberg (German: Karl Egon II. Fürst zu Fürstenberg; 28 October 1796 – 22 October 1854) was a German politician and nobleman. From 1804 to 1806 he was the last sovereign prince of Furstenburg before its mediatisation, whilst still in his minority. He also served as the first-ever vice-president of the Upper Chamber of the Badische Ständeversammlung.

Charles Egon II, Prince of Fürstenberg in 1831

Life

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Minority

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He was born in Prague, the only son of the Austrian general Karl Aloys zu Fürstenberg and his wife princess Elisabeth von Thurn und Taxis. Soon after his father's death on 25 March 1799 his cousin Charles Gabriel also died aged only fourteen (13 December 1799) - Charles Gabriel had been the last scion of the Bohemian Fürstenberg-Pürglitz line and this left the branch extinct. His uncle Karl Joachim, the last male survivor of the Swabian line, died in 1804, leaving that too extinct. This meant that in 1804 Charles Egon inherited almost all the Fürstenberg possessions except those of the Moravian line,[1] which still had surviving issue.

Charles was only seven years old when he succeeded, so his mother and Landgraf Joachim Egon von Fürstenberg, a distant uncle from the Moravian line, became his guardians and regents, though most of the actual governing was done by Joseph von Laßberg.[2] In 1806 the princedom of Fürstenberg was abolished by the Treaty of the Confederation of the Rhine. Elisabeth and Laßberg tried in vain to get this reversed at the 1814 Congress of Vienna.

He studied at Freiburg and Würzburg. In 1815 he accompanied Prince Schwarzenberg to Paris as staff-officer.[1]

Majority and marriage

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Amalie in 1819
 
Albrecht Adam: A ride in front of Schloss Heiligenberg (1831) – Charles Egon II and his wife Amalie of Baden with courtiers.

Thus by the time he reached majority in 1817 Charles Egon was not a sovereign prince but a "Grundherr" possessing large estates, woods and industrial sites, as well as a Standesherr of the three states between which Fürstenberg had been divided—the Grand Duchy of Baden, the Kingdom of Württemberg and the Princedom of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen. On 19 April 1818 he married Amalie of Baden, a daughter of Charles Frederick, Grand Duke of Baden and his second wife Louise Caroline, Countess von Hochberg. Since her mother was a morganatic wife, so too was Amalie - although Charles, Grand Duke of Baden later elevated her to dynastic status (she was his father's half-sister), making her the first "princess" of Baden, which allowed Charles Egon's mother to finally accept the couple as a marriage of equals.[3]

Political life

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Charles's Standesherr status entitled him to sit in the Badische Ständeversammlung, of which chamber he became the first vice-president, holding that office for thirty-three years from 1819 to 1852, whilst its president was Prince William of Baden.[4] His estates also meant he sat in the Upper Chamber of the Estates of Württemberg (whose vice-presidency he also held several times) from 1819 and in the Prussian House of Lords from 1850. History records him as a relatively progressive and unbiased for his time.[5] For example, during the full sitting of the German Confederation's landtag in 1831, he played a significant part in getting the upper chamber to approve the Liberal Press Act, put forward by the government under pressure from the lower chamber.[6] This removed censorship, at least for home affairs in Baden. He was also influential in the abolition of tithes and feudal duties.[7]

Charitable work

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Charles was also distinguished by his large charities; among other foundations he established a hospital at Donaueschingen. For the industrial development of the country, too, he did much, and proved himself also a notable patron of the arts. His palace of Donaueschingen, with its collections of paintings, engravings and coins, was a centre of culture, where poets, painters and musicians met with princely entertainment.[1]

Issue

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Charles Egon II, Prince of Fürstenberg
(Heiligenberger Fürstenbrunnen)

With Amalie he had seven children:

Honours

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Ancestry

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References

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  1. ^ a b c   One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Fürstenberg s.v. Karl Egon". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 11 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 366–367.
  2. ^ (in German) Volker Schupp: Joseph von Laßberg, die Fürstlich-Fürstenbergische Handschriftensammlung und Johann Leonhard Hug, Professor an der Universität Freiburg, in: Freiburger Universitätsblätter 131 (1996), S. 97.
  3. ^ (in German) Karoline von Freystedt: Erinnerungen aus dem Hofleben, Heidelberg 1902, S. 146/147.
  4. ^ (in German) Karl Stiefel: Baden 1648–1952, Band 1, S. 258
  5. ^ (in German) Karl Stiefel: Baden 1648–1952, Band 1, S. 258.
  6. ^ (in German) ".... Fürst v. Fürstenberg durch geistvolle, männlich-kräftige Rede rühmlichts erkämpfen helfen." s. Karl von Rotteck: Geschichte des badischen Landtags von 1831, Hildburgshausen 1833; S. 277.
  7. ^ Chisholm 1911.
  8. ^ Hof- und Staats-Handbuch des Großherzogtum Baden (1853), "Großherzogliche Orden" pp. 32, 47
  9. ^ Württemberg (1854). Königlich-Württembergisches Hof- und Staats-Handbuch: 1854. Guttenberg. p. 32.
  10. ^ Boettger, T. F. "Chevaliers de la Toisón d'Or - Knights of the Golden Fleece". La Confrérie Amicale. Retrieved 25 June 2019.
  11. ^ "A Szent István Rend tagjai" Archived 22 December 2010 at the Wayback Machine
  12. ^ Adreß-Handbuch des Herzogthums Sachsen-Coburg und Gotha (1843), "Herzogliche Sachsen-Ernestinischer Hausorden" p. 7
  13. ^ (in German) Hermann Hengst: Die Ritter des Schwarzen Adlerordens. Verlag Alexander Duncker, Berlin 1901, S. 123.

Bibliography (in German)

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