Prince Felix of Schwarzenberg
Austrian prince (1800-1852)
Felix Ludwig Johann Friedrich, Prince of Schwarzenberg (German: Felix Ludwig Johann Friedrich Prinz zu Schwarzenberg; Czech: Felix Ludvík Jan Bedřich princ ze Schwarzenbergu; Slovene: Feliks Ludvik Janez Friderik princ Schwarzenberški; 2 October 1800 – 5 April 1852) was a Bohemian nobleman and an Austrian statesman who restored the Austrian Empire as a European great power following the Revolutions of 1848. He served as Minister-President of the Austrian Empire and Foreign Minister of the Austrian Empire from 1848 to 1852.
Life
Felix was born at Český Krumlov Castle (German: Böhmisch Krumau) in Bohemia, the second son of Prince Joseph of Schwarzenberg (1769–1833) and his wife Princess Pauline of Arenberg. The House of Schwarzenberg was one of the most influential Bohemian noble families; his elder brother Prince Johann Adolf II of Schwarzenberg later initiated the building of the Emperor Franz Joseph Railway line from Vienna to Plzeň (Pilsen), while Felix' younger brother Frederick became Archbishop of Salzburg in 1835 and Archbishop of Prague in 1849.
The nephew of Prince Karl Philipp of Schwarzenberg (1771–1820), commander of the Austrian armies in the last phases of the Napoleonic Wars, Schwarzenberg after a short military interlude entered the diplomatic service, where he became a protégé of State Chancellor Prince Klemens von Metternich and served in several Austrian embassies at Saint Petersburg, London, Paris, Turin, and Naples. During his time as a London attaché in 1828 he had an affair with Jane Digby, whom he deserted after causing her then-husband – Edward Law, 1st Earl of Ellenborough – to divorce her, and making her pregnant. This episode led to the nickname of "Prince of Cadland" being applied to him in London.
Upon the outbreak of the 1848 Revolutions, he rushed to the Austrian Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia to join Field Marshal Joseph Radetzky defeating the Italian rebel forces of King Charles Albert of Sardinia in Milan. For his role as a close advisor to Radetzky, as well as his status as brother-in-law to Marshal Prince Alfred of Windisch-Grätz, who had suppressed the Czech "Whitsun Riot" in Prague and the Vienna Uprising in October, Schwarzenberg was appointed Austrian minister-president—the sixth within a year—and foreign minister on 21 November 1848. In these offices, which he both held until his premature death, his first step was to secure the replacement of incapacitated Emperor Ferdinand I of Austria by his nephew Francis Joseph.
The public source identifies “Prince Felix of Schwarzenberg” as austrian prince (1800-1852). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Prince, Felix and Schwarzenberg.
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