Charles Egon II, Prince of Fürstenberg

Charles Egon II, Prince of Fürstenberg in 1831

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.

Life

Minority

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 (13th 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, which still had surviving issue.

He succeeded aged only seven years old and 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.[1] 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.

Majority and marriage

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 of Hochberg. Since he was still technically a prince, the marriage was morganatic - though Charles, Grand Duke of Baden later promoted her to princess (she was his father's half-sister), making her the first princess of Baden and meaning that Charles Egon's mother could finally accept it as a marriage of equals.[2]

Political life

His 'standesherr' status entitled him to sit in the Badische Ständeversammlung, of which he was the first-ever vice-president, holding that office for thirty-three years from 1819 to 1852, whilst its president was Prince William of Baden.[3] 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.[4] 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[5] - this removed censorship, at least for home affairs in Baden. In 1836 he was made a knight of the Austrian Order of the Golden Fleece and on 18 January 1851 he was made a knight of the Order of the Black Eagle, the highest order in the Kingdom of Prussia.[6]

Issue

Charles Egon II, Prince of Fürstenberg
(Heiligenberger Fürstenbrunnen)

With Amalie he had seven children:

  • Marie Elisabeth (* 15 March 1819; † 9. April 1897)
  • Karl Egon III. (* 4 March 1820; † 15 March 1892)
  • Maria Amalia (* 12 February 1821; † 17 January 1899) ∞ 19 April 1845 Viktor I. zu Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst
  • Maximilian Egon I. (* 29 March 1822; † 27 July 1873) ∞ 23. Mai 1860 Gräfin Leontine von Khevenhüller-Metsch
  • Marie Henriette (* 16 July 1823; † 19 September 1834)
  • Emil Egon (* 12 September 1825; † 15 May 1899) ∞ 31. Mai 1875 Gräfin Leontine von Khevenhüller-Metsch
  • Pauline Wilhelmine (* 11 June 1829; † 3 August 1900) ∞ 15. April 1847 Hugo Fürst zu Hohenlohe-Oehringen

References

  1. ↑ (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.
  2. ↑ (in German) Karoline von Freystedt: Erinnerungen aus dem Hofleben, Heidelberg 1902, S. 146/147.
  3. ↑ (in German) Karl Stiefel: Baden 1648–1952, Band 1, S. 258
  4. ↑ (in German) Karl Stiefel: Baden 1648–1952, Band 1, S. 258.
  5. ↑ (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.
  6. ↑ (in German) Hermann Hengst: Die Ritter des Schwarzen Adlerordens. Verlag Alexander Duncker, Berlin 1901, S. 123.

Bibliography (in German)

  • Karl Siegfried Bader: Fürstin Elisabeth zu Fürstenberg im Kampf um die Erhaltung der Rechte ihres mediatisierten Hauses, in: Schriften des Vereins für Geschichte und Naturgeschichte der Baar und der angrenzenden Landesteile in Donaueschingen, XXIV. Heft 1956, Donaueschingen 1956; S. 119–153. online (PDF; 43,9 MB)
  • Friedrich von Weech: Karl Egon Fürst zu Fürstenberg, in: Friedrich von Weech (Herausgeber): Badische Biographien, Erster Theil, Heidelberg 1875, S. 272–274. (Digitalisat)
  • Friedrich von Weech (1878), "Fürstenberg, Karl Egon Fürst zu", Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB) (in German), 8, Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot, pp. 227–228


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