Clemens August von Westphalen

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Clemens August Freiherr von Westphalen ( Reichsgraf since 1792 ) (born January 12, 1753 in Paderborn ; † December 26, 1818 in Frankfurt am Main ) held numerous offices in various north-west German monasteries, was Kurmainz Minister of State and Imperial Ambassador.

Portrait among the Friedberg Burgraves in the Wetterau Museum

family

He came from the Westphalian noble family von Westphalen zu Fürstenberg and was the son of the prince-bishop of Paderborn, Oberstallmeister Clemens August von Westphalen. He married Countess Maria Antonia Waldbott von Bassenheim in 1778 . With this he had five children, including the heir Friedrich Wilhelm. In 1788 he married Maria Theresia von Bocholtz in his second marriage . This marriage remained childless.

Life

Clemens August took over the family property in 1778 and was able to increase the family's fortune considerably, as he was the universal heir to the Prince-Bishops Wilhelm Anton von der Asseburg and Friedrich Wilhelm von Westphalen . The latter allegedly left a fortune of 900,000 thalers. He expanded the property by buying land, for example by buying Gut Rixdorf near Eutin . In the prince-bishops of Hildesheim , Paderborn and Osnabrück he held the hereditary honorary posts in inheritance, hereditary kitchen and hereditary hunter master.

He was Hildesheimer and Paderborn's real secret councilor and head stable master. He was also a member of the state estates of the Principality of Paderborn. In this territory he was Landdrost and Drost of the offices of Liebenburg and Hunnesrück . He was also Minister of State for Kurmainz and, as such, was the second electoral ambassador for the imperial election of 1790. He was also responsible for general imperial, district, judicial and police affairs.

Clemens August was also royal and imperial chamberlain and secret councilor. For many years he was the imperial envoy with the rank of authorized minister to the courts of the electors of Cologne and Trier as well as to the Lower Rhine-Westphalian Empire . At the beginning of the coalition wars, he unsuccessfully urged the Reichskreis to actively prepare for war. In 1801 he brought the Aachen imperial regalia Gospels , Stephansbursa and the saber of Charlemagne from Aachen to Vienna .

From 1779 he was Burgmann at the Imperial Friedberg Castle , from 1783 Regimental Burgmann and from 1805 the last Burgrave of the Burgraviate Friedberg and Grand Prior of the Order of St. Joseph . He acquired the Reinhartshausen winery and castle and parts of the Mariannenaue island on the Rhine . Since 1801 he had the castle built in its current form.

In 1792, Clemens August was elevated to the rank of imperial count for his services by Emperor Leopold II .

literature

  • Chr. Von Stromberg: The Rheingau represented historically and topographically . Vol. 2 Koblenz, 1863 p. 315f.
  • Genealogical Imperial and State Manual for the year 1805 . Vol. 1 Frankfurt am Main, 1805 p. 792

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Friedrich Wilhelm Cosmann: Historical-genealogical magazine for the German nobility excellent in Lower Saxony and Westphalia, Volume 1, 1798, p. Iii
  2. ↑ Bernd Blisch : On the imperial policy of the Mainz Elector and Arch Chancellor Friedrich Carl Joseph von Erthal . In: Peter Claus Hartmann (Ed.): The Mainz Elector as Imperial Arch Chancellor (=  historical regional studies ). tape 45 . Stuttgart 1996 ( regionalgeschichte.net ).
  3. ^ Entry of imperial regalia in the historical lexicon of Bavaria
  4. ↑ Reinhartshausen Castle in the Wanderatlas. Retrieved April 18, 2014 .
personal data
SURNAME Westphalen, Clemens August von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Westphalen, Clemens August Freiherr von (full name); Westphalen, Clemens August Reichsgraf von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Imperial envoy and Minister of State for the Electorate of Mainz
DATE OF BIRTH January 12, 1753
PLACE OF BIRTH Paderborn
DATE OF DEATH December 26, 1818
Place of death Frankfurt am Main