Franz Seraph von Dietrichstein

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Franz Seraph Cardinal von Dietrichstein in his younger years
Cardinal von Dietrichstein in old age (1635)
Dietrichstein's cardinal coat of arms

Franz Seraph von Dietrichstein (in Czech František z Ditrichštejna ; born August 22, 1570 in Madrid , † September 19, 1636 in Brno ) was Bishop of Olomouc and cardinal and since 1624 imperial prince.

biography

He came from the Austrian noble family Dietrichstein . His parents were the imperial diplomat Adam von Dietrichstein and Margarete († 1609), daughter of the Sardinian viceroy Antonio Folche Duque de Cardona ( House Folch de Cardona ).

Dietrichstein studied at the Universities of Vienna and Prague as well as at the papal university in Rome, Collegio Romano , where he was an alumne of the Germanicum . At the age of 21 he became a canon in Olomouc , two years later in Breslau and Passau . In 1594 he was appointed provost of the Leitmeritz collegiate chapter. 1597 he was ordained a priest in 1599 by Pope Clement VIII. To Cardinal raised, after which he, the titular church of San Silvestro in Capite was assigned (to 1623).

In the same year, the Olomouc cathedral chapter elected the imperial and papal preferred candidate Franz Seraph von Dietrichstein as the successor to Bishop Stanislaus Pavlovský von Pavlovitz, who died in 1598 . He did not take office in Olomouc until June 9, 1600. As bishop he was one of the advocates of the Counter Reformation , pursuing the Catholic renewal in the spirit of Philipp Neri . He was considered a representative of baroque humanism and advocated art, science and the education of the people. For the Olomouc Cathedral he had a new representative choir built in the early baroque style.

Even as a young man, Franz Seraph von Dietrichstein owned a thirteenth of the total area of ​​Moravia. From 1602 he was deputy governor of Moravia . In 1607 Emperor Rudolf II appointed him President of the Privy Council. From 1608 to 1611 he represented the emperor in negotiations with his brother Matthias and crowned him King of Bohemia in 1611. In 1617 he crowned his successor Ferdinand II.

Together with Charles the Elder from Žerotin , he succeeded in preventing the Moravian estates from participating in the uprising of 1618. After the temporary victory of the Bohemian Protestants, Dietrichstein was overthrown in 1619 and expelled from the country. His property was confiscated . After the Battle of the White Mountain , he returned from Vienna and, in addition to his confiscated goods, received two other lordships from Emperor Ferdinand II . He also bought other possessions, such as the Rosenburg rulership in Lower Austria in 1611 . With his fortune he founded numerous monasteries. He was one of the advocates of recatholicization and achieved that the Catholic Church in Moravia gained in importance. After 1620 he rose to the position of General Commissioner and Governor of Moravia. In 1622 he worked as a judge against the rebels. A year before his death he became "Protector Germaniae". On March 16, 1624 in Vienna, Emperor Ferdinand II raised him to the hereditary imperial prince as the first representative of the Dietrichstein family . This with the right to be able to pass on the princely status - especially to his nephews. Cardinal von Dietrichstein then appointed his nephew Maximilian von Dietrichstein as universal heir and successor in princely dignity.

The library he left behind at Mikulov Castle ( Nikolsburg in German ) was robbed by the Swedes in 1645.

literature

Web links

Commons : Franz von Dietrichstein  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Golo Mann : Wallenstein. His life is told by Golo Mann . Fischer, Frankfurt / Main 1987. ISBN 3-10-047904-1 , p. 53.
  2. Peter H. Wilson: The Thirty Years War. A European tragedy. Theiss, Darmstadt 2017, ISBN 978-3-8062-3628-6 .
predecessor Office successor
Stanislaus Pavlovský from Pavlovitz Bishop of Olomouc
1599–1636
John XIX. Ernst Plateis von Plattenstein