Franz Xaver of Neveu

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Prince-Bishop Franz Xaver von Neveu

Franz Xaver von Neveu (born February 26, 1749 in Birseck Castle ; † August 23, 1828 in Offenburg ) was the last Prince-Bishop of Basel from 1794–1803 . After serving as the spiritual head of the old diocese of Basel between 1803 and 1828, he became the first bishop of the newly constituted Swiss diocese of Basel in 1828 .

Life

origin

Coat of arms of the Barons of Neveu

Franz Xaver von Neveu was born as the third son of the prince-bishop's chief bailiff in Birseck , Franz Karl Ignaz Freiherr von Neveu, and Maria Sophia Reuttner von Weyl. The von Neveu family comes from the Anjou region of France . One ancestor came to Germany as an officer in initially Swedish service during the Thirty Years' War. After he changed fronts, he received the Landvogtei Ortenau from Archduke Ferdinand in 1650.

education

Franz Xaver grew up in Pruntrut , where he initially stayed as a page at the prince-bishop's court and attended the Jesuit college and the seminary from 1762–1769 . In 1769 he began his studies at the University of Strasbourg , where he was ordained a priest in 1777. Shortly before, his uncle, Franz Joseph Freiherr von Neveu, had given him the post of parish rector of Heiligkreuz in Offenburg, which the uncle had previously held himself.

Canon and Bishop

After Franz Xaver was accepted into the Basel cathedral chapter as domicellar with the support of his older brother in 1789 , he received a seat and vote in the cathedral chapter on January 28, 1792 - a few months before French troops marched into the prince-bishopric.

After Prince Bishop Sigismund von Roggenbach died on March 9, 1794 in exile in Constance , the cathedral chapter, which fled from Arlesheim to Freiburg im Breisgau in 1793 , met in April. After the older canons of Ligerz and von Andlau had rejected the proposed election due to the dire situation of the prince-bishopric, Franz Xaver received the approval of the rich and Alsatian parties in the cathedral chapter and was elected bishop and prince of the bishopric of Basel on June 2, 1794. The Roman Curia and the government of Upper Austria were not satisfied with the election of von Neveu, who was rated as weak - but he was confirmed by the Pope on September 12, 1794.

Prince without a country

Principality of Basel

Franz Xaver was now formally imperial prince with a seat and vote in the Reichstag, but de facto he was a prince without a country. At the beginning he still had income from the areas that belonged to the Swiss Confederation - and were thus neutral in the war with France

as well as the right bank of the Rhine

With the peace of Campo Formio , however, France was given a free hand in Switzerland and on December 14, 1797, the French troops marched into the south of the principality.

literature

  • Marco Jorio : Franz Xaver von Neveu (1749-1828). An Offenburg on the bishop's chair in Basel. In: Freiburger Diözesan-Archiv, Volume 116, 1996, pp. 21-40 online
  • Marco Jorio : The Fall of the Principality of Basel (1792-1815). Freiburg i. Ü. 1981/1982.
  • WW Eckerle: Franz Xaver Freiherr v. Neveu. In: New Nekrolog der Deutschen, 6th year 1828, 2nd part, Ilmenau 1830, pp. 664–668. Google digitization
  • Edmund von der Becke-Klüchtzner: Family tables of the nobility of the Grand Duchy of Baden: a newly edited book of nobility , Baden-Baden, 1886, p. 302. Family table of the barons Neveu von Windschläg online

Web links

Commons : Franz Xaver von Neveu  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ the table is incorrect with regard to Franz Xaver. Here his eldest brother Joseph Wilhelm Karl Anton is mentioned as Prince-Bishop under the name Franz Xaver Joseph Wilhelm, while Franz Xaver is only mentioned as a canon in Granfelden (Grandval); s. also Jorio p. 28
predecessor Office successor
Sigismund von Roggenbach Bishop of Basel
1794 - 1828 		Joseph Anton Salzmann
personal data
SURNAME Neveu, Franz Xaver von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Prince-Bishop of Basel
DATE OF BIRTH February 26, 1749
PLACE OF BIRTH Birseck Castle
DATE OF DEATH 23 August 1828
Place of death Offenburg