Johann Georg von Koenigsfeld

Johann Georg II von Königsfeld,
copper engraving by Christoph Heinrich Müller after a painting by Franz Lippold

Johann Georg II Imperial Count von Königsfeld (born November 1, 1679 in Zaitzkofen ; born Johann Georg Joseph Anton Maria von Königsfeld ; † November 16, 1750 in Munich ) was Bavarian Conference Minister and under Emperor Charles VII Vice Chancellor of the Holy Roman Empire .

Life

He came from the Königsfeld dynasty , which in the 18th century was one of the most distinguished aristocratic families in Old Bavaria. His grandfather Johann Georg I was elevated to the rank of imperial count by Emperor Leopold I on September 14, 1685 . In 1659 he acquired the Alteglofsheim estate and in 1694 left it to his grandson by virtue of the Fidei Commission will.

Johann Georg II., Whose father was treasurer of the Bavarian elector, attended the Jesuit high school in Regensburg and studied law in Salzburg since 1697 without a degree . In 1715 he became the Bavarian envoy. From 1717 to 1732 he was the Bavarian envoy to the permanent Reichstag in Regensburg. In 1729 he refused to agree to the guarantees of the Pragmatic Sanction as the plenipotentiary of Bavaria at the Soissons Congress . In the same year he was elected Grand Commander of the Order of Saint Georgi . In 1730 he stayed with his second wife, a Countess Preysing , and the six children who had remained alive of thirteen in Paris in the palace of Madame La Maréchal de Beaufleur.

He was entrusted with important diplomatic missions, but could not assert himself against the old ministers. Since he was said to have sympathy for Austria and the Kaiser, he was suspended from 1732. In 1735 he became Vice-Governor of Amberg , and four years later he was President of the Landscape-Unterlands.

After the death of Emperor Karl VI. In 1740, on behalf of his elector, he traveled to the courts of the episcopal electors of Mainz and Trier with nineteen-page instructions to defend Karl Albrecht's right to inherit the Austrian hereditary lands. In Frankfurt am Main , Königsfeld tried, as a “real secret council and conference minister”, to steer the upcoming election of emperor in the spirit of Karl Albrecht. As an impressive argument he could point out that Bohemia now paid homage to its master as king. At the same time he succeeded in forcing the Reich Vice Chancellor Rudolph Joseph von Colloredo to resign voluntarily and to become his successor. In doing so, Karl enforced Königsfeld as Vice Chancellor against the right to appoint the Imperial Arch Chancellor , the Elector of Mainz. However, Königsfeld had to advance Colloredo 100,000 guilders in return for his waiver.

At the coronation of Karl Albrecht as Emperor Charles VII on February 12, 1742, he girded the emperor with the sword of Charlemagne and received the imperial seal on the silver rod from the new emperor. After the kneeling of the magistrate, Königsfeld gave the solemn address to the emperor and from the balcony the address to the citizens who had gathered on the Römerberg to pay homage. In 1742 he was elected a member of the Leopoldina .

In the course of the Austrian War of Succession Bavaria was now occupied by Austrian troops. Only through a loan brokered by the emperor from Hanoverian Jew Moses Lewi was he able to raise the 100,000 guilders for Colloredo, so that at the end of 1742 he also became de jure Vice Chancellor of the Holy Roman Empire, which he de facto already was.

Under the Wittelsbach Emperor Karl VII. He served as Reich Vice Chancellor from 1742 to 1745. Count Königsfeld has proven himself in the office and effectively defended the emperor's interests. During the short period of his activity, the Reichshof Chancellery under his direction has greatly expanded its leeway, especially against the Reichserzkanzler. He lost his position as Reich Vice Chancellor when Karl died in 1745.

After the end of the war he lived in Munich in what is now the Archbishop's Palace as a "churbayerischer ministre and Obristcämmerer". He was only able to settle his debt with Moses Lewi in 1748, after he had succeeded in getting his son into the same position at the Munich court that he once owned himself.

From 1728 to 1734 he had the Alteglofsheim Palace splendidly rebuilt and furnished. He also had a new parish church built with a family crypt for the count family. The new construction of Schönach Palace in 1702 can also be traced back to him. Zaitzkofen Castle was rebuilt around 1730 .

His first marriage was to a Countess Montfort . His second wife was Antonia Countess von Preysing .

After his death, the imperial count's body was transferred from Munich to Alteglofsheim in a mourning wagon pulled by six cents. On the morning of November 20, 1750, the body was laid out in the castle's oval hall. The burial took place in the family crypt at five in the evening. Only the inscription plate remains from the grave monument.

literature

• Wolf-Dieter Peter: Johann Georg Joseph Graf von Königsfeld (1679–1750). A Bavarian nobleman of the ancien régime. Laßleben, 1977.
• Carl Oskar Renner: Johann Georg von Königsfeld, "Churbayerischer Ministre and Obristcämmerer". In: Herbert Schindler (Ed.): Bavaria in the Rococo. Aspects of an era in transition. Süddeutscher Verlag, Munich 1989, ISBN 3-7991-6434-0 , pp. 95-103.
• Hans-Michael Körner (Ed.) With the collaboration of Bruno Jahn: Great Bavarian Biographical Encyclopedia. Volume 2: HO. KG Saur, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-598-11460-5 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Alois Schmid : Max III. Joseph and the European Powers. The foreign policy of the Electorate of Bavaria from 1745–1765. Oldenbourg, Göttingen 1987, ISBN 3-486-53631-1 , p. 24 (also: Munich, University, habilitation paper, 1984).
2. ^ Anton Schindling , Walter Ziegler (ed.): The emperors of the modern times. 1519-1918. Holy Roman Empire, Austria, Germany. Beck, Munich 1990, ISBN 3-406-34395-3 , p. 227.
3. ↑ Press report on Castle and Crypt ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 

predecessor	Office	successor
?	Bavarian envoy in Regensburg 1717–1732	?
Johann Adolf von Metsch	Imperial Vice Chancellor 1742–1745	Rudolph Joseph von Colloredo