Joseph Friedrich of Saxony-Hildburghausen
Prince Joseph of Saxe-Hildburghausen (* 5. October 1702 in Erbach , † 14. January 1787 in Hildburghausen) was Prince and Regent of Saxony-Hildburghausen and imperial Field Marshal of the Austrian Habsburgs and Reich Field Marshal .
Life
origin
Joseph Friedrich was born as the youngest of five children of Duke Ernst von Sachsen-Hildburghausen . His mother, Sophia Henriette (1662–1702), was a daughter of Field Marshal Georg Friedrich von Waldeck .
Three of his older siblings died early; his eldest brother Ernst Friedrich succeeded him as Duke of Saxony-Hildburghausen in 1715. In the year of Joseph's birth, his father had laid down the primary school regulations in the country, and without any prospect of government, Joseph Friedrich switched to a military career, in which his father also had considerable successes.
Military career
He received the typical upbringing of a nobleman with a few educational trips to various European courts. At the age of 16, the prince joined the Imperial Army in 1719 as a protégé of Field Marshal Friedrich Heinrich von Seckendorff and in the same year was already listed as a staff captain in Infantry Regiment No. 18 "Seckendorff". With this regiment he took part in the war of the Quadruple Alliance (1717-1720) in Sicily shortly afterwards . Here he already distinguished himself.
In 1728 Joseph Friedrich converted to Catholicism ; after that a quick military career began for the prince. After he had been lieutenant colonel in 1729 and the following year (July 18, 1730) a colonel in the " Pálffy " regiment , on January 17, 1732 he became the owner of the 8th Infantry Regiment, which has been named after Joseph Friedrich since his time.
Shortly after the outbreak of the War of the Polish Succession (1733-1735 / 38), he was promoted to Sergeant General in his army in Lombardy in 1734 at the request of Count Mercy and served in the following campaigns in northern Italy . During the fighting there, in which he proved himself, he was promoted to Lieutenant Field Marshal (April 30, 1735). In the battle of Parma , whose victorious outcome for Austria was above all his personal merit, in addition to being promoted, he suffered a blackening of his face caused by powder residues, which he was to keep throughout his life.
The Prince ended the War of the Polish Succession with the rank of Feldzeugmeister (25 September 1736). Only one year later he was entrusted with the command of an Austrian corps during the Russo-Austrian Turkish War (1736–1739) . His attempt to conquer Banja Luka in 1737 failed, but in practically all important battles of the war Joseph was distinguished by personal bravery, for example in the Battle of Grocka (July 22, 1739), where he led the imperial retreat Army covered.
After the war, the prince was appointed governor of Komorn . Before that (June 11, 1739) he had been appointed General Feldzeugmeister of the Imperial Army . At the beginning of the War of the Austrian Succession (1740–1748), Joseph organized the equipment and assembly of the new Hungarian regiments in Komorn and, in this function, played a key role in the deliberations of the Austrian military administration. In 1743 he was appointed senior military director and commanding general of Inner Austria, Karlsstadt and Warasdin. He was responsible for the organization of the military border and military supplies. This was also expressed in his promotion to field marshal (April 18, 1744). It was not until May 1749 that he was released from this responsible post at his own request.
In the following years he lived in Austria until, after the outbreak of the Seven Years' War (1756–1763), in the spring of 1757 he was appointed commander of the Imperial Army, which had the task of taking action against Frederick II of Prussia . Together with a French corps, however, the Imperial Army was devastated on November 5th of that year in the Battle of Rossbach . Joseph von Sachsen-Hildburghausen then submitted his farewell and withdrew from all military matters. In the judgment of later historians, the prince was almost always reduced to this one defeat, although in view of the catastrophic state of the imperial army and the failure of the French troops he could hardly have changed the outcome of the battle. The promotion to field marshal of the Reichsarmee (November 9, 1785), with which the prince's military career came to an end, was also more symbolic.
Social status
Joseph von Sachsen-Hildburghausen maintained very good relations with the Habsburg ruling house throughout his life. In 1739 Emperor Karl VI appointed him . to the Knight of the Golden Fleece , the House Order of the Habsburgs . On March 13, 1741 he even represented August III. of Poland as godfather of the young Archduke Josef , son of Maria Theresa . This shows how close he was to the new ruler, whose close friend he is supposed to have been.
Joseph's marriage to his niece, 20 years his senior, and sole heir to the huge fortune of the late Prince Eugene of Savoy , Princess Anna Victoria of Savoy (1683–1763), daughter of Louis Thomas of Savoy-Soissons (1657–1702) , caused a certain sensation . The wedding took place on April 17, 1738 in Paris . Joseph Friedrich married one of the richest people in Europe at that time and Anna Victoria showered her husband with gifts. Joseph Friedrich thus came into possession of large real estate and a lot of cash. This also included Hof Palace , which he could no longer maintain after separating from his wife. In order to win the Empress as a potential buyer, he celebrated the most lavish festival in Austrian history here in 1754 to convince her to buy. Joseph Friedrich's marriage was otherwise cool and in 1752 they divorced.
The prince made a name for himself in the following years as a patron , but also as a spendthrift. He is considered to be the discoverer and patron of the composer Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf . He spent most of his time at court in Vienna.
At the beginning of the 1750s, the prince acquired the Palais Strada, located on what was then the Löwelbastei , opposite the city palace of the Princes of Liechtenstein , built in 1696 . This was built in 1575 by the imperial court architect Jacopo Strada for himself and his art collection. The prince did not sell this property until 1770, although he had rented another palace for the winter much earlier, today's Palais Auersperg , then Palais Rofrano. Even after his return to Hildburghausen in 1769, the renting of the palace did not end, at least in 1774 it was still referred to as the palace of the Prince of Hildburghausen .
Regent of Saxony-Hildburghausen
After the many debts that his relatives, the ruling dukes of Saxony-Hildburghausen, left behind, he was appointed administrator of the duchy by Emperor Joseph II in 1769 in order to avoid bankruptcy. Duke Ernst Friedrich III. , his great-nephew, was incapacitated and Joseph Friedrich took over the role of Prince Regent in 1780 .
The emperor's debit commission worked more than successfully, although it was unable to fully regulate the situation in the principality until Joseph Friedrich's death. The prince spent the last years of his life more than economically; The English traveler Swinburne writes about his lifestyle: “I ... paid my respects to the old Prince of Saxony-Hildburghausen. He is 80 years old and can lift 300 pounds. He retires to his apartments every evening at 8 a.m. When he goes from his salon to his bedroom, people are set up to take off his wig and his clothes in such a way that when he steps into the door of his bedroom, he is always ready for bed. ” Goethe wrote something similar to his wife von Stein : “Today I ate at the old man's in Hildburghausen. He was very cheerful and friendly, gave me an audience in bed and was immediately dressed for dinner. "
literature
- Karl Friedrich Hermann Albrecht: Josef Maria Friedrich Wilhelm, Prince of Saxony-Hildburghausen . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 12, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1880, pp. 395-397.
- Rainer Egger : Joseph Friedrich. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 10, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1974, ISBN 3-428-00191-5 , p. 624 f. ( Digitized version ).
- Oliver Heyn : Joseph Friedrich von Sachsen-Hildburghausen and the leadership of the Reichsarmee, in: Querengässer, Alexander (ed.): The battle near Roßbach. Actors - course - aftermath (= contributions to the history of the military in Saxony, vol. 2), Berlin 2017, pp. 47–77. ISBN 3-938447-96-6 .
- Frank Huss : Prince Joseph Friedrich von Sachsen-Hildburghausen, the "heir" of Prince Eugen , Vienna 2005. ISBN 3-200-00485-1 .
- Helmut Neuhaus : The Reich in the fight against Frederick the Great - Reich Army and Reich Warfare in the Seven Years War . In: Bernhard Kröner (Ed.): Europe in the Age of Frederick the Great, R. Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich 1989, pp. 213–244.
- Bernhard von Poten (Ed.): Concise dictionary of the entire military sciences . Vol. 5, Bielefeld / Leipzig 1878.
- Constantin von Wurzbach : Saxony-Hildburghausen, Wilhelm Herzog . In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich . 28th part. Imperial-Royal Court and State Printing Office, Vienna 1874, p. 31 f. ( Digitized version ).
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Joseph Friedrich of Saxony-Hildburghausen |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Joseph Maria Friedrich Wilhelm Hollandinus of Saxony-Hildburghausen |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Prince and Regent of Sachsen-Hildburghausen, Imperial Field Marshal General |
| DATE OF BIRTH | October 5, 1702 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Erbach (Odenwald) |
| DATE OF DEATH | January 14, 1787 |
| Place of death | Hildburghausen |