Karl Thomas zu Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rochefort

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Prince Karl Thomas

Karl Thomas Prince of Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rochefort (born March 7, 1714 in Augsburg ; † June 6, 1789 in Kleinheubach ) was the third Prince of the Löwenstein family from 1735 to 1789 .

Dynastic assignment

Karl Thomas was the eldest son of Prince Dominik Marquard zu Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rochefort (1690–1735) and his wife Christina Franziska Polyxena, born Countess of Hesse-Rheinfels (1687–1728).

Karl Thomas married Marie Charlotte Princess of Holstein-Wiesenburg (1718–1765) in Vienna on July 25, 1736 . The marriage resulted in a daughter Leopoldine (1739–1765), who married Karl Albrecht II zu Hohenlohe-Waldenburg-Schillingsfürst (1742–1796) in 1761 . After the death of his first wife, Prince Karl Thomas married Maria Josepha widowed Maria Josepha von Rummerskirch, née von Stipplin (1735–1799), on February 4, 1770 .

education

Prince Karl Thomas as a hunter

Karl Thomas studied in Prague and Paris and was very interested in art and science. On January 4, 1754, he was admitted to the Leopoldina with the academic surname Apollo Soter ( matriculation no. 584 ) . He was also a corresponding member of the Académie française from 1765 and compiled an extensive library over the course of his life.

Military career

Prince Charles Thomas was born on May 4, 1758 Electoral Palatinate Lieutenant General imperial and on December 31, 1769 Field Marshal Lieutenant .

Domination

After his father was murdered in Venice in 1735, Prince Karl Thomas became his inheritance at the age of 21. The financial situation was very tense from the start and worsened over the coming years, also due to the lavish lifestyle of the prince and an unrealistic political approach. On the one hand he felt obliged to increase the welfare of his subjects, on the other hand he forbade their expression in state affairs. His rule thus corresponded entirely to that of an absolutist prince.

Since the five younger brothers of Prince Karl Thomas were excluded from the rule due to the primogeniture , they tried to exploit the financial plight of the principality and wanted to use a complaint to the Reichshofrat to ensure that their brother would be found incapable of governing. He succeeded Prince Karl Thomas in repelling this request and through reforms in his government and court chamber to reduce the financial misery a little, but this did not prevent him from pursuing pointless projects such as the establishment of a university in Kleinheubach, which was ultimately due to limited funds were doomed.

The Löwensteiner Amtsschloss, in Albersweiler-St. Johann

During his reign, Prince Karl Thomas was often involved in trials at the Imperial Court of Justice. Mostly it was about disputes with the Virneburg line because of the division of jointly exercised power rights, so-called condominium matters , or disputes of a financial nature with his brothers and officials. A legal dispute with the descendants of the Ludwig zu Stolberg brothers turned out to be very serious . In 1732 the Imperial Court of Justice demanded that the Stolberg share be returned to Rochefort. The dispute ended in 1755 with the loss of half of all Dutch possessions, including Rochefort County. In part, these losses could be offset by inheriting large areas in Bohemia. In 1765, after the death of his first wife and daughter, he inherited the Bohemian rule of Horažďovice , which he transferred to his second wife in 1779.

During his reign he proclaimed compulsory schooling and tried to limit the power of officials, both of which were not entirely satisfactory. For the relatives of deceased civil servants, he founded a widow's and orphan's fund and ventured into tax reform. In 1764, Prince Karl Thomas zu Albersweiler - St. Johann , in the Scharfeneck region on the left bank of the Rhine , had the existing Löwensteiner Amtsschloss built, which now serves as a BASF study house. In old age he found the necessary reforms increasingly difficult. His second wife used frequent phases of the illness to interfere directly in political affairs. She also intrigued against individual officials, which exacerbated the crisis mood in the principality.

successor

Since Prince Karl Thomas died in 1789 after more than fifty years of rule without a legitimate heir, he was followed by his nephew Dominik Constantin (1762–1814), son of Karl Thomas' younger brother Theodor Alexander (1722–1780).

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Member entry of Karl von Löwenstein-Wertheim at the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina , accessed on January 16, 2016.
  2. ↑ a b Harald Stockert: Adel in transition , p. 20
  3. ↑ Harald Stockert: Adel in transition , p. 19 f.
  4. ^ Johann Gottfried Sommer : The Kingdom of Böhmen, Vol. 8, Prachiner Circle , 1840, p. 169
  5. ↑ Website of the municipality of Albersweiler with its own section on Löwenstein Castle in the St. Johann district and a photo that can be enlarged
  6. ↑ Harald Stockert: Adel in transition , p. 21
predecessor Office successor
Dominik Marquard Prince of Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rochefort
1735–1789 		Dominik Constantin
personal data
SURNAME Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rochefort, Karl Thomas to
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rochefort, Karl Thomas Fürst to
BRIEF DESCRIPTION third prince from the Löwenstein family
DATE OF BIRTH March 7, 1714
PLACE OF BIRTH augsburg
DATE OF DEATH June 6, 1789
Place of death Kleinheubach