Count Karl Ludwig von Ficquelmont

Erlaucht
Karl Ludwig count von Ficquelmont

Count Charles-Louis de Ficquelmont, lithograph by Josef Kriehuber, 1838
2nd Minister-President of the Austrian Empire
In office
4 April 1848 – 4 May 1848
Monarch Ferdinand I
Preceded by Franz Anton Graf von Kolowrat-Liebsteinsky
Succeeded by Franz Feirherr von Pillersdorf
3rd Foreign Minister of the Austrian Empire
In office
18 March 1848 – 4 May 1848
Monarch Ferdinand I
Preceded by Klemens Furst von Metternich
Succeeded by Johann Feirherr von Wessenberg-Ampringen
Personal details
Born (1777-03-23)23 March 1777
Castle of Dieuze, Lorraine, France
Died 7 April 1857(1857-04-07) (aged 80)
Venice, Lombardy–Venetia, Austrian Empire
Spouse(s) Dorothea Furstin von Tiesenhausen
Relations Maximilien-Chrétien, Count de Ficquelmont and of the Holy Empire
Anne Marie, Countess Treusch von Buttlar (parents)
Children Elisabeth-Alexandrine de Ficquelmont, princess Clary-und-Aldringen
Religion Roman Catholic Church

Karl Ludwig count von Ficquelmont (Charles-Louis comte de Ficquelmont in French) (March 23, 1777, Castle of Dieuze, France – April 7, 1857, Palazzo Ficquelmont-Clary, Venice, Austrian Empire) was an Austrian aristocrat, statesman and Field marshal of the Austrian Imperial army of French noble origin.

Biography

French nobleman

He was born Gabriel-Charles-Louis-Bonnaventure, Count de Ficquelmont at the Castle of Dieuze, in his family's Estates in the present-day French département of Moselle. The son of a nobility family from Lorrainer family dating back to the 14th century (House of Ficquelmont), he was introduced to the King at the Royal Court of Versailles in 1789.

Only a few months later, the French Revolution started. His family, asaristocrats were targeted by the Revolution, several of his relatives were beheaded and many of their Estates were confiscated during the Terreur era. Ficquelmont chose to join the "Army of the Princes" fighting against revolutionary France.

Austrian military

He eventually entered the military service of the Habsburg Monarchy in 1793. Ficquelmont participated in all Austrian campaigns in the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars and was regarded as a brilliant military officer. In 1809, he rose to the rank of an Oberst and was appointed chief of staff of Archduke Ferdinand Karl Joseph of Austria-Este. In 1811 and 1812, he led troops in Spain, where his victories attracted the attention of Emperor Napoleon I, who unsuccessfully tried to recruit him.[1] He was then elevated to the rank of Generalmajor in 1814 and received the capitulation of Lyon a few month later.

In the following decades, Ficquelmont continued his rise into the imperial Austrian military, being successively:

Austrian diplomat

In 1815, thanks to his credentials as a gifted military officer loyal to the Habsburgs as well as his vast culture[2] and wit, Ficquelmont was approached for representing Austria as a diplomat.

As the War of the Sixth Coalition ended, he was sent to Stockholm as the Austrian Ambassador Extraordinary to Sweden. His mission was to smooth relations between Austria and the newly elected heir to the Swedish throne and former French General Bernadotte in order to maintain him within the coalition during the progressing towards the Congress of Vienna. The mission was a success, launching Ficquelmont's diplomatic career.

After the fall of Napoleon, Italy was once again the key sphere of influence of the Austrian Empire which intended to exert control over its many states. In 1820, Ficquelmont was appointed Ambassador to Tuscany and Lucca, in order to increase Austrian influence over Grand Duke Ferdinand III of Tuscany. He meet his future wife, Russian countess Dorothea von Tiesenhaussen while in Florence.

In 1821 he was appointed Ambassador plenipotentiary to the Royal court of Naples in the midst of the political crisis that followed the 1820 Carbonari Revolution. In July 1820 a military revolt broke out in Naples whose King was terrorised into signing a constitution on the model of the Spanish Constitution of 1812. The Holy Alliance feared it might spread to other Italian states and turn into a general European conflagration so Austria sent an army to march into Naples to restore order. The Austrians defeated the Neapolitans at Rieti (7 March 1821) and entered Naples. Ficquelmont was sent to manage the following occupation. He soon gained enormous influence over king Ferdinand I and Neapolitan elites and practically administrated the kingdom, ensuring Austria's grasp over its domestic and foreign policies. While in Naples, Ficquelmont was recognised as Austria's main diplomatic asset for his political subtlety as well as his social skills, "Count de Ficquelmont's personality is made of Germanic seriousness, Italian subtlety but, above all, it is made of the prodigious 18th century French nobility's wit"[3]

In 1829, Ficquelmont was appointed Ambassador Extraordinary to Russia, arguably the most important diplomatic position at that time. Ficquelmont had married into the highest Russian nobility[4] and he had long been a close friend of the Russian Imperial family.[5] So not only did he soon became extremely influential on the politics of Emperor Nicholas I, but he also was a cornerstone of Russia's high society. For almost ten years, the Ficquelmonts were one of Russia's most influential family, both politically and socially. Their St. Petersburg palace had been described as a "place of wisdom and intelligence"[6] and as "(...) the setting the two most illustrious salon of the period (1830s), reigned over by Ficquelmont's wife".[7] Ficquelmont's influence in Russia was long-lasting and as a sign of his appreciation, Emperor Nicolas I awarded him the Orders of St. Andrew, St. Alexander Nevsky, St. Vladimir and St. Anna.

Austrian statesman

In 1839 Ficquelmont was recalled to Vienna to assume the duties of the Foreign Office during the absence of Prince Metternich.

In 1840 he was appointed Minister of the State and Conferences and staff chief of the Imperial Army. Ficquelmont was not only Prince Metternich's righ-hand man but officially the second most senior statesmen of the Empire, "Count de Ficquelmont stands just behind or next to Prince Metternich (..) Every conference start with count de Ficquelmont and end with Prince Metternich".[8]

Back in Vienna, the Ficquelmonts were some of the most prominent social figures of the Imperial court, "Count de Ficquelmont's salon is the most sophisticated, the most erudite, the most mindful, and the most beloved of Vienna".[9] In 1841, Ficquelmont's daughter, countess Elizabeth Alexandrine, married Prince Edmund von Clary-und-Aldringen, heir to one of the Empire's most prominent princely family.

In 1847, Ficquelmont is sent to Milan as acting Chancellor of Lombardy–Venetia and senior advisor of its viceroy, Archduke Rainer Joseph of Austria. Resentment against Austrian rule was growing and Ficquelmont was appointed to restore it while taking over Northern Italy's administration. But only after a few months, he was recall to Vienna to assume the leadership of the Council of War as the Revolutions of 1848 started.

Minister-President of the Austrian Empire

The Viennese students, 13 March 1848.

As the Revolutions of 1848 bursted, Ficquelmont played an instrumental role. From early 1848 to March 13, he led the Council of War. On March 13, Prince Metternich gave his resignation and fled the country and Ficquelmont assumed his duties until March 17 when Count Franz Anton von Kolowrat was appointed Minister-President. From March 17 to the fall of the Kolowrat cabinet on April 3, Ficquelmont took charge of the Department of Foreign Affairs and the War Ministry.

On April 4, Ficquelmont became Minister-President of the Empire. However, due to his close ties with the "Metternich System" and the Russian tsar, popular feeling against him compelled him to resign on May 4. It was a violent period, his wife Countess Dolly, who was at their Venice's palace at the time,[10] was arrested twice by the Venetian guarda civil and finally had to flee the city on board an English ship with her daughter, son-in-law and grandchildren. Moreover, Ficquelmont's kinsman in the War Ministry, count Theodor Franz Baillet von Latour, was lynched during the Vienna Uprising of October 1848.

Later life

After the end of the revolutions, Ficquelmont refused to come back to politics to dedicated himself to the writing and publishing of several political essays that gained wide recognition throughout Europe.

In 1852, Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria made Ficquelmont a Knight of the Golden Fleece, the most prestigious order of the Empire.

In his later years, Ficquelmont retired first to his palace of Vienna, later to his Venitian palace,[17] where he died in 1857, at the age of 81.

Family

Portrait of countess Dorothea de Ficquelmont, born Countess von Tiesenhausen
Portrait of countess Elisabeth-Alexandrine de Ficquelmont, Princess Clary-Aldringen

As a consequence of the French Revolution, the Ficquelmont family spread across Europe. Beyond Austria and France, members of the family settled in Italy, Hungary, England and the Netherlands, where one of Charles-Louis's uncle, Count Antoine-Charles de Ficquelmont (1753−1833), recreated the title Count de Ficquelmont in the Dutch nobility[18] (July 16, 1822).

Charles-Louis had five siblings of which only one had issue, one girl and one boy. His niece was Clotilde de Vaux (Paris 1815–Paris 1846), who gave philosopher Auguste Comte the inspiration for the Religion of Humanity organized around the public veneration of Humanity through a Goddess made after her.[19] In 1821, Ficquelmont, 44, married countess Dorothea von Tiesenhausen (St. Petersburg 1804 − Venice 1863), 17, granddaughter of Prince Kutuzov.[20] Countess Dorothea de Ficquelmont was famous for her beauty, while living in Naples a famous Neapolitan proverb was diverted to praise her looks « Vedi Napoli, la Ficquelmont e poi muori ! » (« To see Naples, the countess Ficquelmont, and die ! »). Countess Dolly was also famous for her letter-writing and diary (the former was published in Italian and Russian in 1950) telling of her life as a high society's aristocrat in 19th-century Europe.

The couple had only one daughter, Elisabeth-Alexandrine-Marie-Thérèse de Ficquelmont (Naples 1825 − Venice 1878), Countess de Ficquelmont by birth and Princess Clary und Aldringen by marriage.[21] Prince Siegfried von Clary-Aldringen (Teplitz 1848 − Teplitz 1929) and Count Manfred von Clary-Aldringen (Vienna 1852 − Salzburg 1928) are Ficquelmont's grandsons.

Decorations

Works

References

  1. ↑ in Baptiste-Honore-Raymond, Les diplomates et hommes d'état européens, 3e série, Bruxelles, 1847
  2. ↑ Growing up, Ficquelmont had received an extensive education and spoke various languages to perfection.
  3. ↑ "Il y avait dans le caractère de M. le comte de Ficquelmont le sérieux de l'Allemand, la finesse de l'Italien, et par-dessus tout l'esprit du gentilhomme français, esprit prodigieux au dix-huitième siècle" in Baptiste-Honore-Raymond, Les diplomates et hommes d'état européens, 3e série, Bruxelles, 1847
  4. ↑ his wife, countess Dorothea von Tiesenhausen was the heiress of the prominent Tiesenhausen family as well as the grand-daughter of Prince Kutuzov
  5. ↑ In 1823, during a visit to St-Petersburg, Ficquelmont and his wife had befriended Emperor Alexander of Russia and Empress Elizabeth Alexeievna. In 1825, the Imperial couple was chosen as Ficquelmont's daughter's godparents.
  6. ↑ Pushkin, Alexander Turgenev, Prince Viazemski and Ivan Kozlov were regulars
  7. ↑ in Personality and Place in Russian Culture, Essays in Memory of Lindsey Hughes, Simon Dixon, 2010, History
  8. ↑ « M. le comte de Ficquelmont trouve sa place au-dessous ou à côté du prince de Metternich (...) C'est avec M. de Ficquelmont que commencent toutes les conférences ; c'est avec M. de Metternich qu'elles se finissent »
  9. ↑ « Le salon de M. le comte de Ficquelmont est le plus raffiné, le plus érudit, le plus instruit, le plus aimé de Vienne »
  10. ↑ Venetia was a part of the Austrian Empire
  11. ↑ Deutschland, Österreich und Preußen. Wien (1851)
  12. ↑ Lord Palmerston, England und der Kontinent. 2 Bde. Wien (1852)
  13. ↑ Die religiöse Seite der orientalischen Frage Wien (1854)
  14. ↑ Russlands Politik und die Donaufürstentümer. Wien (1854)
  15. ↑ Zum künftigen frieden. Wien (1856)
  16. ↑ Pensées et réflexions morales et politiques du Comte de Ficquelmont, ministre d'état en Autriche, 1859
  17. ↑ Karl Ludwig Graf von Ficquelmont. In: Rudolf Flotzinger (Hrsg.): Oesterreichisches Musiklexikon. Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Wien 2002, (Band 1), S. 443.
  18. ↑ the title became Belgian after 1830
  19. ↑ André Thérive, Clotilde de Vaux ou La déesse morte (Clotilde de Vaux or the dead Goddess), Albin Michel, 1957
  20. ↑ Her mother was Princess Elisabeth Mikhaïlovna Khitrova (1783-1839), daughter of Prince Kutuzov, Napoleonic Wars' Russian hero. Her father was Count Ferdinand von Tiesenhausen (1782−1805), aide de camp of Emperor Alexandre I, who died at the battle of Austerlitz inspiring character Andrei Bolkonski in Tolstoi'sWar and Peace.
  21. ↑ On December 5, 1841 she married Prince Edmund Moritz Clary und Aldringen http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:WKFNgJzhVJUJ:patricus.info/Rodokmeny/Clary.txt+ficquelmont+tiesenhaussen+clary&cd=7&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
Preceded by
Count Franz Anton von Kolowrat-Liebsteinsky		 Minister-President of the Austrian Empire
1848 		Succeeded by
Baron Franz von Pillersdorf

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Gilman, D. C.; Thurston, H. T.; Colby, F. M., eds. (1905). "article name needed". New International Encyclopedia (1st ed.). New York: Dodd, Mead. 

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