Anton Egon (23 April 1656 – 10 October 1716), a member of the Swabian

House of Fürstenberg A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air condi ...

, was

Imperial Prince Prince of the Holy Roman Empire ( la, princeps imperii, german: Reichsfürst, cf. ''Fürst'') was a title attributed to a hereditary ruler, nobleman or prelate recognised as such by the Holy Roman Emperor. Definition Originally, possessors o ...

and Princely Landgrave of

Fürstenberg-Heiligenberg Fürstenberg-Heiligenberg was a county and later a principality in southern Baden-Württemberg, Germany, located in the historical territory of Heiligenberg. It was created as a partition of Fürstenberg-Baar in 1559, and it suffered one partitio ...

from 1674 until his death. He also served as governor of the

Electorate of Saxony The Electorate of Saxony, also known as Electoral Saxony (German: or ), was a territory of the Holy Roman Empire from 1356–1806. It was centered around the cities of Dresden, Leipzig and Chemnitz. In the Golden Bull of 1356, Emperor Charles ...

under the Wettin prince-elector

Augustus II the Strong Augustus II; german: August der Starke; lt, Augustas II; in Saxony also known as Frederick Augustus I – Friedrich August I (12 May 16701 February 1733), most commonly known as Augustus the Strong, was Elector of Saxony from 1694 as well as Ki ...

Life

Anton Egon was born in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

, where his father Count Herman Egon of Fürstenberg-Heiligenberg (1627–1674) served as privy councillor at the court of the

Wittelsbach The House of Wittelsbach () is a German dynasty, with branches that have ruled over territories including Bavaria, the Palatinate, Holland and Zeeland, Sweden (with Finland), Denmark, Norway, Hungary (with Romania), Bohemia, the Electorate o ...

elector

Ferdinand Maria of Bavaria Ferdinand Maria (31 October 1636 – 26 May 1679) was a Wittelsbach ruler of Bavaria and an elector ('' Kurfürst'') of the Holy Roman Empire from 1651 to 1679. Electoral Prince of Bavaria He was born in Munich. He was the eldest son of Maximi ...

. He was the eldest son from his father's marriage with his cousin, Countess Maria Franziska of

Fürstenberg-Stühlingen Fürstenberg-Stühlingen was a German county during the Middle Ages. It was located in the territorial landgraviate of Stühlingen. It emerged as a partition of Fürstenberg-Blumberg in 1614. It was partitioned in 1704 between the sons of Count Pr ...

(1638–1680). In 1664 Emperor Leopold I elevated the Fürstenberg-Heiligenberg branch to the rank of Princes of the Holy Roman Empire. Upon his father's death in 1674, Anton Egon succeeded as head of the line. While on

Grand Tour The Grand Tour was the principally 17th- to early 19th-century custom of a traditional trip through Europe, with Italy as a key destination, undertaken by upper-class young European men of sufficient means and rank (typically accompanied by a tuto ...

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

, Anton Egon received the news of his succession. He endeavoured to hold a critical distance to his spiritual uncles, the

Strasbourg Strasbourg (, , ; german: Straßburg ; gsw, label=Bas Rhin Alsatian, Strossburi , gsw, label=Haut Rhin Alsatian, Strossburig ) is the prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est region of eastern France and the official seat of the Eu ...

prince-bishops Franz Egon and

Wilhelm Egon von Fürstenberg Wilhelm Egon von Fürstenberg-Heiligenberg (2 December 162910 April 1704) was a German count and later prince of Fürstenberg-Heiligenberg in the Holy Roman Empire. He was a clergyman who became bishop of Strasbourg, and was heavily involved in ...

, who were declared supporters of King

Louis XIV of France , house = Bourbon , father = Louis XIII , mother = Anne of Austria , birth_date = , birth_place = Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France , death_date = , death_place = Palace of Versa ...

in the

Franco-Dutch War The Franco-Dutch War, also known as the Dutch War (french: Guerre de Hollande; nl, Hollandse Oorlog), was fought between France and the Dutch Republic, supported by its allies the Holy Roman Empire, Spain, Brandenburg-Prussia and Denmark-Nor ...

. The young prince was declared to have reached majority in 1676; one year later, he married the wealthy French noblewoman Marie de Ligny (1656–1711). This marriage displeasured Emperor Leopold, who stripped him of his seat in the Imperial Diet and seized his Swabian estates. To regain his favour, Prince Anton Egon moved to the

Habsburg The House of Habsburg (), alternatively spelled Hapsburg in Englishgerman: Haus Habsburg, ; es, Casa de Habsburgo; hu, Habsburg család, it, Casa di Asburgo, nl, Huis van Habsburg, pl, dom Habsburgów, pt, Casa de Habsburgo, la, Domus Hab ...

court in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

and finally was restored in the course of the 1679

Peace of Nijmegen The Treaties of Peace of Nijmegen ('; german: Friede von Nimwegen) were a series of treaties signed in the Dutch city of Nijmegen between August 1678 and October 1679. The treaties ended various interconnected wars among France, the Dutch Republi ...

. The prince spent the following years at the Bavarian court in Munich, on his mother's estates in

Weitra Weitra (; cs, Vitoraz) is a small town in the district of Gmünd in the Austrian state of Lower Austria. Geography The municipality is situated amidst the extended forests of the rural Waldviertel region, close to the border with the Czech Rep ...

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

, as well as in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

. He again fell out with the Habsburg emperor in 1691, after the struggles of his uncle Wilhelm Egon von Fürstenberg with the

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 m ...

archbishop

Joseph Clemens of Bavaria Joseph Clemens of Bavaria (german: Joseph Clemens von Bayern) (5 December 1671 – 12 November 1723) was a member of the Wittelsbach dynasty of Bavaria and Archbishop-Elector of Cologne from 1688 to 1723. Biography The third son of Ferdinand M ...

sparked the

Nine Years' War The Nine Years' War (1688–1697), often called the War of the Grand Alliance or the War of the League of Augsburg, was a conflict between France and a European coalition which mainly included the Holy Roman Empire (led by the Habsburg monarch ...

against King Louis XIV. Reconciled again, Leopold sent Anton Egon to supervise the gold mining in

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...

, where the prince met with the

Győr Győr ( , ; german: Raab, links=no; names of European cities in different languages: E-H#G, names in other languages) is the main city of northwest Hungary, the capital of Győr-Moson-Sopron County and Western Transdanubia, Western Transdanubia ...

(''Raab'') bishop Christian August of Saxe-Zeitz. It was the Wettin bishop, who recommended him to the Saxon court of Augustus the Strong. DD-Augustusstrasse

In 1697, a

personal union A personal union is the combination of two or more states that have the same monarch while their boundaries, laws, and interests remain distinct. A real union, by contrast, would involve the constituent states being to some extent interlink ...

was founded between the Wettin Electorate of Saxony and the

Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and, after 1791, as the Commonwealth of Poland, was a bi-confederal state, sometimes called a federation, of Crown of the Kingdom of ...

. Augustus the Strong invested large sums and even converted to

Catholicism The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

to ensure his

election An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has opera ...

to the Polish throne. From 2 December 1697, Anton Egon, a Roman Catholic himself, acted as

governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

of the Saxon electorate while the Wettin king was in Poland. Augustus granted Anton Egon a lavish residence on Schloßplatz in

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth larg ...

, the former home of

Magdalena Sibylla of Neidschutz Magdalena Sibylla of Neidschütz (8 February 1675 – 14 April 1694), later Countess of Rochlitz, was a German noblewoman and the mistress of John George IV, Elector of Saxony. She was the first ever Official Mistress (''Favoritin'') of an Elect ...

, mistress of the late Elector John George IV. The building at the site of the present-day Sächsisches Ständehaus was then renamed ''Palais Fürstenberg''; it temporarily accommodated the laboratories of

Johann Friedrich Böttger Johann Friedrich Böttger (also Böttcher or Böttiger; 4 February 1682 – 13 March 1719) was a German alchemist. Böttger was born in Schleiz and died in Dresden. He is normally credited with being the first European to discover the secret of th ...

and

Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus (or Tschirnhauß, ; 10 April 1651 – 11 October 1708) was a German mathematician, physicist, physician, and philosopher. He introduced the Tschirnhaus transformation and is considered by some to have been the ...

. As an Imperial prince, Anton Egon ranked above the local nobles, whose traditional privileges he tried to curtail. At court, he would carry out essential functions as representative of the prince-elector, who was frequently absent. A proponent of absolutism, he was always ready to protect the interests of the Saxon electoral house, though historians disagree in their assessment of his character.Jochen Vötsch: ''Anton Egon Fürst von Fürstenberg-Heiligenberg'', in: ''Sächsische Biografie'', Institut für Sächsische Geschichte und Volkskunde e.V. 2005
Online at http://www.isgv.de/saebi
/ref> In his later years, Anton Egon again approached to the Saxon estates. During the

Great Northern War The Great Northern War (1700–1721) was a conflict in which a coalition led by the Tsardom of Russia successfully contested the supremacy of the Swedish Empire in Northern, Central and Eastern Europe. The initial leaders of the anti-Swedi ...

, King Augustus sent the prince on a diplomatic mission to Emperor

Joseph I Joseph I or Josef I may refer to: *Joseph I of Constantinople, Ecumenical Patriarch in 1266–1275 and 1282–1283 *Joseph I, Holy Roman Emperor (1678–1711) *Joseph I (Chaldean Patriarch) (reigned 1681–1696) *Joseph I of Portugal (1750–1777) ...

in 1706, in oder to forge an alliance against the forces of King

Charles XII of Sweden Charles XII, sometimes Carl XII ( sv, Karl XII) or Carolus Rex (17 June 1682 – 30 November 1718 O.S.), was King of Sweden (including current Finland) from 1697 to 1718. He belonged to the House of Palatinate-Zweibrücken, a branch line of t ...

. After the failed

Campaign of Grodno The Campaign of Grodno was a plan developed by Johann Patkul and Otto Arnold von Paykull during the Charles XII invasion of Poland, Swedish invasion of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, a part of the Great Northern War. Its purpose was to c ...

in the same year, however, the Polish crown was temporarily lost in the Treaty of Altranstädt and Prince Anton Egon's office as Saxon governor became obsolete. Though he again was appointed to this position upon the Swedish defeat at the 1709

Battle of Poltava The Battle of Poltava; russian: Полта́вская би́тва; uk, Полта́вська би́тва (8 July 1709) was the decisive and largest battle of the Great Northern War. A Russian army under the command of Tsar Peter I defeate ...

, his actual influence on Saxon politics remained limited and he retired to his private estates in

Wermsdorf Wermsdorf is a Municipalities in Germany, municipality in the Nordsachsen Districts of Germany, district in Saxony, Germany. Two hunting castles of the Saxon Dukes and Kings are to be found here. Geography Landscape Wermsdorf is situated wi ...

. Anton Egon died on 10 October 1716 in the Wermsdorf hunting lodge and, as a Catholic, he was buried in the

Cistercian The Cistercians, () officially the Order of Cistercians ( la, (Sacer) Ordo Cisterciensis, abbreviated as OCist or SOCist), are a Catholic religious order of monks and nuns that branched off from the Benedictines and follow the Rule of Saint ...

abbey of Sankt Marienstern (today part of

Panschwitz-Kuckau Panschwitz-Kuckau (German) or Pančicy-Kukow ( Upper Sorbian) is a municipality in the district of Bautzen, in Saxony, Germany. It is the site of the well-known monastery ''Sankt Marienstern''. The place is located at both sides of the ''Klosterw ...

) in

Upper Lusatia Upper Lusatia (german: Oberlausitz ; hsb, Hornja Łužica ; dsb, Górna Łužyca; szl, Gōrnŏ Łużyca; pl, Łużyce Górne or ''Milsko''; cz, Horní Lužice) is a historical region in Germany and Poland. Along with Lower Lusatia to the ...

. His heart was placed near the coats-of-arms of his ancestors to the left of the altar in the chapel of Heiligenberg Castle. After his death, the office of Governor of Saxony was abolished. As Prince Anton Egon left no male heirs, his Heiligenberg estates passed to the

Fürstenberg-Fürstenberg Fürstenberg-Fürstenberg was a territory in Swabia, which was located in present-day southern Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It was ruled by the House of Fürstenberg in the Circle of Swabia during the Holy Roman Empire. History The territory cons ...

main line.

Marriage and issue

Anton Egon married on 11 January 1677 to Marie (1656-1711), a daughter of Jean, Marquis de Ligny and Elizabeth Boyer. The marriage produced four children: * Philippine Louise (6 May 1680 – 16 February 1706) married in 1700 to Louis de Gand de Merode de Montmorency, Prince d'Isenghien, who was a

Marshal of France Marshal of France (french: Maréchal de France, plural ') is a French military distinction, rather than a military rank, that is awarded to generals for exceptional achievements. The title has been awarded since 1185, though briefly abolished (1 ...

* Louise (after 1682 – after 1704) married Charles de la Noe, Marquis de Sanzelles (d. 1738) * Francis Joseph (1682 – 1690) * Marie Louise Mauritia (after 1682 – 16 March 1749) married 1708 Marie Jean Baptiste Colbert, Marquis de Seignelay (d. 19 February 1712), a grandson of

Jean-Baptiste Colbert Jean-Baptiste Colbert (; 29 August 1619 – 6 September 1683) was a French statesman who served as First Minister of State from 1661 until his death in 1683 under the rule of King Louis XIV. His lasting impact on the organization of the countr ...

References

*
Online
* Eduard Johne: ''Fürst Anton Egon zu Fürstenberg (1656-1716), Statthalter August des Starken in Sachsen, im Spiegel zweier Lobgedichte'', in: ''Schriften des Vereins für Geschichte und Naturgeschichte der Baar und der angrenzenden Landesteile in Donaueschingen, XXIV'', issue 1956, Donaueschingen 1956; p. 107-11
Online
* * Hans-Joachim Böttcher: ''Christiane Eberhardine - Prinzessin von Brandenburg-Bayreuth, Kurfürstin von Sachsen und Königin von Polen, Gemahlin August des Starken''. Dresden 2011. . * Hans-Joachim Böttcher: ''Böttger - Vom Gold- zum Porzellanmacher''. Dresden 2011. . * Hans-Joachim Böttcher: ''Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus - Das bewunderte, bekämpfte und totgeschwiegene Genie''. Dresden 2014. .

Footnotes

External links

* Jochen Vötsch, ''Anton Egon, Fürst von Fürstenberg-Heiligenberg''
Entry in the Sächsische Biographie
ed. by Martina Schattkowsky
Anton Egon in the portrait collection of the Austrian National Library
{{DEFAULTSORT:Anton Egon, Prince of Furstenberg-Heiligenberg Politicians from Saxony German diplomats German princes Fürstenberg (princely family) 1656 births 1716 deaths Recipients of the Order of the White Eagle (Poland)