, image = Fürst Carl Anselm.jpg , caption = , reign = 17 March 1773 – 13 November 1805 , reign-type = Period , coronation = , predecessor = Alexander Ferdinand , successor = Karl Alexander , succession = Prince of Thurn and Taxis , spouse =

Duchess Auguste of Württemberg , title = , reign =17 March 1773 – 1776 , image = Augusta di Wurtt.jpg , caption = , coronation = , succession = Princess consort of Thurn and Taxis , spouse =Karl Anselm, 4th Prince of Th ...

Elisabeth Hildebrand, Frau von Train , issue = Princess Maria Theresia
Princess Sophie Friederike
Prince Franz Johann Nepomuck
Princess Henrica Karoline
Prince Alexander Karl
Princess Friederike Dorothea

Karl Alexander, 5th Prince of Thurn and Taxis , title = Prince of Thurn and Taxis , image = Karl Alexander von Thurn und Taxis.jpg , caption = , reign = 13 November 1805 – 15 July 1827 , reign-type = Period , coronation = , predecessor = ...

Prince Friedrich Johann Nepomuck
Nikolaus, Herr von Train , house =

House of Thurn and Taxis The Princely House of Thurn and Taxis (german: link=no, Fürstenhaus Thurn und Taxis ) is a family of German nobility that is part of the ''Briefadel''. It was a key player in the postal services in Europe during the 16th century, until the en ...

, father =

Alexander Ferdinand, 3rd Prince of Thurn and Taxis , title = Prince of Thurn and Taxis , image = Alexander Ferdinand von Thurn und Taxis.jpg , caption = , reign = 8 November 1739 – 17 March 1773 , reign-type = Period , coronation = , predecessor ...

, mother =

Margravine Sophie Christine of Brandenburg-Bayreuth , title = Hereditary Princess of Thurn and Taxis , reign = , image = , caption = , coronation = , spouse =Alexander Ferdinand, 3rd Prince of Thurn and Taxis , issue = Princess Sophie C ...

, birth_date = , birth_place =

Frankfurt am Main Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...

, Free Imperial City of Frankfurt,

Kingdom of Germany The Kingdom of Germany or German Kingdom ( la, regnum Teutonicorum "kingdom of the Germans", "German kingdom", "kingdom of Germany") was the mostly Germanic-speaking East Frankish kingdom, which was formed by the Treaty of Verdun in 843, especi ...

Holy Roman Empire The Holy Roman Empire was a Polity, political entity in Western Europe, Western, Central Europe, Central, and Southern Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its Dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire, dissolution i ...

, death_date = , death_place = Winzer bei

Regensburg Regensburg or is a city in eastern Bavaria, at the confluence of the Danube, Naab and Regen rivers. It is capital of the Upper Palatinate subregion of the state in the south of Germany. With more than 150,000 inhabitants, Regensburg is the f ...

Electorate of Bavaria The Electorate of Bavaria (german: Kurfürstentum Bayern) was an independent hereditary electorate of the Holy Roman Empire from 1623 to 1806, when it was succeeded by the Kingdom of Bavaria. The Wittelsbach dynasty which ruled the Duchy of Ba ...

, religion =

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

Karl Anselm, 4th Prince of Thurn and Taxis, full

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

name: ''Karl Anselm Fürst von Thurn und Taxis'' (2 June 1733 – 13 November 1805) was the fourth Prince of Thurn and Taxis,

Postmaster A postmaster is the head of an individual post office, responsible for all postal activities in a specific post office. When a postmaster is responsible for an entire mail distribution organization (usually sponsored by a national government), ...

General of the

Imperial Reichspost ''Reichspost'' (; "Imperial Mail") was the name of the postal service of Germany from 1866 to 1945. ''Deutsche Reichspost'' Upon the out break of the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 and the break-up of the German Confederation in the Peace of ...

, and Head of the Princely House of Thurn and Taxis from 17 March 1773 until his death on 13 November 1805. Karl Anselm served as ''Prinzipalkommissar'' at the Perpetual Imperial Diet in

for

Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II (German: Josef Benedikt Anton Michael Adam; English: ''Joseph Benedict Anthony Michael Adam''; 13 March 1741 – 20 February 1790) was Holy Roman Emperor from August 1765 and sole ruler of the Habsburg lands from November 29, 1780 unt ...

and

Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor Francis II (german: Franz II.; 12 February 1768 – 2 March 1835) was the last Holy Roman Emperor (from 1792 to 1806) and the founder and Emperor of the Austrian Empire, from 1804 to 1835. He assumed the title of Emperor of Austria in response ...

from 1773 to 1797.

Early life

Karl Anselm was the eldest son of

and his first wife

Marriages and family

Karl Anselm married

, sixth and youngest child of

Karl Alexander, Duke of Württemberg Karl may refer to: People * Karl (given name), including a list of people and characters with the name * Karl der Große, commonly known in English as Charlemagne * Karl Marx, German philosopher and political writer * Karl of Austria, last Austria ...

and his wife

Princess Maria Augusta of Thurn and Taxis , house = Thurn and Taxis , father = Anselm Franz, 2nd Prince of Thurn and Taxis , mother =Maria Ludovika Anna Franziska, Princess of Lobkowicz , birth_date = , birth_place =Frankfurt am Main, Hesse , death_date = , ...

, on 3 September 1753 in

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the ...

Duchy of Württemberg The Duchy of Württemberg (german: Herzogtum Württemberg) was a duchy located in the south-western part of the Holy Roman Empire. It was a member of the Holy Roman Empire from 1495 to 1806. The dukedom's long survival for over three centuries ...

. Karl Anselm and Auguste had eight children: *Princess Maria Theresia of Thurn and Taxis (born 10 July 1757 † 9 March 1776) :∞ 25 August 1774 Kraft Ernst, Prince of

Oettingen-Oettingen The House of Oettingen was a high-rank noble Franconian and Swabian family. It ruled various estates that composed the County of Oettingen between the 12th century and the beginning of the 19th century. In 1674 the house was raised to the rank of p ...

Princess Sophie Friederike of Thurn and Taxis , title = Princess Sophie Friederike Radziwiłł , image = Sophia von turn und taxis.jpg , caption = , spouse = Prince Hieronim Wincenty RadziwiłłPrince KazanowskiCount Ostroróg , issue = Prince Dominik Hieronim ...

(born 20 July 1758; † 31 May 1800) :∞ 31 December 1775 Prince Hieronim Wincenty Radziwiłł (11 May 1759-18 September 1786) :∞ around 1795 NN

Kazanowski Kazanowski is a Polish language occupational surname, which means "cauldron maker" or "furnace worker", from the Slavic word ''kazan'', meaning "kettle", "boiler" or "furnace".''Dictionary of American Family Names''"Kazan Family History" Oxford Uni ...

:∞ 1797 to a Count Ostrorog *Prince Franz Johann Nepomuck of Thurn and Taxis (baptized 2 October 1759; † 22 January 1760) *Princess Henrica Karoline of Thurn and Taxis (baptized 25 April 1762; † 25 April 1784) :∞ 21 April 1783 with Johannes Aloysius II, Prince of Oettingen-Oettingen and Oettingen-Spielberg *Prince Alexander Karl of Thurn and Taxis (born 19 April 1763; † 21 April 1763) *Princess Friederike Dorothea of Thurn and Taxis (born 11 September 1764 † 10 November 1764) *

(born 22 February 1770; † 15 July 1827) :∞ 25 May 1789 with

Duchess Therese of Mecklenburg-Strelitz , image = Theresa of Mecklenburg-Strelitz.jpg , caption = , reign = 25 May 1789 – 15 July 1827 , coronation = , succession = Princess consort of Thurn and Taxis , spouse = , issue = Princess Charlotte ...

*Prince Friedrich Johann Nepomuck of Thurn and Taxis (born 11 April 1772 † 7 December 1805), unmarried Auguste and Karl Anselm had eight children until 1772. After several assassination attempts by his wife, Karl Anselm banished Auguste in January 1776 to strict house arrest at first to Burg Trugenhofen (later renamed

Schloss Taxis Schloss Taxis (originally known as Burg Trugenhofen) is a privately owned castle in Dischingen in the Heidenheim district of Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg (; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a German state () in Southwest G ...

) in

Dischingen Dischingen is a municipality in the district of Heidenheim in Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The municipality consists of several smaller villages that have been absorbed into Dischingen, Ballmertshofen, Demmingen, Dunstelkingen, Eglin ...

and then to Schloss Hornberg in the

Black Forest The Black Forest (german: Schwarzwald ) is a large forested mountain range in the state of Baden-Württemberg in southwest Germany, bounded by the Rhine Valley to the west and south and close to the borders with France and Switzerland. It is t ...

, where she died on 4 June 1787. The couple legally divorced in 1776. Following the death of his first wife, Karl Anselm married that same year

morganatically Morganatic marriage, sometimes called a left-handed marriage, is a marriage between people of unequal social rank, which in the context of royalty or other inherited title prevents the principal's position or privileges being passed to the spou ...

to Elisabeth Hildebrand.Dallmeier, Schad, a. a. O., S. 57.

Acquisition of new territories

Karl Anselm acquired in 1786, the

Swabia Swabia ; german: Schwaben , colloquially ''Schwabenland'' or ''Ländle''; archaic English also Suabia or Svebia is a cultural, historic and linguistic region in southwestern Germany. The name is ultimately derived from the medieval Duchy of ...

n county of Friedberg- Scheer and had to spend almost the entire proceeds from the

. Thereupon the Emperor

Joseph II Joseph II (German: Josef Benedikt Anton Michael Adam; English: ''Joseph Benedict Anthony Michael Adam''; 13 March 1741 – 20 February 1790) was Holy Roman Emperor from August 1765 and sole ruler of the Habsburg lands from November 29, 1780 unt ...

brought the county to "Gefürsteten Grafschaft" status. During the invasion of French troops in the

Austrian Netherlands The Austrian Netherlands nl, Oostenrijkse Nederlanden; french: Pays-Bas Autrichiens; german: Österreichische Niederlande; la, Belgium Austriacum. was the territory of the Burgundian Circle of the Holy Roman Empire between 1714 and 1797. The p ...

in 1794, the local properties of the Thurn und Taxis family were seized. With the further advance of the French troops, all the possessions of the Thurn and Taxis were lost. To compensate, Karl Anselm was awarded in 1803, according to Article 13 of the

Reichsdeputationshauptschluss The ' (formally the ', or "Principal Conclusion of the Extraordinary Imperial Delegation"), sometimes referred to in English as the Final Recess or the Imperial Recess of 1803, was a resolution passed by the ' (Imperial Diet) of the Holy Roman Em ...

(formally the ''Hauptschluss der außerordentlichen Reichsdeputation'', or "Principal Conclusion of the Extraordinary Imperial Delegation") other Swabian lands, including the Free Imperial City of Buchau, the Imperial Abbey of Buchau, the Imperial Abbeys of Marchtal and

Neresheim Neresheim is a town in the Ostalbkreis district, in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated northeast of Heidenheim, and southeast of Aalen. It's the home of the Neresheim Abbey, which still hosts monks, was '' Reichsfrei'' until the Germa ...

Ostrach Ostrach is a municipality in the district of Sigmaringen in Baden-Württemberg in Germany. Geography Ostrach lies between the Danube and Lake Constance, about halfway between Sigmaringen and Ravensburg. It lies on the brook of the same name ...

, and other villages.

Losses within the Reichspost

By 1790, the hereditary

fief A fief (; la, feudum) was a central element in medieval contracts based on feudal law. It consisted of a form of property holding or other rights granted by an Lord, overlord to a vassal, who held it in fealty or "in fee" in return for a for ...

s of the Thurn and Taxis family fueled the

to its greatest extent. The

and

Tyrol Tyrol (; historically the Tyrole; de-AT, Tirol ; it, Tirolo) is a historical region in the Alps - in Northern Italy and western Austria. The area was historically the core of the County of Tyrol, part of the Holy Roman Empire, Austrian Emp ...

were added to the Thurn and Taxis postal system. Due to the

Napoleonic Wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...

, Karl Anselm's Imperial Reichspost gradually lost more and more postal districts beginning with the

, thus depriving the post of important sources of revenue. With the

Treaty of Lunéville The Treaty of Lunéville (or Peace of Lunéville) was signed in the Treaty House of Lunéville on 9 February 1801. The signatory parties were the French Republic and Emperor Francis II, who signed on his own behalf as ruler of the hereditary doma ...

formalized on 9 February 1801, the Imperial Reichspost lost all postal districts in the

Rhine ), Surselva, Graubünden, Switzerland , source1_coordinates= , source1_elevation = , source2 = Rein Posteriur/Hinterrhein , source2_location = Paradies Glacier, Graubünden, Switzerland , source2_coordinates= , so ...

region. After

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an em ...

had been compensated for the loss of its left-bank territories by right bank areas in May 1802, Prussia took over the sovereignty over the postal services, and so the

lost further postal districts. Only under his son and successor, Karl Alexander, was the Thurn and Taxis family able to re-establish its postal system as the private company Thurn-und-Taxis-Post.

Ancestry

References

Sources

* Wolfgang Behringer, ''Thurn und Taxis'', München 1990 * Wolfgang Behringer, ''Im Zeichen des Merkur'', Göttingen 2003 * Wolfgang Behringer, in:

Damals ''Damals'' is a German monthly popular scientific history magazine. The magazine has been issued since 1969 and aims primarily at students, teachers, university students, scientists and a readership interested in historical science. The German ...

, Juli 2005 * Martin Dallmeier, ''Quellen zur Geschichte des europäischen Postwesens'', Kallmünz 1977 * Martin Dallmeier und Martha Schad, ''Das fürstliche Haus Thurn und Taxis, 300 Jahre Geschichte in Bildern'', Verlag Pustet, Regensburg 1996 * Siegfried Grillmeyer, Habsburgs Diener in Post und Politik. Das Haus Thurn und Taxis zwischen 1745 und 1867, Mainz 2005 * Adolf Layer, ''Schloß Trugenhofen(= Schloß Taxis) im 18. Jahrhundert'', in: Jahrbuch des Historischen Vereins in Dillingen an der Donau, Jahrgang 1983, Dillingen an der Donau 1983, S. 179-194 * Christoph Meixner, ''Die Familien Oettingen-Wallerstein und Thurn und Taxis und die Fürstenhochzeit auf Schloß Trugenhofen 1774. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Hofmusik im 18. Jahrhundert'', in: Rosetti-Forum 7, 2006, S. 12–25. * Christoph Meixner, Artikel ''Thurn und Taxis'', in: MGG2 (Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, 2. Auflage), Supplementband, Kassel u.a. 2008, Sp. 942-945 * Max Piendl, ''Das fürstliche Haus Thurn und Taxis'', Regensburg 1980 *

Europäische Stammtafeln ''Europäische Stammtafeln'' - German for ''European Family Trees'' - is a series of twenty-nine books which contain sets of genealogical tables of the most influential families of Medieval European history. It is a standard reference work for thos ...

Band V, Genealogie Thurn und Taxis, Tafel 131 , - ! colspan="3" style="background: #bebebe; color: #000000" , Postal offices {{DEFAULTSORT:Karl Anselm Of Thurn And Taxis, Prince 1733 births 1805 deaths People from Frankfurt German Roman Catholics Knights of the Golden Fleece Hereditary Princes of Thurn and Taxis German landowners Postmasters General of the Holy Roman Empire