Charles Egon II of Fürstenberg

Minority

He was born in Prague, the only son of the Austrian general Karl Aloys zu Fürstenberg and Princess Elisabeth von Thurn und Taxis. Soon after his father's death on 25 March 1799 his cousin Charles Gabriel also died aged only fourteen (13 December 1799) - Charles Gabriel had been the last scion of the Bohemian Fürstenberg-Pürglitz line and this left the branch extinct. His uncle Karl Joachim, the last male survivor of the Swabian line, died in 1804, leaving that too extinct. This meant that in 1804 Charles Egon inherited almost all the Fürstenberg possessions except those of Fürstenberg-Taikowitz, the Moravian line which still had surviving issue.^[1]

Charles was only seven years old when he succeeded, so his mother and Landgraf Joachim Egon von Fürstenberg, a distant uncle from the Moravian line, became his guardians and regents, though most of the actual governing was done by Joseph von Laßberg.^[2] In 1806 the princedom of Fürstenberg was abolished by the Treaty of the Confederation of the Rhine. Elisabeth and Laßberg tried in vain to get this reversed at the 1814 Congress of Vienna.

He studied at Freiburg and Würzburg. In 1815 he accompanied Prince Schwarzenberg to Paris as staff-officer.^[1]

Majority and marriage

Thus by the time he reached majority in 1817 Charles Egon was not a sovereign prince but a "Grundherr" possessing large estates, woods and industrial sites, as well as a Standesherr of the three states between which Fürstenberg had been divided—the Grand Duchy of Baden, the Kingdom of Württemberg and the Principality of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen.

He owned Bohemian estate of 98,379 acres.^[3]

On 19 April 1818 he married Amalie of Baden, a daughter of Charles Frederick, Grand Duke of Baden and his second wife Louise Caroline, Countess von Hochberg.

Since her mother was a morganatic wife, so too was Amalie - although Charles, Grand Duke of Baden later elevated her to dynastic status (she was his father's half-sister), making her the first "princess" of Baden, which allowed Charles Egon's mother Elisabeth Alexandrine to finally accept the couple as a marriage of equals.^[4]

Political life

Charles's Standesherr status entitled him to sit in the Badische Ständeversammlung, of which chamber he became the first vice-president, holding that office for thirty-three years from 1819 to 1852, whilst its president was Prince William of Baden.^[5]

His estates also meant he sat in the Upper Chamber of the Estates of Württemberg (whose vice-presidency he also held several times) from 1819 and in the Prussian House of Lords from 1850. History records him as a relatively progressive and unbiased for his time.^[6]

For example, during the full sitting of the German Confederation's landtag in 1831, he played a significant part in getting the upper chamber to approve the Liberal Press Act, put forward by the government under pressure from the lower chamber.^[7] This removed censorship, at least for home affairs in Baden. He was also influential in the abolition of tithes and feudal duties.^[8]

Charitable work

Charles was also distinguished by his large charities; among other foundations he established a hospital at Donaueschingen. For the industrial development of the country, too, he did much, and proved himself also a notable patron of the arts.

His palace of Donaueschingen, with its collections of paintings, engravings and coins, was a centre of culture, where poets, painters and musicians met with princely entertainment.^[1]