Count Richard Belcredi

Interior Minister of the Austrian Empire
In office 27 July 1865 – 7 February 1867
Preceded by	Anton von Schmerling
Succeeded by	Friedrich Ferdinand Graf von Beust
Personal details
Born	(1823-02-12)12 February 1823 Jimramov, Moravia Austrian Empire
Died	2 December 1902(1902-12-02) (aged 79) Gmunden, Upper Austria Austria-Hungary

Count Richard von Belcredi (

(and 'Minister of State') of the Austrian Empire from 1865 to 1867. During 1881–1895, Belcredi was President of the Cisleithanian Administrative Court.^[1]

Early life and ancestry

Richard Graf von Belcredi was born on 12 February 1823, in Jimramov (Ingrowitz), in the Margraviate of Moravia,^[1] the youngest son of Count Eduard von Belcredi (1786–1838) and his wife Countess Maria von Fünfkirchen (1790–1860). He had one sister, Countess Almeria (1819-1914), who married Prince Hugo Maximilian von Thurn und Taxis (817-1889). The Belcredi noble family originally descended from Lombardy, where they had been vested with the estates of Montalto Pavese by the Sforza dukes of Milan. Count Richard's ancestors settled in Moravia from 1769 onwards.

He studied law at the universities of

.

Three Count Ministry

In February 1865, Count Richard Belcredi, as the Austrian minister of state, convened a meeting of Viennese bankers to find ways to finance projects. In June 1865, Emperor

Esterházy de Galantha

as a minister without portfolio.

The Austrian government had to face the rising "Hungarian question", that eventually led to the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867. On 20 September 1865, Belcredi had the 1861 February Patent suspended.^[1] Against delaying actions by Belcredi, the Compromise was achieved after the Austrian defeat in the Austro-Prussian War and the 1866 Peace of Prague, ending the monarchy's membership in the German Confederation. On October 30, Foreign Minister Mensdorff-Pouilly was succeeded by Friedrich Ferdinand von Beust who conducted the negotiations with Hungary and prepared a draft for the Cisleithanian December Constitution.

Beust's concept of a Dual Monarchy finally prevailed against Belcredi's plans to implement a federation of the Austrian crown lands, similar to later proposals of United States of Greater Austria. On 7 February 1867, Belcredi handed in his resignation. In 1881 he was appointed president of the Imperial-Royal Administrative Court and life member of the Austrian House of Lords.

Orders and decorations

•  Austrian Empire:^[2]
  • Grand Cross of the Royal Hungarian Order of St. Stephen, 1867
  • Knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece, 1878
• Kingdom of Prussia: Knight of the Royal Order of the Crown, 1st Class, 29 July 1864^[3]

Notes

References

• "Belcredi, Richard Graf" (bio), aeiou Encyclopedia, 2008, webpage: AEIOU-Belcredi^{[permanent dead link]}.
• Ludwig Graf Belcredi, "Fragmente aus dem
  Nachlasse
  des ehemaligen Staatsministers Grafen Richard Belcredi" ("Fragments from the Literary Legacy of Former Minister Count Richard Belcredi"), in: Die Kultur. Vierteljahresschrift für Wissenschaft, Literatur und Kunst 7 (1906).

External links

• Otto^{[permanent dead link]} (in Czech)
• "Belcredi, Richard Graf" (bio), aeiou Encyclopedia, 2008, webpage: AEIOU-Belcredi^{[permanent dead link]}.
• Staatsminister wider Willen (Hrsg.: Parlamentskorrespondenz, Wien 2001) Archived 2016-03-03 at the Wayback Machine

Preceded by Alexander von Mensdorff-Pouilly	Chairman of the Ministers' Conference of the Austrian Empire 1865–1867	Succeeded by Friedrich Ferdinand von Beust
Preceded by Anton von Schmerling	Interior Minister of the Austrian Empire 1865–1867	Succeeded by Friedrich Ferdinand von Beust