Heinrich von Brühl
This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these template messages)
|
Count Heinrich von Brühl | |
---|---|
Bacciarelli | |
Born | Heinrich von Brühl 13 August 1700 |
Died | 28 October 1763 | (aged 63)
Nationality | Saxon, Polish |
Occupation(s) | Diplomat, statesman at the court of Saxony and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth |
Spouse | Countess Franziska von Kolowrat-Krakowska |
Parent | Johann Moritz von Brühl |
Heinrich, Count von Brühl (
Polish historian and writer Józef Ignacy Kraszewski wrote a novel under the title Count Brühl, in which he described Heinrich as an oppressive and stubborn dictator, who, with greed, but also great determination, unsuccessfully attempted to gain control of the entire nation.[1]
It is widely believed that Brühl had Europe's largest collection of watches and military vests; attributed to him was also a vast collection of ceremonial wigs, hats and the largest collection of Meissen porcelain in the world. He had also one of the biggest collection of kabbala books in Europe.
Career
Brühl was born in
He was at
During most of the thirty years of the ineffective reign of August III the Saxon, he was the major confidant of the king and the de facto head of the Saxon court.
Brühl had cunning and skill sufficient to govern his master and get rid of his rivals and succeeded in keeping everybody at a distance from the king. No servant entered the king's service without the consent of Brühl, and even when the king went to the chapel all approach to him was prevented. A typical interaction of the king with Brühl has the king loitering about smoking, and asking, without looking at his favorite, "Brühl, have I any money?" "Yes, sire," was the continual answer, and to satisfy the king's demands, Brühl exhausted the state, plunged the country into debts and greatly reduced the army.
Brühl kept 200 domestics; his guards were better paid than those of the king himself, and his table more sumptuous. Frederick II said of him, "Brühl had more garments, watches, laces, boots, shoes and slippers, than any man of the age. Caesar would have counted him among those curled and perfumed heads which he did not fear."
Politics
Brühl was a capable diplomat, who played a vital role in the
At the beginning of the Seven Years' War the Saxon army comprised but 17,000 men. After a few weeks, the decimated army, under Frederick Augustus Rutowsky, was compelled to surrender at Pirna from want of the necessary supplies. The army was dissolved, while Saxony remained a war theatre.
Brühl was not only without political or military capacity, but was so garrulous that he could not keep a secret. His indiscretion was repeatedly responsible for the king of Prussia's discoveries of the plans laid against him. Nothing could shake the confidence of his master, which survived the ignominious flight into Bohemia, into which he was trapped by Brühl at the time of the Battle of Kesselsdorf, and all the miseries of the Seven Years' War.[2] They fled with the pictures and the china, but the archives of the state were left to the victor.
The favourite abused the confidence of his master shamelessly. Not content with the 67,000 talers a month which he drew as salary for his innumerable offices, he was found when an inquiry was held in the next reign to have abstracted more than five million talers of public money for his private use. He left the work of the government offices to be done by his lackeys, whom he did not even supervise.[2]
Legacy
Brühl died at Dresden on 28 October 1763, having survived his master only for a few weeks. The new elector, Frederick Christian caused an inquiry to be held into his administration. His fortune including large palaces at Pförten (present-day Brody), Oberlichtenau and Wachau-Seifersdorf was found to amount to a million and a half talers, and was sequestered but afterwards restored to his family.[2] The inquiry showed that Brühl owed his immense fortune to the prodigality of the king rather than to unlawful means of accumulation.
His profusion was often beneficial to the arts and sciences. The famous Meissen porcelain Swan Service was made for him, with over 2,200 pieces, now dispersed to collections around the world. In 1736 the architect Johann Christoph Knöffel had begun to build a city palace and terrace for the count on the bank of the Elbe in the heart of Dresden. This was originally called "Brühl's Garden" and is today known as Brühl's Terrace. The Brühl Palace at Warsaw was rebuilt according to the designs by Joachim Daniel von Jauch from 1754 to 1759. Brühl was a dedicated collector and protector of the arts -
Brühl was portrayed by Johannes Riemann in the 1941 film Friedemann Bach.
Family
He married countess Franziska von
Heinrich von Brühl also had a nephew named Hans Moritz von Brühl, the same as that of his youngest son. The nephew was a diplomat and astronomer, and lived much of his life in England.
See also
- Nicholas Repnin
- Count Wenzel Anton Kaunitz-Rietberg
- Brühl (disambiguation)
Notes
References
- Harald Marx (Ed.): Dresde ou le rêve des Princes. La Galerie de Peintures au XVIIIe siècle. Dijon 2001
Attribution:
- public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Brühl, Heinrich, Count von". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 4 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 679. This publication in turn cites:
- J. G. H. von Justi: Leben und Charakter des Grafen von Brühl. Göttingen, 1760–1761
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the - This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Rines, George Edwin, ed. (1920). . Encyclopedia Americana.
External links
- Media related to Heinrich Graf von Brühl at Wikimedia Commons