Aloys von Kaunitz-Rietberg

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Aloys Wenzel Dominik, Prince of Kaunitz-Rietberg (19 June 1774 – 15 November 1848) was a German nobleman and a diplomat of the Austrian Empire.

Aloys was born in Vienna on 19 June 1774 into the Kaunitz-Rietberg-Questenberg branch of his family. He was the son of Dominik, Prince of Kaunitz-Rietberg and Countess Bernhardine von Plettenberg-Wittem. His sister Maria Eleonore (1775–1825) was the first wife of Prince Klemens von Metternich.^[1]

He was the last Count of Rietberg of his family (the title is now of the House of Liechtenstein) but without sovereign power, his father was the last Sovereign of Rietberg since the county was retained in 1806 by the Kingdom of Westphalia, and, after the Congress of Vienna, the Kingdom of Prussia. The Prince served as a diplomat in Dresden, Copenhagen (1801-1804), Naples (1805-1807), Madrid (1815-1817) and the Holy See (1817-1820).^[2]

In July 1822, Kaunitz was arrested at his Palace in Vienna and tried after being charged with multiple rapes and pimping. He allegedly had intercourse with hundreds of underage girls mostly members of Vienna Children Ballet. Thanks to his powerful relations he was given just house arrest for a while and then exiled in his estate in Moravia.^[3]

The Prince married Countess Franziska Xaveria Ungnad von Weissenwolff, a daughter of Count Guidobald Ungnad von Weißenwolff and Baroness Josepha Maria Ungnad von Salza. Together, they were the parents of four daughters, including:^[1]

• Maria Theresia von Kaunitz-Rietberg (1800–1801), who died young.^[2]
• Caroline Léopoldine Jeanne von Kaunitz-Rietberg (1801–1875), who married Major General Count Anton Gundaker von Starhemberg. After his death in 1842, she married Prince Pierre d'Arenberg, third son of Louis Engelbert, 6th Duke of Arenberg.^[2]
• Leopoldine von Kaunitz-Rietberg (1803–1888), who married Antal Károly, 3rd Prince Pálffy ab Erdöd.^[2]
• Ferdinandine von Kaunitz-Rietberg (1805–1862), who married Ludwig Károlyi de Nagykároly.^[2]

The Prince of Kaunitz-Rietberg died in Paris on 15 November 1848. As the last male line descendant of Wenzel Anton, Prince of Kaunitz-Rietberg, he was the last Prince of Kaunitz-Rietberg.

• (in German) Constantin von Wurzbach: Kaunitz, Alois Wenzel Fürst. In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich. 11. Theil. Kaiserlich-königliche Hof- und Staatsdruckerei, Wien 1864, S. 63
• (in German) Erwin Matsch: Der Auswärtige Dienst von Österreich(-Ungarn) 1720–1920. Böhlau, Wien/Graz 1986, ISBN 3-205-07269-3.