KAUNITZ-RIETBURG, WENZEL ANTON, PRINCE VON (1 Austrian chancellor and diplomatist, was born at Vienna Feb. 2, 1711, son of Max Ulrich, third count of Kaunitz, and Maria Ernestine Franziska von Rietburg. Wenzel Anton, being a second son, was designed for the church, but on the death of his elder brother was trained for the law and for diplomacy, at Vienna, Leipzig and Leiden, and by travel. His family's influence soon obtained him employment, and by 1735 he was a Reichshofrath.
When the Emperor Charles VI. died in 1740, he is said to have hesitated before deciding to support Maria Theresa. If so, his hesitation did not last long, and left no trace on his loyalty. From 1742 to 1744 he was minister at Turin, and in the latter year was sent as minister with the Archduke Charles of Lorraine, the governor of Belgium. In 1748 Maria Theresa sent him as repre sentative of Austria to the peace congress of Aix-la-Chapelle. His tenacity and dexterity established his reputation as a diplo matist. He confirmed his hold on the regard and confidence of the empress by insisting in 1749, contrary to the views of most of her advisers, that Austria's true enemy was Prussia, and the traditional policy of alliance with the maritime powers must be exchanged for alliance with France and Russia, directed exclusively against Prussia. The empress eagerly accepted views which were already her own, and entrusted the adviser with the execution of his own plans, clearly recognizing that his ideas and principles were in harmony with her own.
From 1750 till his retirement in 1792 Kaunitz was the leading figure in the politics of eastern and central Europe. His governing
principle was to forward the interests of "the august house of Austria," a phrase sometimes repeated at every few lines of his despatches. In internal affairs he helped to promote simplification of the Austrian administration. But his main concern was always with diplomacy and foreign policy. Here he strove with untiring energy, and some success, to extend the Austrian dominions. After the Seven Years' War he endeavoured to avoid great risks, and sought to secure his ends by alliances, exchanges and claims pro fessing to have a legal basis, and justified at enormous length by arguments both pedantic and hypocritical. Of the French Revolu tion he never understood the full meaning. Yet his despatch of July 17, 1794, contains the first outlines of Metternich's policy of "legitimacy," and the first proposal for the combined action of the powers, based on the full recognition of one another's rights, to defend themselves against subversive principles. Kaunitz died at his house, the Garten Palast, near Vienna, on June 27, He married on May 6, 1736, Maria Ernestine von Starhemberg, who died Sept. 6, 1754. Four sons were born of the marriage, which was a happy one.
See Hormayr, Oesterreichischer Plutarch (Vienna, 1823), for a bio graphical sketch based on personal knowledge. Also see Brunner, Joseph II.: Correspondance avec Cobenzl et Kaunitz (Mayence, 1871) ; A. Beer, Joseph II., Leopold II. and Kaunitz (Vienna, 1873).