KONIGSMARK, kivniKssmiirk. A Swedish family of German origin. whose members achieved fame and notoriety in equal measure during the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. IIsxs CHRISTOPII, Count Konigsmark, field-nmr shal in the Swedish service, was born at Kffizlin, Brandenburg, March 4, 1600. On the outbreak of the Thirty Years' War lie served in the Imperial forces, but in 1630 entered the Swedish Array, attaining the rank of colonel in 1635. In the following year he defeated the Imperialists, and for a long time commanded the Swedish army in Westphalia. He was with Torstenson in 1642, and commanded the left wing at the battle of Breitenfeld (q.v.). November 2d. He drove the Imperialists from Pomerania. and captured Bre men and Verden in 1644; defeated the Saxons at Zeitz, and forced the Elector to a truce. lie sup ported Wrangel in Franconia (May, 1648). and commanded the Swedish forces in the final battle of the war at Prague. De was made a field marshal and hereditary count, and appointed Governor of Bremen and Verden. Ile was taken prisoner in the war between Sweden and Poland (1656). and remained in captivity until the Peace of Oliva, (1660). Hie died in Stockholm. March 8. 1663.—Pinum. CIL RISTOPII, Count KOnigsmark, a grandson of the preceding, born 1662. entered the service of the Elector of Hanover, and became the lover of Sophia Dorothea, wife of the Crown Prince (afterwards George I. of England). This attachment was discovered, and Kiinigsmark, as is supposed, was assassinated July 1, 1694.— MARIA AURORA, sister of the preceding, born at Stade. Sweden, about 1668, was a brilliant and beautiful woman. well aequainted with life in the
courts of Northern Germany. After her brother's mysterious disappearance she went to Dresden to enlist the aid of the Elector Augustus IL of Saxony in rescuing her brother, if alive. She became the mistress of the Elector, and the mother, by him, of Maurice of Saxony (q.v.). She afterwards retired to the Abbey of Quedlin burg, Prussian Saxony; lived at Berlin, Dresden, and Hamburg; and undertook a mission to Charles Xii. of Sweden at Narva, in behalf of Augustus IL (1702). Voltaire considered her 'the most famous woman of two centuries.' She died at Quedlinburg. in 1728. Consult: Cramer, Denkuliirdigkeiten drr Griifin Maria Aurora von Kiinigsmark (2 vols.. Leipzig, 1836) Hesekiel, Narhrichten zur Orxchichtr drR Grxehlerhis der °mien ron KOnigmark (Berlin. 1854) ; Palm blad, Konicpwark mind awe l'enrandten (6 vols.. Leipzig, 1848-53) ; Corvin-Wiersbitzkv, Maria Aurora, Griifin ron Koniggmark, (Leipzig, 1848).
KoNIGSTEIN. kivnIK-stin. A town of Sax ony. Germany, on the Elbe, 22 miles by rail south east of Dresden. It is commanded by an old fortress, the only one in Saxony. situated at an altitude of nearly 800 feet. above the Elbe, on a precipitous rock. it formerly afforded an asylum to the Saxon priors. with their treasures, in times of danger. The present fortifications were erected during 1589 - 1731. The fortress of Konigstein was formerly considered impregnable. The town has some manufactures and commerce. Population, in 1890, 3988; in 1900, 4274.