ALTHAN, MICHAEL FREDERICK von. - Cardinal, Viceroy of Naples, b. at Glatz (Silesia) in 1682, d. at Vácz (Hungary) in 1734. Canon of Olmütz and Breslau, Auditor of the Rota of Austria in Rome (1714-18), Bishop of Vácz and Counsellor of State of Hungary in 1718. Clement XI created him cardinal in 1719. Having entered the Imperial Council, he was entrusted with representing the Empire at the Holy See. At the Conclave of Innocent XIII he exercised the alleged right of veto against Cardinal Paolucci. In a letter to Cardinal de Bissy, which was published, he vigorously protested against the rumours, spread by the Jansenists, that the Emperor had rejected the bull Unigenitus (1722). His actions contributed greatly to the reconciliation of imperial authority with that of the papacy after the War of the Spanish Succession. In 1722 he became Viceroy of Naples and remained in office for six years. In 1729 he returned to his Hungarian diocese, to which he devoted himself until his death.
ALTHAN, MI-CHELE FEDERICO D'
BIBL.: M. Guarnacci, Vitae et res gestae Pontificum Romanorum et Cardinalium, II, Rome 1751; P. Richard, s. V. in DHG, II, cols. 809-10.