FÜRSTENBERG, WILHELM EGON von. – Cardinal, born 2 December 1629, died in Paris on 10 April 1704.
Counsellor to the archbishop-elector of Cologne, Massimiliano Enrico, he worked, together with his brother Francesco Egone, in favour of French expansionism. Bishop of Metz (1663) and of Strasbourg (1682), he was created cardinal by Innocenzo XI, under pressure from Luigi XIV, on 2 September 1686, with the title of S. Onofrio. The opposition of the Pope and the emperor Leopoldo prevented him in 1688 from succeeding Massimiliano Enrico. Banned from the Empire and forced to withdraw to France, he received the abbey of St-Germain-des-Prés from Luigi XIV.
BIBL.: M. Guarnacci, Vitae et res gestae pontificum Romanorum et cardinalium, I, Rome 1751, p. 253; Pastor, XIV, V. index; Ch. Gerin, Le pape Innocent XI et l'élection de Cologne en 1688, in Revue des queti, historiques, 33 (1883), p. 75.