KAUNITZ, ANTON WENZEL. – Austrian statesman, born on 2 February 1711 in Vienna, died there on 27 June 1794. In 1741 he was entrusted with an extraordinary mission to the courts of Florence, Rome, and Turin, to which he was to announce the birth of the heir apparent Joseph (the future Joseph II). He subsequently became minister in Turin (1742–44), chief court intendant in Brussels under Archduchess Maria Anna (1744–46), plenipotentiary at the Congress of Aachen, and finally ambassador in Paris, where he remained from 1750 to 1753 and prepared the ground for the Franco-Austrian alliance of 1756. Appointed chancellor in 1753, he directed the foreign policy of the Habsburg monarchy until 1792, under Maria Theresa and Joseph II.
Although he presented himself as an observant Catholic, he supported in every way the policy of Joseph II, which aimed at asserting the superiority of the State over the Church, and he supported the establishment of the State’s general seminaries. Nor were his relations with Cardinal Archbishop Migazzi marked by cordiality; K. likewise never missed an opportunity to reaffirm to the prelate the pre-eminence of state authority over ecclesiastical authority.
