KAUNITZ, ANTON WENZEL. - Austrian statesman, born on 2 Feb. 1711 in Vienna, died there on 27 June 1794. In 1741 he was entrusted with a special mission to the courts of Florence, Rome, and Turin, to announce the birth of the heir apparent, Joseph (the future Joseph II). He subsequently served as chargé d'affaires in Turin (1742-44), as superior intendant at the court of Brussels under Archduchess Maria Anna (1744-46), as plenipotentiary at the Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle, and finally as ambassador to 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.
Though he presented himself as an observant Catholic, he supported in every way Joseph II’s policy aimed at asserting the supremacy of the state over the Church, and he backed the establishment of state general seminaries. His relations with Cardinal Archbishop Migazzi were not marked by cordiality, nor did Kaunitz miss any opportunity to reaffirm before the prelate the preeminence of state authority over ecclesiastical authority.
KAUNITZ, ANTON WENZEL — See above.