Constantine, Hereditary Prince of Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rosenberg

Constantine
Hereditary Prince of Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rosenberg
Constantine of Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rosenberg in 1820
Born	(1802-09-28)28 September 1802 Kleinheubach, near Miltenberg
Died	Kleinheubach, near Miltenberg
Spouse	Princess Agnes of Hohenlohe-Langenburg
House	Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rosenberg
Father	Charles Thomas, Prince of Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rosenberg
Mother	Countess Sophie of Windisch-Grätz

Constantine Josef, Hereditary Prince of Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rosenberg (28 September 1802 – 27 December 1838, Kleinheubach), was the eldest son and heir of Charles Thomas, Prince of Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rosenberg and his wife, Sophie of Windisch-Graetz. He died before his father.

Biography

Constantine was born at Kleinheubach, near Miltenberg. He had five younger sisters and, as the only son, was the bearer of hope for the preservation of the dynasty. He received his educational imprint in the awareness of the feudal rights of his house, which had been significantly reduced as a result of the mediatisation at the end of the Holy Roman Empire. During his education and years of study, he was particularly concerned with philosophy, history and constitutional law, and towards the end of the 1820s he appeared as a publicist.

In his articles in newspapers and writings, some of which appeared anonymously, he vehemently represented the interests of the Mediatized Houses. He demanded an independent court at the German Confederation, which should be specifically responsible for the mediatized lords of the estates, and denied the federal states the authority to enact laws to the detriment of the lords of the estates. He also appeared at the Viennese ministerial conferences as a representative of the interests of the lords of the estates. Constantine of Löwenstein saw himself as a staunch opponent of liberalism.

Princely coat of arms of the Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rosenberg House

He maintained a lively correspondence with like-minded people such as Professor Karl Friedrich Vollgraff and several Catholic conservative publicists, in which the deep longing for a return to the legal relations and fundamental values of the old Roman-German Empire became clear again and again.

He was in close contact with his uncle, Constantine of Löwenstein (1786–1844), a representative of the conservative party, who was adjutant general to King Ludwig I in Munich. The constitutions of the southern German states were suspect to him. He supported the publication organs of the conservative opposition in Bavaria with financial contributions. His unabashed conservative stance earned him fierce criticism from politically progressive circles. His correspondence with the philosopher Franz von Baader contains some remarkable lines of thought in intellectual history.

Engelberg Monastery, grave of Hereditary Princess Agnes of Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rosenberg, née von Hohenlohe-Langenburg

Since his father was usually traveling, Constantine took over the entire management of the estate as early as the beginning of the 1830s and resided in Löwenstein Castle. He took care of everything personally and entered into political disputes with the state governments of Bavaria, Baden, Hesse and Württemberg, which were responsible for his estate and to which the territories of his house that had once been independent of the empire had fallen in the course of mediatization. In a discussion with the Baden minister Sigismund von Reitzenstein, he gave preference to his rights as a lord of the estates over the interests of Baden, which he declared to be the general welfare and which ruled with great severity in the former territories of his family.

In 1834, he was a member of the First Chamber of the Estates of the Grand Duchy of Hesse.

As the owner of the Bohemian dominion of Weseritz, the hereditary prince acquired the healing springs there in 1836 and had them developed into a spa. The resulting town of Bad Neudorf owes its flourishing to Constantine of Löwenstein and was renamed Konstantinbad in 1900 in his honor. Today's Czech name Konstantinovy Lázně also keeps the memory of the founder alive. Hunting and traveling were among the nobleman's passions. When he died at the age of only 36, it was a deep caesura in the history of the House of Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rosenberg.

Family

His paternal grandparents were Dominic Constantine, Prince of Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rochefort (1762–1814) and his first wife Princess Marie Leopoldine of Hohenlohe-Bartenstein. Dominic had inherited the title "Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rochefort" in 1780 but modified it to "Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rosenberg" in 1789. His maternal grandparents were Joseph Nicholas, Count of Windisch-Graetz and his second wife Duchess Leopoldine of Arenberg (1751-1812).

Dominic Constantine was the eldest son of Theodore Alexander, Prince of Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rochefort (1722–1780) and his wife Catharine Louise Eleonore, Countess of Leiningen-Dagsburg-Hartenburg.

Theodore Alexander was a son of Dominic Marquard, Prince of Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rochefort (1690–1735) and his wife Princess Christina of Hesse-Wanfried. Christina was a daughter of Charles, Landgrave of Hesse-Wanfried. Charles was the second son of Ernest, Landgrave of Hesse-Rheinfels.

Dominic Marquard was a son of Maximilian Karl Albert, Prince of Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rochefort (1656–1718) and his wife Polyxena Maria, Countess Khuen von Lichtenberg und Belasi. His father had served as governor of Milan, representing Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor until his own death.

Maximilian was a son of Ferdinand Karl, Count of Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rochefort (1616–1672) and his wife Anna Maria, Countess of Fürstenberg.

Ferdinand Karl was a son of Johann Dietrich, Count of Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rochefort (1585–1644) and his first wife Josina von der Marck.

Johann Dietrich was a younger son of Louis III, Count of Löwenstein-Wertheim (1530–1611) and his wife Anna, Countess of Stolberg. His father had served as governor of Styria, Carinthia and Carniola, representing rulers of the House of Habsburg.

Louis was a younger son of Frederick I, Count of Löwenstein (1502–1541) and his wife Countess Helene of Königsegg.

Frederick was a son of Louis I, Count of Löwenstein and his first wife Elisabeth, Countess of Montfort.

Louis was a son of Frederick I, Count Palatine of the Rhine and his morganatic wife Clara Tott. Children from this marriage had no right to the throne of the Palatinate but represented a secondary line of the Wittelsbach.

Marriage and children

On 31 May 1829, Constantine married Princess Agnes of Hohenlohe-Langenburg. She was a daughter of Charles Louis, Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg (1762–1825) and Amalia, Countess of Solms-Baruth. They had two children:

• Adelaide of Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rosenberg (3 April 1831 – 16 December 1909). In 1851, she married the former King Miguel of Braganza, who reigned in Portugal from 1828 to 1834.
• Charles, Prince of Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rosenberg (21 May 1834 – 8 November 1921). Married Princess Sophie of Liechtenstein. She was a daughter of Alois II, Prince of Liechtenstein and Countess Franziska Kinsky of Wchinitz and Tettau.

Works

• Widerlegung einiger in neuerer Zeit verbreiteten falschen Nachrichten in Bezug auf den Ursprung des hochfürstlichen Hauses zu Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rosenberg und dessen Successions-Recht in Bayern (1830)
• Einiges über den Mißbrauch der gesetzgebenden Gewalt. Bei Gelegenheit gewisser Ergebnisse der jüngsten Ständeversammlung im Großherzogthume Baden (1832)
• Betrachtung über die die Unzulänglichkeit des 14ten Artikels der Deutschen Bundesakte zur Befriedigung der mediatisierten Reichsstände (1833)
• Unter welchen Bedingungen ist das Gedeihen der landständischen Verfassungen im Deutschen Bunde zu erwarten? (1833)
• Beiträge zur Philosophie des Rechts (1836)
• Versuch einer schematischen Beleuchtung der ersten Elemente einer christlichen Philosophie (1840; Italian translation dedicated to Antonio Rosmini, Primi elementi d'un sistema di filosofia cristiana, 1847)

External links

• His profile in Peerage.com

Sources

• "Lines of Succession: Heraldry of the Royal Families of Europe" by Jirí Louda and Michael MacLagan.