Philipp von Orsini-Rosenberg

Count Philipp Josef von Orsini-Rosenberg (3 June 1691 – 5 February 1765), was an Austrian nobleman, diplomat and politician.

Early life Count Orsini-Rosenberg was born on 3 June 1691 in Vienna. He was a son of Count Wolfgang Andreas von Orsini-Rosenberg (1626–1693), and, his third wife, Princess Ernestina Barbara Montecuccoli (1663–1703). Philipp was a child when his father died and his mother entrusted his education with Count von Oed as his tutor. From his father's prior marriage to Eva Regina von Welz, he had an elder half-brother, Count Joseph Paris von Orsini-Rosenberg.

Career

He began his diplomatic career at the Court of Emperor Joseph I, however, it was the Emperor's successor (and brother), Charles VI, who appointed Count Orsini-Rosenberg chamberlain upon his accession to the throne in 1711. In 1713, he carried out his first diplomatic mission on behalf of the Holy Roman Empire, namely to convey the Emperor's congratulations to the King of Portugal on the birth of the Prince of Brazil. After his return, he held higher positions in rapid succession, first becoming Hofkammerrer, then president of several chamber committees, then, in April 1721, First Councilor and Director of the Chamber of the Kingdom of Serbia and, on 19 June 1722, President of the state-owned salt industry. He did not remain there long, because after the outbreak of War with Prussia, he was reassigned to the Embassy in St. Petersburg where one of his predecessors, Antoniotto Botta Adorno, had made a bad name for himself by participating in court intrigues. Count Orsini-Rosenberg then had the difficult task of regaining the trust of Tsarina Elizabeth at the Austrian court, which he succeeded at admirably on 3 November 1744 by obtaining a public declaration. He then moved to England and, after a short stay in Lisbon, returned to Austria in 1750 and became president of the Lower House of Parliament. In May 1753 he succeeded the Marquis von Prieal as Ambassador to the Most Serene Republic of Venice. He was recalled to Vienna in 1764, and died there in February of the following year. Through her elder brother, Count Maximilian Ulrich von Kaunitz, she was aunt to Wenzel Anton, Prince of Kaunitz-Rietberg. Together, they were the parents of: Countess Josepha Caterine von Orsini-Rosenberg (1718–1758), who died unmarried. Countess Maria Anna von Orsini-Rosenberg (1719–1756), who married Count Franz von Thurn und Valsássina-Como-Vercelli, Privy Councillor of the Emperor, Imperial Chamberlain, hofmeister of Peter Leopold, Grand Duke of Tuscany, in 1747. Count Vinzenz Ferrerius von Orsini-Rosenberg (1722–1794), Privy Councillor of the Emperor, Imperial Chamberlain, Governor of Carniola and Carinthia; he married Countess Marie Juliana von Stubenberg, in 1756. Countess Maria Antonia von Orsini-Rosenberg (1723–1762), who married Johann Gottfried Heister, Privy Councillor of the Emperor, Imperial Chamberlain, Governor of Tyrol, in 1741. Count Sigmund Andreas von Orsini-Rosenberg (b. 1725), who died unmarried. Countess Marie Ernestina von Orsini-Rosenberg (1729–1764), who married Count Karel Ujfalussy, Colonel of the Imperial Army, in 1756.

After the death of his first wife in Venice in 1756, he met Giustiniana Wynne (1732–1791), daughter of an English baronet, Sir Richard Wynne. The former lover of Italian statesman Andrea Memmo and rake Giacomo Casanova, she married Orsini-Rosenberg in 1758. The Count remained in Venice for eleven years, hosted in Palazzo Loredan, which he knew as "the ambassador".

Count Orsini-Rosenberg died on 5 February 1765 in Vienna.

Descendants Through his son Vinzenz, he was a grandfather of Franz Seraph of Orsini-Rosenberg (1761–1832), who became 2nd Prince of Orsini-Rosenberg in 1794 following the death of his second cousin, Franz Xaver von Orsini-Rosenberg.