Rudolf Franz Erwein von Schönborn

Count Rudolf Franz Erwein von Schönborn (23 October 1677 – 22 September 1754), was a German politician and diplomat who was also active as a composer and a Knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece.

Early life

Schönborn was born on 23 October 1677 in Mainz. He was a younger son of Melchior Friedrich Graf von Schönborn-Buchheim (1644–1717), a Minister of State of the Electorate of Mainz, and his wife, Baroness Maria Anna Sophia Johanna von Boineburg-Lengsfeld (1652–1726). Among his brothers were the Prince-Bishops of Würzburg Johann Philipp Franz von Schönborn, Friedrich Karl von Schönborn-Buchheim (who served as Vice-Chancellor of the Holy Roman Empire under Joseph I from 1705 to 1734), and Prince-Bishop of Speyer Damian Hugo Philipp von Schönborn-Buchheim, as well as the Elector and Archbishop of Trier, Franz Georg von Schönborn. His uncle was Lothar Franz von Schönborn, the Archbishop-Elector of Mainz and Bishop of Bamberg, who is known today for commissioning a number of Baroque buildings, such as the palace Schloss Weissenstein.

Schönborn was initially taught by a private tutor before attending the Jesuit High School in Aschaffenburg and Würzburg. From 1693 to 1695, he attended the Collegium Germanicum in Rome and, from 1696 to 1698, studied at the University of Leiden and, in 1696, in Paris. The collection is considered the "elder repertoire" and consists of 147 prints and 497 mss. Its contents are listed with RISM. The "younger repertoire" was acquired by Schönborn's grandson, Hugo Damian Erwein von Schönborn-Wiesentheid, and great-grandson Franz Erwein von Schönborn-Wiesentheid, and consists of 141 prints and 98 mss.

He was also known as a builder. When he took over the rule in Wiesentheid, he had extensive renovation work carried out on his new residence Wiesentheid Castle, and had the Waldenstein branch church built.

Personal life

On 14 November 1701, he married the widowed Countess Maria Eleonore von Dernbach (1680–1718), née Countess von Hatzfeld-Wildenburg, thus establishing the Schönborn-Wiesentheid line, and bringing the ownership of the Herrschaft (lordship) Wiesentheid in Franconia, the Austrian fiefs of Arnfels in Styria, and the Waldenstein lordship in Carinthia to the Schönborn family which the countess had inherited from her first husband. Her parents were Count Heinrich von Hatzfeld and Catharina Elisabetha von Schönborn. Together, they were the parents of seven daughters (five of whom died young and unmarried) and two sons, including:

Anna Katharina von Schönborn (1703–1743), who married Marquis Franz Arnold von Hoensbroech.

Descendants Through his daughter Anna, he was a grandfather of Philipp Damian von Hoensbroech, who became Bishop of Roermond.