Ligne, Charles Joseph Fürst von#

b. Brussels (Belgium), May 23, 1735, d. Vienna, Dec. 13, 1814, diplomat and officer. From 1755 in Austrian service, 1808 field marshal. Distinguished himself in the Seven Years' War , in the Bavarian Succession, War of the and against the Turks. After the Teschen, Peace of (1779) worked as a diplomat in various European countries. Corresponded with important representatives of the Enlightenment like Voltaire, J. J. Rousseau, J. W. von Goethe, C. M. Wieland, Tsarina Catherine II and King Friedrich II of Prussia. Witty and charming, L. was referred to as Vienna's "last rococo gentleman" and "Maître-de-plaisir of the Vienna Congress". Coined the phrase "the Congress dances, but it does not get anywhere" ("Le congrès danse beaucoup, mais il ne marche pas"). Buried in the cemetery on Kahlenberg, a mountain near Vienna he helped develop as a pleasure destination for the Viennese.

Editions: Melanges militaires, litteraires et sentimentaires, 30 vols., 1795-1811; Œuvres posthumes, 6 vols., 1817.

Literature#