!!!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
G. Elbin (ed.), C. J. de L. Literat und 
Feldmarschall, 1979; G. and M. Englebert, C. J. Fuerst de 
L., exhibition catalogue, Albertina, Vienna 1982; NDB.



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