Ferdinand Joseph von Lobkowicz
His Serene Highness Ferdinand Joseph Johann Nepomuk von Lobkowicz, 8th Prince of Lobkowicz, 2nd Duke of Raudnitz, was an aristocrat of Bohemia, from the Lobkowicz family.
Early life
Ferdinand was born on 13 April 1797 in Hollabrunn, Lower Austria. He was the eldest son of the twelve children of Joseph Franz, 7th Prince of Lobkowicz and Princess Maria Karolina von Schwarzenberg.His paternal grandparents were Ferdinand Philipp, 6th Prince Lobkowicz and Princess Maria Gabriella di Savoia-Carignano. His maternal grandparents were Johann I, Prince of Schwarzenberg and Countess Maria Eleonore zu Oettingen-Wallerstein.
Career
Upon the death of his father, aged 44, in 1816, he became the 8th Prince of Lobkowicz, however, the family's Imperial immediacy over Princely county of Störnstein in the Holy Roman Empire had been mediatized to Bavaria in 1807. As such, the House of Lobkowicz belong to the small group of families that constitute the. In 1825, Ferdinand Joseph was able solidify the family's princely status by obtaining the honorific title of Durchlaucht. While its usage was initially for the head of the family, it was extended to all members of the senior line in 1869. As Ferdinand had many brothers, the family estates were divided thereby creating several new subsidiary lines: Prince Johann Nepomuk founding the line of Křinice, Prince Joseph Franz founding the line of Dolní Beřkovice, Prince Ludwig Johann founding a line in Hungary, and Prince Karl Johann serving as Governor of Lower Austria, Moravia, and of Tyrol.The prince embraced the entrepreneurial spirit of the times and opened a substantial sugar factory in the town of Bílina.
Political career
As one of sixteen mediatized princely houses, he was a hereditary member of the Austrian House of Lords from 1861 until his death in 1868. It was the upper house of the Imperial Council, the bicameral legislature of the Austrian Empire.Also from 1861 onwards, he was a member of the Bohemian Diet.
Personal life
In 1826, he married Princess Marie von und zu Liechtenstein, a daughter of Prince Moritz of Liechtenstein and Princess Maria Léopoldine Josepha Aloysia Esterházy de Galántha. His younger brother, Prince Ludwig Johann, married Princess Marie's sister, Princess Léopoldine. Together, they were the parents of:- Prince Maximilian Maria Osvald von Lobkowicz, who died unmarried.Moritz Aloys Joseph Marcelinus, 9th Prince of Lobkowicz, who married Princess Maria Anna of Oettingen-Wallerstein, a daughter of Friedrich Kraft, 3rd Prince of Oettingen-Wallerstein and Maria Anna von Trauttmansdorff-Weinsberg.
- Princess Léopoldine Louise Gabrielle von Lobkowicz, who married the Austrian Count Friedrich Bossi-Fedrigotti, a son of Count Lodovico Bossi-Fedrigotti von Ochsenfeld and Giuseppina de Rosmini.
- Princess Marie Léopoldine Aloisia von Lobkowicz, who married Gebhard Lebrecht, 3rd Prince Blücher of Wahlstatt, a great-grandson of the noted General, Prince Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher. After her death in 1870, he married Elisabeth von Perponcher-Sedlnitzky. After her death in 1894, he married Princess Wanda Ada Radziwiłł.
Descendants
Through his son Moritz, he was a grandfather of Ferdinand, 10th Prince of Lobkowicz, who served as the penultimate Vice President of the Austrian House of Lords from 12 October 1917 until 12 November 1918.Through his daughter Marie, he was a grandfather of Gebhard, 4th Prince Blücher of Wahlstatt, who married Englishwoman Evelyn Stapleton-Bretherton, in 1907.