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Countess Franziska Kinsky of Wchinitz and Tettau

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Biography

She was born as the younger daughter of Count Franz de Paula Joseph Kinsky von Wchinitz und Tettau (1784-1823) (younger brother of Ferdinand, Prince Kinsky) and his wife, Countess Therese Antonia Barbara von Würben und Freudenthal (1789-1874).

On 8 August 1831 she married Aloys II, Prince of Liechtenstein in Vienna. It was a double wedding as on the same day her elder sister Countess Maria Anna (1809-1892) married Prince Frederick Wilhelm of Solms-Braunfels (1801–1868), eldest surviving son of Prince Frederick William of Solms-Braunfels and Duchess Friederike of Mecklenburg-Strelitz.

Franziska acted as regent during the reign of her son, Johann II, from 10 February 1859 to November 1860. Her son ascended to the throne shortly after his 18th birthday, and as such his reign had been the longest precisely documented tenure of any European monarch since antiquity in which a regent (that is, a minor regency) was never employed, until the record was surpassed by that of Elizabeth II on 9 May 2022.

Franziska Kinsky did act as his regent, but she did not function as the regent of a minor regency government, but was appointed by her son as his regent in his absence, because he had not been given time to finish his education before suddenly inheriting the throne, and he wished to do so before actually taking up his rule, and thus appointed his mother to rule in his stead while he focused on finishing his studies. He officially appointed her 10 February 1859, and relieved her of her duties as regent when he finished his studies in November 1860.

Franziska Kinsky founded the first relief fund for orphans in Liechtenstein, as well as a school for girls, the Haus Gutenberg.

In 1854 she bought Gutenberg Castle, while in 1870 she also bought Burg Wartenstein and had it rebuilt in the fashionable Romantic style.

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