Born in Brussels, 21 November 1753, died 22 February, 1809 Austrian minister in Copenhagen, 1774 Austrian minister in Berlin, 1777 Austrian ambassador to St Petersburg, 1779 Negotiated the third treaty of the partition of Poland, 1796 Recalled to Vienna, April 1797 Negotiated the Treaty of Campo-Formio with Bonaparte, 17 October, 1797 Present at the Congress of Rastatt Interim Minister of Foreign Affairs, 30 April 1798 Again to the Congress of Rastatt Returned to his post in St Petersburg, July 1798 Recalled to Vienna, February, 1800 Head of diplomacy of the Holy Roman Empire, 25 September, 1800, in which guise he sat opposite Joseph Bonaparte in the negotiations for the Peace of Lunéville Vice-Chancellor of the Holy Roman Empire, 1801-1805 Removed from office and replaced by Johann-Philipp von Stadion, 24 December, 1805
Despite the protection of Kaunitz (who considered Cobenzl as a son), Cobenzl's diplomatic career was one of difficulty and setbacks, himself living to see the territories which he had gained through Campo-Formio lost through the Treaty of Pressburg. He left behind him significant writings.
Further reading
Biographisches Lexicon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich, Vienna, 1856 (57 volumes) Tranié, J., J. C. Carmigniani, Napoléon Bonaparte: 2eme campagne d'Italie, Paris: Pygmalion/Gérard Watelet, 1991 Cobenzl, L., Joseph II. und Graf Ludwig Cobenzl : ihr Briefwechsel (edited by Adolf Beer and Joseph Ritter von Fiedlern) in Fontes rerum Austriacarum. 2. Abt., Diplomataria et acta, Bd.53-54, Vienna: C. Gerold's Sohn, 1901 Correspondances intimes de l'Empereur Joseph II. avec ... le comte de Cobenzl et ... le Prince de Kaunitz. Puisées dans les sources des archives impériales jusqu'à présent inédites. Avec une introduction et des notes historiques par S. Brunner, Mainz, Vienna, 1871 Fournier, A., Gentz und Cobenzl. Geschichte der österreichischen Diplomatie in den Jahren 1801-1805, etc, Vienna, 1880
