7-1
Friedrich Rudolf seemed to have been pursued by misfortune. His role in the battle of Rheinfelden (1638) led to critical recriminations.4 The next calamity arose as an aftershock of Konrad von Pappenheim’s original takeover of the Stühlingen title and left its copious marks in Austrian legal history as “The Pappenheim Succession” (Der Pappenheim’sche Erbstreit)5 – the House of Fürstenberg vs. the imperial court. This issue of succession created further tensions between the three Fürstenberg branches and cost Friedrich Rudolf another 75,000 fl.6
In 1648, during the final confrontation of the Thirty Years’ War, Friedrich Rudolf had been ordered to aid in the defence of Prague. When the city fell to the Swedes under Königsmark,7 Friedrich Rudolf was captured by the plundering Swedish troops. He was stripped of all money and valuables, and taken hostage; in the end he had to be ransomed for 4000 fl.8
Friedrich Rudolf died in 1655 while sojourning in Dačice, Moravia, most likely of tuberculosis. At the time, his son and heir Count Maximilian Franz was only twenty-one years old. It took him yet another 85,000 fl. and fourteen years to settle finally the Pappenheim affair. This expenditure further added to the cumulative debts of the family.
Maximilian Franz married Maria Magdalena von Bernhausen (~1638–1702). They had seven children, of whom two died in infancy and one in childhood. Despite being the ruler of Fürstenberg-Stühlingen, Maximilian Franz spent most of his time at the imperial court in Vienna as courtier, treasurer, and later colonel of the imperial guards;9 thus, he had to maintain suitable households both in Stühlingen and in Vienna. During the Austrian war against the Turks in 1664, he served as colonel of the Swabian troops. Although he was promised a pension, it was not paid until after his death and only after appeals by his heirs. In 1681 he died prematurely in Strasbourg, having fallen down the stairs and breaking his neck after stumbling over his spurs.10
4Warlich, “Fürstenberg-Mößkirch [Fürstenberger].”
5GLA, 72/3961; Münch, Geschichte des Hauses Fürstenberg, 35.
6Tumbült, Das Fürstentum Fürstenberg, 175.
7Wilson, The Thirty Years War, 744.
8Münch, Geschichte des Hauses Fürstenberg, 43.
9Tumbült, Das Fürstentum Fürstenberg, 177.
10Ibid., 178.
