Background
Von Cobenzl was born in Brussels in 1753 as one out of ten children to Count Johann Karl Philipp von Cobenzl (1712–1770), the plenipotentiary minister of the Empress Maria Theresia in the Austrian Netherlands.
Von Cobenzl was born in Brussels in 1753 as one out of ten children to Count Johann Karl Philipp von Cobenzl (1712–1770), the plenipotentiary minister of the Empress Maria Theresia in the Austrian Netherlands.
He also was a cousin of the diplomat Philipp Graf von Cobenzl, and a protégé of Wenzel Anton von Kaunitz. In 1779, he became minister at Saint St. Petersburg. In 1795, during the Third Partition of Poland, he negotiated a large portion of land for the Habsburgy Monarchy that had gone empty in the Second Partition.
In 1800, he became foreign minister of the Habsburg Monarchy.
As such, he signed the Treaty of Lunéville in 1801, and recognized the imperial title of Napoleon. In 1805, the Austrian Empire took part in the War of the Third Coalition, and was defeated at the Battle of Austerlitz, which led to Cobenzl"s dismissal.
He died, aged 55, in Vienna.
Cobenzl was a member of the Illuminati under the name of Arrian.
