Felix was born at Český Krumlov Castle (German: Böhmisch Krumau) in Bohemia, the second son of Prince Joseph of Schwarzenberg (1769–1833) and his wife Pauline of Arenberg. The House of Schwarzenberg was one of the most influential Bohemian noble families.
He joined a cavalry regiment at the age of 18 and was rapidly promoted until he eventually became field marshal. After 1823 he was attache in Moscow and then minister in Turin (1839) and Naples (1844 - 1848). On the outbreak of the Austrian revolution in 1848 Schwarzenberg rejoined the army. In October he was called to the Austrian Court, then in Olmütz, and on the recommendation of his brother-in-law, Prince Alfred Windisch-Grätz, was designated to lead the planned reaction. Schwarzenberg took office on November 21 as minister-president (he was also in charge of foreign affairs). The program that he presented to Parliament was carefully worded and contained an assurance that the Austrian government meant to maintain constitutional institutions and liberties. His real conception was quite the opposite. Schwarzenberg successively destroyed the larger part and then the whole of the Austrian constitution; broke, with the help of Russia, the resistance of Hungary, where he established a dictatorship; and then brought to ruin the democratic movement in Germany. Schwarzenberg died suddenly of a stroke, on April 5, 1852.
He was a Bohemian nobleman and an Austrian statesman who restored the Habsburg Empire as a European great power following the Revolutions of 1848. He served as Minister-President of the Austrian Empire and Foreign Minister of the Austrian Empire from 1848 to 1852.
Schwarzenberg was widely respected in Europe as an able statesman, although not much trusted, even by his emperor. The honorary citizenship of Budapest bestowed on Schwarzenberg during his lifetime was officially revoked in 2011 by the local government under Mayor István Tarlós.
During his time as a London attaché in 1828 he had an affair with Jane Digby, whom he deserted after causing her then-husband – Edward Law, 1st Earl of Ellenborough – to divorce her, and making her pregnant. This episode led to the nickname of "Prince of Cadland" being applied to him in London.
