Felix was born at
Český Krumlov Castle () 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; his elder brother Prince
Johann Adolf II of Schwarzenberg later initiated the building of the
Emperor Franz Joseph Railway line from
Vienna to
Plzeň (Pilsen), while Felix' younger brother
Frederick became
Archbishop of Salzburg in 1835 and
Archbishop of Prague in 1849. The nephew of Prince
Karl Philipp of Schwarzenberg (1771–1820), commander of the Austrian armies in the last phases of the
Napoleonic Wars, Schwarzenberg after a short military interlude entered the diplomatic service, where he became a protégé of State Chancellor Prince
Klemens von Metternich and served in several Austrian embassies at
Saint Petersburg, London, Paris,
Turin, and
Naples. 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. with Prince Schwarzenberg and
Baron von Bach in 1848 Upon the outbreak of the 1848 Revolutions, he rushed to the Austrian
Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia to join Field Marshal
Joseph Radetzky defeating the
Italian rebel forces of King
Charles Albert of Sardinia in
Milan. For his role as a close advisor to Radetzky, as well as his status as brother-in-law to Marshal Prince
Alfred of Windisch-Grätz, who had suppressed the
Czech "Whitsun Riot" in
Prague and the
Vienna Uprising in October, Schwarzenberg was appointed Austrian
minister-president—the sixth within a year—and
foreign minister on 21 November 1848. In these offices, which he both held until his premature death, his first step was to secure the replacement of incapacitated Emperor
Ferdinand I of Austria by his nephew
Francis Joseph. After heir presumptive
Archduke Franz Karl had renounced the succession, Ferdinand abdicated in
Olomouc on 2 December. Schwarzenberg formed a new government with
conservative politicians like Interior Minister Count
Franz von Stadion but also
liberal allies like
Baron Alexander von Bach,
Karl Ludwig von Bruck and
Anton von Schmerling as well as the Bohemian federalist Education Minister Count
Leopold von Thun und Hohenstein. Learning from Metternich's fate, Schwarzenberg was determined not only to fight, but overcome revolution. Against the perceptions in the
Frankfurt Parliament concerning the
German question, he advocated the idea of an Austrian-German federation, including all Austrian
crown lands in and outside the
German Confederation. He delegitimized the Frankfurt assembly by recalling the Austrian delegates and preempted the federalist ideas of the Austrian
Kremsier Parliament with the promulgation of the
March Constitution in 1849. Together with the new Emperor, Schwarzenberg called in the
Imperial Russian Army to help suppress the
Hungarian revolt, and thus give Austria free rein to attempt to thwart
Prussia's drive to dominate Germany. He undid democratic reforms and re-established monarchist control in Austria, with the 1849 March Constitution that transformed the Habsburg Empire into a unitary, centralized state. In matters of
German dualism, he was able to impose the
Punctation of Olmütz on Prussia, forcing it to abandon, for the moment, its plan of unifying Germany under its own auspices, and to acquiesce in the reformation of the old
German Confederation. At the same time his government initiated substantial administrative, juridical, and educational reforms. Schwarzenberg died in office at Vienna, suffering a stroke in the early evening of Monday 5 April 1852. == Legacy ==