Austrian statesman, born at Vienna; under Charles VI. and Maria Theresa distinguished as a diplomatist at the Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748, and sided with France in the Seven Years' War; was for nearly 40 years "the shining star and guide of Austrian politics, and greatest of diplomatists in his day, supreme Jove in that extinct Olympus; regarded with sublime pity, not unalloyed to contempt, all other diplomatic beings"; he shared with Colonne the sobriquet of the "European coach-driver"; he was sold body and soul to the interests of Austria (1711-1794).