Johann Philipp Franz von Schönborn

Johann Philipp Franz von Schönborn ( * February 15, 1673 in Würzburg, † August 18 1724 in Bad Mergentheim ) was Prince-Bishop of Würzburg.

Life

He was the eldest son of a kurmainzischen State Minister Melchior Friedrich Graf von Schönborn- Buchheim (1644-1717) and his wife Baroness Maria Anna Sophia of Boineburg (1652-1726) and nephew of the Elector of Mainz and Archbishop Lothar Franz von Schönborn. His younger brothers were the Prince Bishops Friedrich Carl von Schönborn and Damian Hugo Philipp von Schönborn- Buchheim and the Trier Elector and Archbishop Franz Georg von Schönborn and politician Rudolf Franz von Schönborn Erwein. From 1681 he attended a Jesuit high school in Aschaffenburg and then studied until 1693 in Würzburg, Mainz and Rome.

First diplomatic experience he gained in England, the Netherlands and France, where palace buildings such as Versailles exerted a lasting impression on him. 1685 canon, 1699 in Würzburg cathedral chapter, he was in 1719 elected prince-bishop. He received episcopal consecration of his powerful uncle Lothar Franz von Schönborn, who had but actually favored his younger brother Friedrich Carl. He criticized in the aftermath often the government of his nephew, who was hated by the population and could achieve no importance in national politics.

Drastic tax increases, among other things, to finance the construction of 1720 began, giant Wurzburg Residence ensured displeasure. A year later, he laid the foundation stone for the also designed by Balthasar Neumann Schönborn Chapel at Wurzburg Cathedral, which was provided as an exclusive dynastic grave lay his family.

Domestically, he promoted the economy with a new craft regulations and the expansion of the main navigation.

After a hunting trip Johann Philipp Franz suffered a circulatory collapse, the consequences of which he died. His death was cheered. Since he was hated by all unpopular and in some, you suspected he might have been poisoned.

He has His Residence building never inhabited, barely a fifth of the building mass was brought under roof and his successor turned the expensive construction projects an almost full.