09-18-2009, 05:40 PM
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Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: New York
Posts: 226
My Mood:  | 1777 Salzburg Count Von Colloredo-Waldsee (1772-1803) Taler
  Taler Graded NGC MS-61
Of aristocratic birth, he was the second son of Count Rudolf Wenzel Joseph Colloredo-Melz und Wallsee (1706-1788), a high-ranking Imperial official. He was educated at the Theresianum in Vienna, and served in various ecclesiastical appointments. The Prince-Archbishopric of Salzburg fell vacant in December 1771, and (with considerable pressure from the Imperial court in Vienna), he was elected to his highest post, Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg, on the 13th ballot.
Colloredo was the ruler of Salzburg at the time that the long-standing arrangement of placing this sovereign state under the rule of an Archbishop came to an end. On 12 December 1801, as French troops under Napoleon drew near to occupying the city, Colloredo fled the city, never to return. The political fate of Salzburg was first secularization (it was awarded to the Grand Duke of Tuscany, who had lost his state), then incorporation into Austria (1805), then Bavaria (1809), then permanently to Austria (1816). Colloredo remained the eccleciastical head of the diocese, in exile.
Colloredo and Mozart
He is known as the first patron of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. He did, however, become exceptionally annoyed with Mozart's frequent absences. After a number of arguments, he ultimately dismissed him from his service with the words, "Mag er geh'n, ich brauch' ihn nicht!" ("May he leave, I don't need him!"). Leopold Mozart stayed in Salzburg but "continued to bemoan the failure to replace musicians who had left or died, and the consequent shambles in the court music." Colloredo "sometimes played the violin in the court orchestra." Another similar 1801 Taler I recently received graded NGC AU-58  |
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