Karl Alois, Prince Lichnowsky

Karl Alois, Prince Lichnowsky (German: Karl Alois Johann-Nepomuk Vinzenz Leonhard, Fürst Lichnowsky, also known as Carl Alois, Fürst von Lichnowsky-Woschütz) (21 June 1761 – 15 April 1814), was second Prince Lichnowsky and a Chamberlain at the Imperial Austrian court. He is remembered for his patronage of music and his relationships with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Ludwig van Beethoven.

He was born in Vienna the eldest son of Count Johann Carl Gottlieb von Lichnowsky and his wife, Countess Carolina von Althann. Although Lichnowsky spent most of his time in Vienna, it was actually in Prussia that he held the title of prince, while his estates were located in Grätz, then in the Silesian province that Prussia had conquered from Austria earlier in the century. The location is today called Hradec nad Moravicí and is within the borders of the Czech Republic.

In his youth (1776 to 1782) he was a law student, studying in Leipzig and in Göttingen. While in Göttingen he met Johann Nikolaus Forkel, who later was to become famous for writing the first biography of J. S. Bach. Lichnowsky at the time began to collect works by Bach in manuscript copies. He also was a musician and a composer.

Lichnowsky was married (1788) to the former Maria Christiane Imperial Countess von Thun und Hohenstein, the "beautiful" (Deutsch), daughter of Imperial Countess Maria Wilhelmine von Thun und Hohenstein née Imperial Countess von Uhlfeldt, and of Imperial Count Franz Josef Anton von Thun und Hohenstein (born 1734), who later became an Imperial Chamberlain. .

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