Alexander Konstantin Albrecht von Mensdorff-Pouilly, 1st Prince von Dietrichstein zu Nikolsburg (German: Alexander Konstantin Albrecht Graf von Mensdorff-Pouilly, 1. Fürst von Dietrichstein zu Nikolsburg; 4 August 1813 in Coburg – 14 February 1871) was an Austrian general, diplomat and politician, including two years as Minister of Foreign Affairs (1864–66) and one month's service as Minister-President of Austria. He was a cousin of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and a favorite cousin and childhood playmate of her husband Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.
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Life and career
He was born as a son of Princess Sophie of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld and Count Emmanuel von Mensdorff-Pouilly, an army officer who served in the Imperial-Royal Army of the Austrian Empire and held the post of Vice-governor of the Fortress of Mainz. By birth, he was member of the House of Mensdorff-Pouilly, an old Lotharingian noble family, domiciled in Austria since the second half of the 18th century. His maternal grandparents were Francis, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld and his second wife, Countess Augusta Reuss of Ebersdorf. He entered the Austrian army in 1829, and he was promoted to captain in 1836 and major in 1844. In 1848–49, he fought in the First Italian War of Independence and against the Hungarian Revolution of 1848. In 1849, he was promoted to colonel and the following year to major general.
In 1851, Mensdorff-Pouilly was appointed as the Austrian commissioner to Schleswig-Holstein. In 1852, he became the Austrian ambassador to the Russian Empire. He was promoted to Feldmarschallleutnant in 1858. During the Polish Uprising of 1863, he served as the governor of the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria.