Count Hieronymus von Colloredo

Hieronymus Joseph Franz de Paula Graf Colloredo von Wallsee und Melz (; Jérôme Joseph Franz de Paula, Count of Colloredo-Wallsee and Mels; ) was Prince-Bishop of Gurk from 1761 to 1772 and Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg from 1772 until 1803, when the prince-archbishopric was secularized. After secularization, Colloredo fled to Vienna and remained the non-resident archbishop of Salzburg, bereft of temporal power, until his death in 1812. He is most famously known as a patron and employer for Mozart. Early life He was born in Vienna, Austria, the second son of Count, later Prince Rudolph Joseph von Colloredo (1706–1788), a high-ranking Imperial official and his wife, Countess Maria Gabriele of Starhemberg (1707–1793). Life Hieronymus was brought up in a strict religious household, and since his health did not allow him to pursue a military career, he was educated at the Theresianum Academy in Vienna, and studied philosophy at the University of Vienna and theology at the Collegium Germanicum et Hungaricum in Rome. One of his brothers was the Austrian general Wenzel Joseph von Colloredo. Accession The Prince-Archbishopric of Salzburg fell vacant in December 1771, and (with considerable pressure from the Imperial court in Vienna), Colloredo, who had been Prince-Bishop of Gurk since 1761, was elected Prince-Archbishop on 14 March 1772 on the 13th ballot. According to Clive, "it was an unpopular choice in Salzburg whose citizens remained cool to him until the end." Clive continues, "he was extremely autocratic and his dictatorial attitude at times provoked the hostility of the cathedral chapter and of civic officials."