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- BIOGRAPHY
Melchior Friedrich was born in Gross-Steinheim near Hanau on 16 March 1644, the son of Philipp Erwein, Freiherr von Schönborn, and Maria Ursula von Greiffenclau zu Vollrads. On 30 April 1668 in the parish church of St. Laurenz in Cologne he married Maria Anna Sophie, Freiin von Boineburg-Lengsfeld, daughter of Johann Christian, Freiherr von Boineburg-Lengsfeld, and Anna Christina Schütz von Holzhausen. They had eighteen children of whom four died young. Two sons, Rudolf Franz and Anselm Franz, and six daughters would have progeny. Three of his sons would become archbishops.
Melchior first worked for his uncle and guardian, the prince-archbishop of Mainz, Johann Philipp von Schönborn, as the archbishopric's representative at Liège, Den Haag, Königsberg, Dresden, the Aachen Congress and the assembly of the Cologne elector-archbishop, then from 1672 to 1700 he was the prince-bishop's deputy (Vizedomus) and lord high steward in the administrative centre of Aschaffenburg. He was also an imperial privy councillor and chamberlain, minister of state for the archbishopric of Mainz, marshal of Mainz and Würzburg, hereditary cupbearer (Erbschenk) for the archbishopric, hereditary lord high steward (Erbtruchsess) for the bishopric of Würzburg, and from 5 August 1701 Count of the Empire (Reichsgraf). Following an adoption on 19 February 1711 he called himself Schönborn-Buchheim. From 1 July 1709 he was a member of the Bohemian nobility, from 22 January 1710 a member of the nobility of Lower Austria, from 27 April 1711 a member of the nobility of Upper Austria, from 1720 a member of the nobility of Styria and Carinthia. From 19 February 1711 he was a member of the old nobility.
Melchior Friedrich and his wife lived in the mansion built at Aschaffenburg between 1673 and 1681 as a residence for him in his official capacity as the archbishop's representative, and he gave his castle of Schönborn Heussenstamm to his son Anselm Franz.
Melchior Friedrich died in Frankfurt am Main on 19 May 1717. He and his wife, who died in Mainz in 1726, are both buried in the crypt of the parish St. Cecilia in Heussenstamm.
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