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- BIOGRAPHY
Karl Ernst was born 4 May 1661, the son of Graf Karl Ferdinand Maximilian von Waldstein, Herr von Wartenberg, and Gräfin Maria Elisabeth von Harrach zu Rohrau. On 14 July 1686 he married Gräfin Maria Theresia von Losenstein, daughter of Graf Franz Adam von Losenstein and Gräfin Maria Theresia zu Herbertsein. Karl Ernst and Maria Theresia had five children of whom only their two daughters, Eleonore Maria and Maria Henriette, would have progeny. Eleonore Maria married a cousin, Johann Joseph von Waldstein, and Maria Henriette married Georg Christian, Fürst von Lobkowicz, and they became the founders of the Melnik-Horin line of the Lobkowicz family.
Karl Ernst was made a knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece in 1698. Like his father, he had a distinguished diplomatic career. He was ambassador to Lisbon (1700-1703), Spain, Savoy and Brandenburg. Returning in 1703 from a diplomatic mission to France and Portugal, he left Lisbon on a Dutch ship; this was attacked at sea by the French, and Karl Ernst, the emperor's ambassador, was captured and imprisoned for almost a year in Vincennes. He was later exchanged for the French marshal, François de Neufville, duc de Villeroye, who had been captured by imperial forces at Cremona.
In 1704 Karl Ernst served as Lord High Chamberlain to Emperor Leopold I's son Joseph as King of the Romans (emperor-elect), and in 1709 as Lord High Chamberlain (Groom of the Stole) to Joseph as Emperor Joseph I. He followed his father Karl Ferdinand as Lord High Pantler ('Oberste Hofschneider') of the kingdom of Bohemia. Karl Ernst died 7 January 1713.
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