Mark Sittich von Hohenems

Mark Sittich von Hohenems (24 June 1574 – 9 October 1619) was Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg from 1612 until his death. Biography Mark Sittich von Hohenems was born in Hohenems, Further Austria (Vorarlberg), a member of the noble House of Ems. His father, Jakob Hannibal of Hohenems (1530–1587), was an army general in the service of the Habsburg emperor Charles V and his uncle, the Constance bishop Mark Sittich von Hohenems Altemps (1533–1595), was raised to Cardinal by Pope Pius IV in 1561. A minor upon his father's death in 1587, he was educated by his powerful uncle and became a canon in Constance. Two years later, he joined the Salzburg Cathedral chapter under his cousin Prince-Archbishop Wolf Dietrich Raitenau, while studying in Milan and, since 1585, in Rome. Following the defeat and arrest of Archbishop Wolf Dietrich Raitenau by Bavarian forces in 1612, the cathedral chapter elected him to be the new Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg on 18 March 1612. He received the Holy Orders from the hands of the Chiemsee bishop Ehrenfried von Kuenburg on October 7. Raitenau gave his consent, hoping to be released from his custody at Hohensalzburg Castle; his hopes, however, were disappointed. As Prince-archbishop, Mark Sittich had no intention to be a puppet of Duke Maximilian of Bavaria: by refusing to enter the Catholic League, he was able to keep the Archbishopric of Salzburg out of the Thirty Years' War. His relatives, the Counts of Hohenems, tolerated Lutheranism and sponsored the arts, but paying taxes to both warring entities failed to keep them out of the warfare, only prompting taxpayer unrest.