Klemens von Metternich
Klemens Wenzel Nepomuk Lothar, Prince von Metternich-Winneburg zu Beilstein, KOGF (; 15 May 1773 – 11 June 1859) was an Austrian diplomat who was at the center of European affairs for four decades as the Austrian Empire's foreign minister from 1809 and Chancellor from 1821 until the liberal Revolutions of 1848 forced his resignation.
Prince Rupert of the Rhine
Rupert was born in Prague in 1619, at the start of the Thirty Years' War, to Frederick V, Elector Palatine and King of Bohemia, and Elizabeth Stuart, and was declared a prince by the principality of Lusatia. He was given his name in honour of King Rupert of Germany, a famous Wittelsbach ancestor. Rupert's father was a leading member of the Holy Roman Empire and the head of the Protestant Union, with a martial family tradition stretching back several centuries. Rupert's family was at the heart of a network of Protestant rulers across the north of Europe, as Frederick had close ties through his mother to the ruling House of Orange-Nassau in the United Provinces, and Elizabeth was the daughter of James I of England and Anne of Denmark. The family lived an extremely wealthy lifestyle in Heidelberg, enjoying the palace gardens—the "Hortus Palatinus", designed by Inigo Jones and Salomon de Caus—and a lavish castle with one of the best libraries in Europe.