User:David Kernow/Charles von Hügel

Karl (Carl) Alexander Anselm Freiherr von Hügel (Baron Charles von Hügel; April 23, 1795 – June 2, 1870) was an Austrian army officer, diplomat, botanist and explorer, now primarily remembered for his travels in northern India during the 1830s. During his lifetime he was celebrated by the European ruling classes for his botanical garden and his introduction of "New Holland" (Australian) plants and flowers to Europe's public gardens.

Von Hügel was born in Regensburg (then Ratisbon), Bavaria, in 1795. In 1813, after studying Law at Heidelberg University, he became an officer in the Austrian Hussars and fought in the armies of the sixth and seventh coalitions against Napoleon. After Napoleon's defeat, he visited Scandinavia and Russia before being stationed with other Austrian troops in southern France and then Italy.

In 1824, von Hügel took up residence in Hietzing, a district of Vienna. There he established his botanical garden and the flowers it produced were soon in such demand that he set up a company to sell them. He also became betrothed to a Hungarian countess, Melanie Zichy-Ferraris, but in 1831 she broke off their engagement to marry the Austrian chancellor, Prince Klemens Wenzel von Metternich.

Kashmir and the Punjab
In the wake of this misfortune, von Hügel undertook the grand tour of Asia that would establish his renown. From 1831 to 1836 he travelled to the Near East, the Indian subcontinent, the Far East and Australasia, before returning to Europe via the Cape of Good Hope and St. Helena. He seems to have been most intrigued by the Kashmir and Punjab regions of northern India, as he chose his experiences there to form the basis of the four-volume work published in the years following his return to Europe, Kaschmir und das Reich der Siek (Cashmere and the Realm of the Sikh). The first and third volumes relate von Hügel's journey across northern India, including meetings with Maharaja Ranjit Singh, the Sikh ruler of the Punjab, in Lahore and a number of other European adventurers; the second volume provides an account of Kashmir's history, geography and resources; and the fourth volume is a gazetteer.

In 1845, a year after the final volume of Kaschmir und das Reich der Siek had been published in Stuttgart, Major Thomas B. Jervis had translated, abridged, annotated and published a version of von Hügel's work in London. Four years later, primarily on the basis of this publication, the Royal Geographical Society awarded von Hügel its Patron's Medal, "for his enterprising exploration of Cashmere."

Australia, November 1833 – October 1834
From November 1833 to October 1834, von Hügel toured Australia, visiting the Swan River, Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania), Norfolk Island and New South Wales to observe the flora and collect seeds for his garden. During this time he wrote a journal, only recently translated, which, in addition to his botanical observations, is a rare record of an aristocratic European's attitudes toward colonial Australia.

In general, von Hügel's opinions of the administration, transportation, social life and missionary efforts he encountered were not favourable. However, perhaps unexpectedly from a man of reactionary sympathies, von Hügel took exception to the ill-treatment and exploitation of indigenous Australians (Aborigines) that he saw were part of daily life there.

Return to Europe
After his return to Vienna, von Hügel founded the K.K. Gartenbau-Gesellschaft (the Imperial Horticultural Society, of which he was president 1837-1848), turned his attention to his botanical garden and prepared his notes about northern India for publication. In 1847, he again became betrothed, this time to Elizabeth Farquharson, the daughter of a Scottish officer he had met in India during 1833.

On the outbreak of the 1848 revolution, von Hügel chaperoned his earlier rival in love Chancellor Metternich during his escape from Vienna to England. He then sold his garden, rejoined the Austrian army and took part in the first Italian Independence war. From 1850 to 1859, he served as Austrian Envoy Extraordinary (ambassador) to the Grand Duchy of Tuscany in Florence, marrying Elizabeth Farquharson there in 1851. In 1860 he became the Austrian ambassador in Brussels and published a second work based on notes from his Asian tour, this time about the Philippines: Der stille Ocean und die spanischen Besitzugen im ostindischen Archipel (loosely translatable as The quiet ocean and the Spanish possessions in the East Indian archipelago). He retired in 1867 and took his family to live in the seaside town of Torquay, in Devon, England. Three years later, in 1870, he died in Brussels, while en route to visit Vienna.

Von Hügel published works about Kashmir, Australia and the Philippines, but there is evidence that his intention was to compile and publish material about the other areas he had visited. To date, however, there seems to be no trace of the many thousands of notes he made during his travels, from which further publications would have (and could be) complied.

Children
Von Hügel and Elizabeth Farquharson's three children are notable in their own right. Friedrich von Hügel, born 1852, became a well-known Catholic theologian; Anatole von Hügel, born 1854, became an anthropologist; and Pauline von Hügel, born 1858, is regarded as the founder of Corpus Christi Church in Boscombe, now part of Bournemouth in Dorset, England.