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His Eminence the Most Reverend Melchior Cardinal Klesl | |
|---|---|
| Cardinal-Priest of Santa Maria della Pace | |
 Melchior Klesl | |
| Church | Catholic Church |
| In office | 1624–1630 |
| Predecessor | Alessandro d'Este |
| Successor | Fabrizio Verospi |
| Orders | |
| Consecration | 30 March 1614 by Placido della Marra |
Melchior Klesl[1] (19 February 1552 – 18 September 1630) was an Austrian statesman and cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church during the time of the Counter-Reformation. He was minister-favourite of King and Emperor Matthias (1609-1618) and a leading advocate for peace between the empire's different confessional leagues before the Thirty Years' War.
Klesl was appointed Bishop of Vienna in 1602 and elevated to cardinal in December.
- ^ He used the spelling Khlesl himself in his German-language correspondence: Victor Bibl, Klesl's Briefe an K. Rudolfs II. Obersthofmeister Adam Freiherrn von Dietrichstein (1583-1589). Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte Klesl's und der Gegenreformation in Niederösterreich, in: Archiv für österreichische Geschichte 88 (1900) 473-580.