Anton I, Prince Esterházy

Nikolaus was a successful general and lieutenant field marshal in Austrian service who would later achieve distinction at the Battle of Kolín (1757) in the Seven Years' War leading his cavalry in a battle-winning charge.

Anton's mother, Marie Elisabeth, was the daughter of Ferdinand Ungnadin, Reichsgraf (Imperial Count) von Weissenwolf.

[citation needed] On 13 January 1763 Anton married Maria Theresia, Gräfin (Countess) Erdödy de Monyorokerek et Monoszlo (1745–1782) in Vienna.

[3] He was Captain of the Hungarian Noble Life Guard from September 1791 until his death in 1794, and commanded an autonomous corps on the Upper Rhine at the beginning of the War of the First Coalition.

[5] Anton is perhaps best remembered to history as the third in the succession of four Esterházy princes who employed the composer Joseph Haydn as the director of their court music.

Thus, for Anton's marriage in 1763 the Esterházy musical ensemble performed Haydn's opera Acide as part of a lavish three-day celebration.

Thus Anton had strong incentives to cut back, and moreover (Jones suggests) "a desire to demonstrate where a good deal of Esterházy expenditure had always been incurred.