Johann Heinrich, Graf von Frankenberg[1] (18 September 1726 – 11 June 1804) was Archbishop of Mechelen, Primate of the Low Countries, and a cardinal.

Although he was the sole male heir of his family and assured of the protection of Empress Maria Theresa, he decided, when quite young, to become a priest.

[1] Maria Theresa sought to have Franckenberg made Archbishop of Vienna, and in 1778 exerted herself to the uttermost to obtain for him the cardinal's hat.

Franckenberg signed a rather equivocal statement, conceding the authority of the imperial decrees about the seminary, but reserving the right to appeal to the emperor in cases where he believed souls to be in danger.

He refused the pension the government offered him in compensation for the suppression of his revenue, declared his opposition to the oath exacted of the clergy, and finally was expelled from the Southern Netherlands (1797).

[1] He retired to Emmerich am Rhein in Prussia, where, aged, sick, and poor, he lived on the charity of his flock, and continued to warn them against those ecclesiastics who had taken the oath.

Driven from Emmerich by King Frederick William III of Prussia at the insistence of the French government, which regarded him as a conspirator, he retired to Borken in the Prince-Bishopric of Münster (1801), and, after the suppression of this principality, to Breda, where he died.

His courage, self-abnegation, and patience in the face of persecution and adversity make him one of the noblest figures of the Catholic episcopate during the 18th century.