Nikolaus I, Prince Esterházy

Of his military career, Robbins Landon notes[2] that he achieved, "considerable distinction, particularly as Colonel at the Battle of Kolin (1757) in the Seven Years' War where, with great personal courage, he led the wavering cavalry troops to victory.

[3] Robbins Landon narrates Nikolaus's marriage thus: "On 4 March 1737, he married Freiin Marie Elisabeth, daughter of Reichsgraf (Count of the Holy Roman Empire) Ferdinand von Weissenwolf".

Joseph II conferred the title of Prince, which had previously been limited to the eldest-born of the house, on all his descendants, male and female.

The Prince at first spent only summers there, but gradually came to spend ten months of the year—much to the distress of his musicians; see the tale of the "Farewell" Symphony.

His chief administrator, Peter Ludwig von Rahier, was likewise a military man, and the highest ranking servants (including Joseph Haydn) were designated as "house officers" and ate at a special table provided for them.

At one point he issued "a detailed printed document to his subordinates, containing all manner of ... instructions and advice ('locks on granaries must be subject to checks'; 'officials must be polite'; 'intoxication is the greatest vice'; 'the bee-hives are to be counted'; 'officials must lead God-fearing lives').

He was also "intensely musical" (Robbins Landon and Jones, 35), and he played the cello, the viola da gamba, and his favourite instrument, the difficult and now-obscure baryton.

Goethe, who beheld Nikolaus in Frankfurt on a diplomatic mission during the coronation of Joseph II in 1764, described him as 'not tall, though well-formed, lively, and at the same time eminently decorous, without pride or coldness.

Any employee was entitled to consult one of the three physicians attached to the court, and, if the doctor so advised, an ailing servant was sent at the sovereign's expense to a spa to receive treatment."

They were premiered by a small orchestra that Nikolaus provided to Haydn, giving the composer ample rehearsal time, salary levels to attract top personnel, and full artistic control.

Few composers can ever have claimed to have possessed such an incubator for their creations, and the symphonies that Haydn wrote for this ensemble can fairly be regarded as Nikolaus's gift to posterity.