Originally a career bureaucrat in Habsburg state service, he inherited the family properties and title following the deaths of his father and his uncle in 1749, and the childless death of his cousin in 1752. Upon his succession, he left state service and joined the Habsburg military. He distinguished himself in several battles of the Seven Years' War, particularly at the battles of Lobositz and Kolin. He retired from the military in 1778, just prior to the War of the Bavarian Succession, to care for his widespread estates in Moravia, Bohemia, and Vienna. He died in 1792.