Egon VIII of Fürstenberg-Heiligenberg

Ernst Egon VIII of Fürstenberg-Heiligenberg (March 21, 1588 in Speyer † 24 August 1635 in Constance) was Imperial Count of Fürstenberg-Heiligenberg (1618–1635) and Bavarian Field-marshal, and an important military leader in the Thirty Years' War.

Egon came from the noble House Fürstenberg, his father was Frederick IV of Fürstenberg (1563–1617), his mother Elizabeth of Sulz (1562/63-1601).

Presumably the third son of the couple, Egon held several church offices. He was Chorbishop of Magdeburg and Strasbourg, treasurer and prebendary, Provost at St. Gereon in Cologne and of Archduke Leopold, Bishop of Passau and Strasbourg, Council and the governor in the autonomous Cathedral district of Rouffach.

By an imperial letters patent from 9 September 1619 he was made a warlord of the Catholic League (German) during the Thirty Years War. In 1631 Egon of Fürstenberg enforced the Edict of Restitution in Franconia and Württemberg. Together with Johann von Aldringen he waged war on Württemberg after the Peace of Cherasco which forced the Duke of Württemberg to submit to the emperor and to distance himself from the decisions of the Leipzig convention. On 14 September 1631 during the siege of Leipzig he commanded the right wing of the imperial troops led by general Tilly.

Egon married Anna Maria of Hohenzollern-Hechingen (1605 - 1652), the daughter of Georg of Hohenzollern-Hechingen and they had seven sons and four daughters:

• Eleonore (1620 – died young).
• Elisabeth (1621 – 1662), married Ferdinand Count of Lynden and Reckheim.
• Ferdinand Egon Friedrich of Fürstenberg (1623 – 1662), Imperial Reichshofrat and colonel.
• Leopold Ludwig Egon (1624 – 1639), died before the age of 15 at Dietenhofen in the imperial service.
• Franz Egon (1626 – 1682), bishop of Strasbourg.
• Herman Egon (1627 – 1674), 1664 Prince of Fürstenberg.
• Johann Egon (1628 – 1629).
• Wilhelm Egon (1629 – 1704), bishop of Strasbourg as a successor to his brother Franz Egon
• Ernst Egon, Prince of Fürstenberg-Heiligenberg (1631 – 1652 in the Battle of Etampes).
• Maria Franziska (1633 – 1702), married Wolfgang William, Count Palatine of Neuburg and after his death Leopold Wilhelm, Margrave of Baden-Baden
• Anna Maria (1634 – 1705), married Count Ferdinand Karl of Löwensetin-Wertheim-Rochefort.

• Ersch, Johann Samuel (1850). "Fürstenberg". Allgemeine Encyklopädie der Wissenschaften und Künste in alphabetischer Folge (in German). 51. Leipzig: Brockhaus. p. 496.