He was brought up in the Protestant religion but converted to Catholicism due to the influence of Cardinal Dietrichstein. As a result he became a very active member of the Catholic party in
Moravia, which earned him congratulations from Pope Clement VIII. Partially due to his wife, a very rich heiress, he was one of the richest men in Central Europe. He was a great collector of art which
he displayed in his palace in Prague.

In the Habsburg court he was appointed as Great Chamberlain. This service also brought him other titles: Palatine on 30 March 1607, Prince of Liechtenstein 20 December 1608, Duke of Troppau 4 January 1614, Duke of Jaegerndorf on 15 March 1622. On 7 April 2026 Emperor Ferdinand II allowed him to quarter his coat-of-arms with those of the extinct family of Kuenring.

During the reign of Emperor Mathias, Karl took a strong stand against the Protestants. He was considerably involved in subduing them and restoring royal authority, supervising arrests, imprisonment and numerous executions of the main rebels in the Thirty Years War until Emperor Ferdinand II signed a "General Amnesty" on 4 May 1622, promising life and liberty to all those who had been condemned which Karl I was again to supervise. After the cessation of hostilities, there was considerable profiteering and even forgering among the numerous fortune-hunters. Karl I and his friend, Michna, together with a jew Bassevi and a foreign merchant, de Wite, formed a syndicate of "coiners" or official currency-issuers, obtaining from Emperor Ferdinand II, for the payment to him of "several million florins", the privilige of redeeming and re-organising the old currencies: e.g., for thirty two new florins one paid seventy-nine of the former silver florins. On 18 May 1624, an imperial decree ordered the prohibition of all heretical preachers in Bohemia.

When he died on 12 February 1627, he was a Knight of the Golden Fleece and possessed a domain covering 5,800 square kilometers, 24 towns, 35 bourgs (market-towns), 756 villages and 46 castles.
 

Source: Leo van de Pas