Franz Joseph I of Austria
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- This article is about the Austrian Emperor. For Franz Joseph the artist and author, see Franz Joseph (artist).
Francis Joseph I (in German Franz Joseph I., in Hungarian I. Ferenc József (August 18, 1830 – November 21, 1916) of the Habsburg Dynasty was Emperor of Austria, Apostolic King of Hungary and King of Bohemia from 1848 until 1916. His 68-year reign, the third-longest in the recorded history of Europe (after that of Louis XIV of France and Johannes II, Prince of Liechtenstein), made him the longest-serving German-speaking monarch who is known to have at least nominally ruled.
Biography
Franz Joseph was born in Vienna, the oldest son of Archduke Franz Karl (younger brother and heir of Emperor Ferdinand I), and his wife Princess Sophie of Bavaria. Franz Joseph was also the older brother of Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico. Because his father renounced his claim to the throne, Franz Joseph was brought up by his mother as a future Emperor with emphasis on devoutness, responsibility and diligence. His youth was marked with seclusion and he never experience an affectionate relationship, even with his brothers and sisters. At the age of 13 he started a career as a colonel in the Austrian army. Since then his fashion was dictated by army style and he wore the uniform for most of his life.He became Austrian Emperor as Franz Joseph I when Ferdinand abdicated near the end of the Revolution of 1848, on December 2, 1848. His imperial career was at first connected with the personality of Felix Schwarzenberg and was targeted to restore absolutism and regain the powerful position in foreign affairs. He abolished the Constitution of 1849 and became a sovereign monarch in 1852. However, the 1850s witnessed several failures of Austrian external policy - the Crimean War and break-up with Russia, Austro-Sardinian War of 1859 against armies of the House of Savoy, and Napoleon III).
The set-backs continued in the 1860s with Austro-Prussian War of 1866. It resulted in Austrian-Hungarian Dualism in 1867.
In 1854 Franz Joseph married Duchess Elisabeth in Bavaria ("Sisi" or "Sissi"). Contrary to popular myth, their married life was not happy: their first daughter Sophie died as an infant, while the only son, Crown Prince Rudolf died, allegedly by suicide, in 1889 in the infamous Mayerling episode with his young mistress Baroness Mary Vetsera. The Empress herself was stabbed to death by an anarchist in 1898; Franz Joseph never recovered from the loss and always said to his relatives "You'll never know how much I loved her."
In 1914 the heir to the throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated in Sarajevo, leading to World War I.
Franz Joseph died in 1916, aged 86, in the middle of the war. After the defeat in World War I, the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy dissolved into national states.
Issue
- Archduchess Sophie of Austria (1855 - 1857)
- Archduchess Gisela of Austria (1856 - 1932)
- Crown Prince Rudolf (1858 - 1889)
- Archduchess Marie-Valerie of Austria (1868 - 1924).
Legacy
The archipelago Franz Josef Land in the Russian high arctic was named in his honor in 1873. Franz Josef Glacier in New Zealand's South Island also bears his name.
Franz Joseph founded in 1872 the Franz Joseph University (Hungarian: Ferenc József Tudományegyetem, Romanian: Universitatea Francisc Iosif) in the city of Cluj-Napoca (at that time a part of Austria-Hungary under the name of Kolozsvár). The university was moved to Szeged after Cluj rebecame a part of Romania, becoming the University of Szeged.
Official Grand Title of Franz Joseph I from 1849
His Imperial and Apostolic Majesty,Franz Joseph I,
By the Grace of God, Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary and Bohemia,
External links
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