Francis Joseph I

Emperor of Austria (r. 1848-1916) and king of Hungary (r. 1867-1916)

• Born: August 18, 1830
• Birthplace: Schönbrunn Palace, near Vienna, Austria
• Died: November 21, 1916
• Place of death: Schönbrunn Palace, near Vienna, Austria

The reign of Emperor Francis Joseph I was one of the longest in European history. Ascending the throne at the age of eighteen, he eventually became the living symbol of an imperial ideal of government that was doomed to vanish at his death, which occurred during the middle of World War I.

Early Life

The person who had the most profound effect upon the character of Francis Joseph was his mother, Princess Sophie of Bavaria. This younger daughter of Maximilian I married Charles Francis, the second son of Emperor Francis I, in 1824, and, until the birth of her first son, she devoted her time to mastering the bewildering etiquette of the Austrian court as well as the maze of imperial politics.

The heir to the throne, Archduke Ferdinand, had a mental disability and suffered from epilepsy. It was expected that the crown would pass to Sophie’s retiring and irresolute husband. Because she was already regarded as the best political mind in the family, few had any doubts about who would govern the empire. Metternich, the man who had redrawn the map of Europe in 1815, dashed Sophie’s hopes by arranging a marriage for the hapless Ferdinand and persuading the emperor that his heir was capable of ruling Austria. In 1835, Francis died and Ferdinand ascended the throne.

Archduke Charles Francis was a loving and devoted father to his children, but their mother was in charge. Although young Francis had been given a household of his own at birth, his mother totally controlled his upbringing. Slowly, the charming prince began to evolve into a devout and gallant young gentleman. Although he was not a scholar, Francis was a conscientious student, but his real love was military science. At the age of thirteen, he was appointed a colonel of dragoons and began to train seriously for a career as a soldier. The handsome, graceful youth proved an instant favorite who fit easily into the carefree world of Vienna in the last years before the revolutions of 1848 .

The events that shook the foundations of the empire between March and December of 1848 provided the opportunity for which the Archduchess Sophie had long waited. With Metternich a fugitive in England, she easily persuaded her husband to renounce his claim to the throne in favor of their eldest son. On December 2, 1848, Emperor Ferdinand gladly abdicated in favor of his nephew, who assumed the name Francis Joseph in memory of Joseph II, the great reforming emperor of the late eighteenth century. As the imperial family journeyed from Vienna, however, it was the new empress-mother who was busily charting the course of the new reign, not the young emperor.

Life’s Work

During the first three years of his reign Francis Joseph demonstrated his hostility to liberalism and constitutional government by methodically revoking most of the changes that had been made by the revolutionaries. Even freedom of the press was denied lest criticism of the regime become too widespread. With the confidence of youth, the emperor sought to fashion a centralized absolutism in which all power and responsibility would reside in him. Although a number of worthy administrative reforms were made to implement this policy, he totally ignored the potent force of nationalism. When the Hungarians under Lajos Kossuth resisted, their fledgling republic was crushed by troops sent from Russia by Czar Nicholas I , who was delighted to further the cause of reaction.

When a Hungarian patriot tried unsuccessfully to assassinate Francis Joseph in February, 1853, the young sovereign’s sense of mission only deepened. He believed that he had been sent to revive the defunct Holy Roman Empire in partnership with a revitalized Roman Catholic Church. Apart from this rather grand scheme, his foreign policy was rather erratic and unimpressive.

Against his mother’s wishes, Francis Joseph married his sixteen-year-old cousin, Elizabeth of Bavaria, on April 24, 1854. Unfortunately for the young couple, Sophie decided to mold her niece into her image of an empress. Elizabeth was equally determined to resist, and the struggle of these two strong-willed women eventually led to an estrangement between Francis Joseph and his wife. Sophie then assumed the responsibility for rearing her three grandchildren while their mother frequented fashionable spas, seeking to restore her health.

At the moment his personal happiness began to vanish, the emperor was forced to face the loss of all of his Italian possessions except Venetia. The combined armies of France and Piedmont-Savoy defeated the Austrians at Solferino on June 24, 1859. This bloody battle and the peace terms arranged at Villafranca the next month forced Francis Joseph to make some drastic changes in the way in which the empire was governed.

The liberals, whom the emperor had rejected at the beginning of his reign, were now wooed with the creation of an imperial parliament, whose membership was effectively restricted to the moneyed classes. The Hungarians, Poles, and Czechs refused to cooperate, but Francis Joseph proceeded with his plan for a largely German legislature. Having lost most of his Italian possessions, the emperor turned his attention to regional affairs. His dream of an Austrian-led central Europe brought Francis Joseph unwittingly into conflict with Otto von Bismarck .

In 1864, Bismarck lured the Austrians into a war against Denmark to prevent the incorporation of the largely German duchies of Schleswig and Holstein into that kingdom. The war lasted barely six months, and with its end, the control of Schleswig passed to Prussia and the control of Holstein to Austria. Although he diplomatically isolated Austria, Bismarck began a war of nerves over the administration of Holstein. Goaded beyond endurance, Austria went to war against Prussia in June, 1866. On July 2, 1866, the Prussians and their allies won a decisive victory at Koniggrätz. Francis Joseph was forced to acquiesce to the absorption of most of northern and central Germany into the Prussian-dominated North German Confederation. There were repeated calls for the emperor’s abdication in favor of his younger brother Maximilian. The final humiliation was the seizure by Italy of Venetia with the blessing of Prussia.

To prevent the complete disintegration of the empire, Francis Joseph agreed to the Compromise of 1867, which created an independent Hungary within a dual monarchy. As emperor of Austria and king of Hungary, he presided over a government that shared control of foreign affairs, armed forces, and finances between Vienna and Budapest. Shortly after his coronation in Hungary in June, 1867, Francis Joseph learned of the death of Maximilian before a firing squad in Mexico . For three years Maximilian had been emperor of that turbulent country with the support of the French, but the desertion of his allies left him at the mercy of his rebellious subjects.

The death of his brother was the first of a series of personal tragedies that haunted the remaining years of Francis Joseph’s life. When Sophie died in 1873, the possible reconciliation between her son and daughter-in-law did not take place; instead, the gulf that separated them grew wider. Although intelligent and liberal in his political outlook, Crown Prince Rudolf did not display the same dedication to duty that his father prized, nor was his personal life exemplary. When Rudolf and his mistress committed suicide in January, 1889, the foundations of the empire were shaken. The empress never recovered from her son’s death, and her wanderings became more aimless until she died at the hands of an assassin in Geneva in September, 1898.

Francis Joseph’s last years were marred by the murder of his nephew and heir, Franz Ferdinand, at Sarajevo in June, 1914, and by World War I. A man of peace, he would have preferred to spend his last days with his grandchildren. Instead, he died like a good soldier, immersed in war-related work, on November 21, 1916.

Significance

The rapid disintegration of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the last months of the war surprised a number of experts. It had survived so many crises since the end of the Napoleonic era, including revolution and the constantly disruptive force of nationalism, that it seemed eternal. Francis Joseph I was the force that held together the diverse elements that made up his empire. The ideas that he brought to the throne were those of his mother, Metternich, and Felix Schwarzenberg, his first prime minister. As he matured, these youthful ideas were modified or discarded. Personal tragedy tempered his nature and endeared him to his people.

It may well be that he perceived the incurable weaknesses in his empire long before they became apparent to others, but with a tenacity born of adversity he devoted his life to preserving the rather antiquated structure. With age and infirmity, he was forced to curtail his public duties and leave the cares of state to lesser men. By then he was already a legend, almost a national icon. He was the one element that held the Austro-Hungarian Empire together, and when he died, it died with him.

Bibliography

Bagger, Eugene S. Francis Joseph, Emperor of Austria—King of Hungary. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1927. This standard biography, while almost contemporary with its subject, remains a work of solid and reliable scholarship. The author tends to avoid a penetrating analysis of private and personal matters in favor of a strict historical narrative. It should be read as background to other, later works.

Beller, Steven. Francis Joseph. London: Longman, 1996. One of the volumes in the Profiles in Power series, this book chronicles the events of Francis Joseph’s long reign and analyzes the importance of his reign on his times.

Crankshaw, Edward. The Fall of the House of Habsburg. New York: Viking Press, 1963. The bulk of this work is devoted to the reign of Francis Joseph and the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire after his death. Well written and well documented. Contains a useful bibliography.

Gerö, András. Emperor Francis Joseph, King of the Hungarians. Translated from the Hungarian by James Patterson and Enikö Koncz. Boulder, Colo.: Social Science Monographs, 2001. Examines the relationship between Francis Joseph, king of Hungary, and his subjects from the crushing of the Hungarian Revolution of 1849 until World War I. Describes the evolution of Francis Joseph’s attitudes toward the Hungarians, whose public adulation masked historical enmity.

McGuigan, Dorothy Gies. The Habsburgs. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1966. Although a general history of the Habsburg Dynasty, one-quarter of this work is devoted to Francis Joseph. The notes and bibliography are extremely valuable. Useful for its sensitivity to the forces that destroyed the empire and to the destiny that trapped the last Habsburgs.

Marek, George R. The Eagles Die: Franz Joseph, Elisabeth, and Their Austria. New York: Harper & Row, 1974. The rather complicated, yet tragic relationship between Francis Joseph and his wife is the theme of this work. The men and women who influenced their lives are carefully profiled. The portrait of the emperor is particularly sensitive and complete.

May, Arthur J. The Habsburg Monarchy, 1867-1914. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1951. The primary focus of this work is the period from the Compromise of 1867 to the outbreak of World War I. A work of depth and scholarship. The chapter notes are particularly valuable.

Palmer, Alan. Twilight of the Habsburgs: The Life and Times of Emperor Francis Joseph. New York: Grove Press, 1995. Comprehensive biography. Palmer seeks to provide a three-dimensional portrait of Francis Joseph, and he chronicles the emperor’s personal tragedies and public concern for his empire’s survival.

Wandruszka, Adam. The House of Habsburg: Six Hundred Years of a European Dynasty. Translated by Cathleen Epstein and Hans Epstein. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1964. Gives a valuable overview of the entire dynasty with a brief but incisive treatment of Francis Joseph. The genealogical charts are particularly useful.