Franz Joseph I (in Czech František Josef I., in Hungarian I. Ferenc József, in Croatian Franjo
Josip I, in English Francis Joseph I, in Ukrainian Франц Йосиф I) (August 18, 1830 – November 21, 1916) of the
Habsburg Dynasty was Emperor of Austria,
Apostolic King of Hungary, King of
Bohemia from 1848 until 1916 and a German prince (Deutscher Fürst). His 68-year reign is the
third-longest in the recorded history of Europe (after that of Louis XIV of France
and Johannes II, Prince of Liechtenstein).
Early life
Franz Joseph was born in the Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna, the oldest son of Archduke Franz Karl (the
younger son of Emperor Franz), and his wife Princess Sophie of Bavaria. Because his uncle, from 1835 the
Emperor Ferdinand, was weak-minded, and his father unambitious and retiring, the
young Archduke "Franzl" was brought up by his mother as a future Emperor with emphasis on devoutness, responsibility and
diligence. Franzl came to idealize his grandfather, der Gute Kaiser Franz, who had died shortly before his fifth birthday,
as the ideal monarch. At the age of 13 young Archduke Franz started a career as a colonel in the Austrian army. From that point
onward, his fashion was dictated by army style and for the rest of his life he normally wore the uniform of a junior officer.
Franz Joseph was soon joined by three younger brothers - Archduke Ferdinand
Maximilian (born 1832, the future Emperor Maximilian of Mexico); Archduke Karl Ludwig (born 1833), and Archduke Ludwig Viktor (born 1842), but a sister, Maria Anna (born 1835), died young, at the age of four.
Franz Joseph with his mother Princess Sophie of Bavaria
Following the resignation of the Chancellor Prince Metternich
during the Revolutions of 1848, the young Archduke, who it was widely expected would
soon succeed his uncle on the throne, was appointed Governor of Bohemia on 6 April, but never took up the post. Instead, Franz was sent to the front in Italy, joining Field Marshal Radetzky on campaign on 29 April, receiving
his baptism of fire on 5 May at Santa Lucia. By all accounts he handled his first military
experience calmly and with dignity. Around the same time, the Imperial Family was fleeing revolutionary Vienna for the calmer setting of Innsbruck, in the Tyrol. Soon, the Archduke was called back from Italy, joining the rest of his family at Innsbruck by mid-June. It
was at Innsbruck at this time that Franz Joseph first met his cousin Elisabeth, Duchess in
Bavaria, his future bride, then a girl of ten, but apparently the meeting made little impact.
Following victory over the Italians at Custoza in late July, the court felt
safe to return to Vienna, and Franz Joseph travelled with them. But within a few months Vienna again appeared unsafe, and in
September the court left again, this time for Olmütz in Moravia. By now, Prince Windischgrätz, the
influential military commander in Bohemia, was determined to see the young Archduke soon put onto the throne. It was thought that
a new ruler would not be bound by the oaths to respect constitutional government to which Ferdinand had been forced to agree, and
that it was necessary to find a young, energetic emperor to replace the kindly, but mentally unfit Emperor. It was thus at Olmütz
on 2 December that, by the abdication of his uncle Ferdinand and the renunciation of his
father, the mild-mannered Franz Karl, Franz Joseph succeeded as Emperor of Austria. It was at this time that he first became
known by his second as well as his first given name. The name "Franz Joseph" was chosen deliberately to bring back memories of
the new Emperor's great-grand-uncle, Emperor Joseph II, remembered as a
modernizing reformer.
Imperial absolutism, 1848–1860
The young Emperor Franz Joseph
Under the guidance of the new prime minister Prince Schwarzenberg, the
new emperor at first pursued a cautious course, granting a constitution in early 1849. At the same
time, military campaigns were necessary against the Hungarians, who had rebelled against
Habsburg central authority under the name of their ancient liberties. Franz Joseph was also almost immediately faced with a
renewal of the fighting in Italy, with King Charles Albert of
Sardinia taking advantage of setbacks in Hungary to resume the war in March
1849. Soon, though, the military tide began to turn in favor of Franz Joseph and the Austrian
whitecoats. Almost immediately, Charles Albert was decisively beaten by Radetzky at Novara, and forced both to sue for peace and to abdicate his throne. In Hungary, the situation
was more grave and Austrian defeat was quite possible. Franz Joseph, sensing a need to secure his right to rule sought help from
a reactionary Russia. With this Russian aid the Hungarian revolution was crushed by late summer of 1849. With order now restored
throughout the Empire, Franz Joseph felt free to go back on the constitutional concessions he had made, especially as the
Austrian parliament, meeting at Kremsier, had behaved, in the young Emperor's view, abominably.
The 1849 constitution was suspended, and a policy of absolutist centralism was established, guided by the Minister of the
Interior, Alexander Bach.
The next few years saw the seeming recovery of Austria's position on the international scene following the near disasters of
1848–1849. Under Schwarzenberg's guidance, Austria was able to stymie Prussian
scheming to create a new German Federation under Prussian leadership, excluding Austria. After Schwarzenberg's premature death in
1852, he could not be replaced by statesmen of equal stature, and the Emperor effectively took over
himself as prime minister.
Assassination attempt in 1853
On February 18, 1853, the Emperor survived an assassination
attempt by Hungarian nationalist János Libényi. The emperor was taking a stroll with one of his
officers Maximilian Karl Lamoral Graf O’Donnell von Tyrconnell on a
city-bastion, when Libényi approached him. He immediately struck the emperor from behind with a
knife straight at the neck. Franz Joseph almost always wore a uniform, which had a high collar that almost completely enclosed
the neck. It so happened that the collar of his uniform was made out of very sturdy material. Even though the Emperor was wounded
and bleeding, this collar saved his life. Count O'Donnell (descendant of the Irish noble dynasty O'Donnell of Tyrconnell[1]
struck Libényi down with his sabre[1]. O'Donnell, hitherto only a Count by virtue of his Irish nobility, was thereafter made a Count of the
Habsburg Empire, conferred with the Commander's Cross of the Royal Order of Leopold,
and his customary O'Donnell arms were augmented by the initials and shield of the ducal House of Austria, with additionally the
double-headed eagle of the Empire. These arms are emblazoned on the portico of no. 2 Mirabel Platz in Salzburg, where O'Donnell built his residence thereafter. Another witness who happened to be nearby, the
butcher Joseph Ettenreich, quickly overwhelmed Libényi. For his deed he was later elevated to nobility by the Emperor and became
Joseph von Ettenreich. Libényi was subsequently put on trial and condemned to death for attempted
regicide. He was executed on the Simmeringer Haide. After the
unsuccessful attack the Emperor's brother Ferdinand Maximilian Joseph, the later
Emperor of Mexico, called upon Europe's Royal families for donations to a new church on the site
of the attack. The church was to be a votive offering for the rescue of the Emperor. It
is located on Ringstraße in the district of Alsergrund
close to the University of Vienna, and is known as the Votivkirche
Later years
Although in public life the Emperor was the unquestioned director of affairs, in his private life his formidable mother still
had a crucial influence. Believing it necessary that the Emperor should soon marry and produce heirs, she hoped to match Franz
Joseph with her sister Ludovika's eldest daughter, Helene ("Nené"), four
years the Emperor's junior. However, instead, the Emperor became besotted with Nené's younger sister, Elisabeth ("Sisi"), a girl of sixteen, and insisted on marrying her instead. Sophie, despite some
misgivings about her niece's appropriateness as an imperial consort, acquiesced, and in 1854 the
young couple were married. Their married life was not happy: not only could Sisi never really adapt herself to the court and
always had disagreements with the Royal Family, but 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
Italian anarchist in 1898; Franz Joseph never fully recovered from the loss. According to the future Empress-Consort
Zita of Bourbon-Parma, he usually told his relatives "You'll never know how
important she was for me" or, according to some sources, "She will never know how much I loved her" (although there is no
definite proof he actually said this).
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
setbacks continued in the 1860s with Austro-Prussian War of 1866. It resulted in
Austrian-Hungarian Dualism in 1867.
Franz Joseph built a villa named Villa Schratt in Bad Ischl for his mistress,
Katharina Schratt, an actress with whom he had a long-standing relationship which was,
to a certain degree, tolerated by Sissi.
In 1914 the heir to the throne, Archduke
Franz Ferdinand, was assassinated in Sarajevo, leading
to World War I.
Emperor 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.
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).
Ancestors
Orders, Decorations, and Honors
Emperor Franz Joseph held the following chivalric orders:
He founded the following orders:
He held the following honorary appointments:
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 became a part of Romania, becoming the
University of Szeged.
Official Grand Title
Personal arms of Emperor Franz Joseph
His Imperial and Royal Apostolic Majesty,
Franz Joseph I,
By the Grace of God, Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary and Bohemia,
King of Lombardy-Venetia[2], of Dalmatia, Croatia,
Slavonia, Galicia, Lodomeria and Illyria; King of Jerusalem etc., Archduke of Austria; Grand Duke of Tuscany and
Kraków, Duke of Lorraine, of Salzburg, Styria, Carinthia, Carniola and of the Bukovina; Grand Prince of Transylvania; Margrave of Moravia; Duke of Upper and Lower Silesia, of Modena, Parma, Piacenza and
Guastalla, of Auschwitz
(Oświęcim) and Zator, of Teschen, Friuli, Ragusa (Dubrovnik) and
Zara (Zadar); Princely Count of Habsburg and Tyrol, of Kyburg,
Gorizia and Gradisca; Prince of Trent
(Trento) and Brixen; Margrave of Upper and Lower Lusatia and in Istria; Count of Hohenems,
Feldkirch, Bregenz, Sonnenberg, etc.; Lord of Trieste, of Cattaro
(Kotor), and in the Wendish Mark; Grand Voivode of the Voivodship of Serbia
etc.
Personal motto
![Silver coin of Franz Joseph I, 20 Kreuzers, dated 1868. The Latin inscription reads: (obverse) FRANC[ISCVS] JOS[EPHVS] I D[EI] G[RATIA] AVSTRIAE IMPERATOR (reverse) HVNGAR[IAE] BOHEM[IAE] GAL[ICIAE] LOD[OMERIAE] ILL[YRIAE] REX A[RCHIDVX] A[VSTRIAE] 1868 or in English, "Francis Joseph I, by the Grace of God Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary, of Bohemia, of Galicia, of Lodomeria, of Illyria, Archduke of Austria 1868." The Vienna mint continues to restrike gold corona and ducat coins from the Emperor's reign.](http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en/thumb/8/81/300px-Coin_of_Franz_Joseph_I_20_Kreuzer_1868.jpg)
Silver coin of Franz Joseph I, 20 Kreuzers, dated 1868. The Latin inscription reads: (obverse)
FRANC[ISCVS] JOS[EPHVS] I
D[EI] G[RATIA] AVSTRIAE IMPERATOR (reverse)
HVNGAR[IAE] BOHEM[IAE] GAL[ICIAE] LOD[OMERIAE] ILL[YRIAE] REX
A[RCHIDVX] A[VSTRIAE] 1868 or in English, "Francis Joseph I, by the Grace of God Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary, of
Bohemia, of Galicia, of Lodomeria, of Illyria, Archduke of Austria 1868." The Vienna mint continues to restrike gold corona and
ducat coins from the Emperor's reign.
- mit vereinten Kräften (German) = Viribus
Unitis (Latin) = "With united forces" (as the Emperor
of Austria)
- Bizalmam az Ősi Erényben (Hungarian) =
Virtutis Confido (Latin) = "My trust in [the ancient]
virtue" (as the Apostolic King of Hungary)
Names in other languages
German: Franz Joseph; Czech: František Josef; Hungarian: Ferenc József; Polish: Franciszek Józef; Croatian: Franjo Josip; Slovenian: Franc Jožef; Slovak: František Jozef; Friulian: Francesc Josef; Italian: Francesco Giuseppe; Romanian: Francisc
Iosif; Serbian: Фрањо Јосиф / Franjo Josif;
Spanish: Francisco José; Ukrainian: Франц Йосиф; Latin: Franciscus
Iosephus
Nicknames
Italian: Ceccobeppe, Cecco Beppe or Cecco Peppe (various
dialectal forms) from shortened forms of Francesco Giuseppe, used mockingly, especially by Italian troops who fought
during the Great War (World War I). There is also a pacifist poem written by Italian
poet Trilussa, "Ninna nanna de la guerra" ("War's
lullaby"), where Franz Joseph is called Cecco Peppe.[2]
Czech: Starej Procházka (Old Prochazka or "Walker") or František
Procházka (Francis Procházka/"Walker"). Procházka is a common Czech surname which approximates to the English "Walker". It
was applied to Franz Joseph after his visit to Prague in 1901 when
a picture of him crossing a bridge on foot was published in Czech newspapers with the caption: "Strolling on a bridge" (Czech:
"Procházka na mostě")). This, however, may be an urban legend. According to some
historians, Franz Joseph was called Starej Procházka much earlier than 1901, the reason being that his arrival was being
announced by a cavalryman named Procházka.
Hungarian: Ferenc Jóska, in which Jóska means Joey, mocking his
young age when he became the ruler and later his old aged image of an old uncle of the people.
Notes
- ^ O'Domhnaill Abu - O'Donnell Clan
Newsletter no.7, Spring 1987 (ISSN 0790-7389))
- ^ Removed from the title in 1866/1869 after the loss of the Italian
territories.
Further reading
- Beller, Steven. Francis Joseph. Profiles in power. London: Longman, 1996.
- Bled, Jean-Paul. Franz Joseph. Oxford: Blackwell, 1992.
- Cunliffe-Owen, Marguerite. Keystone of Empire: Francis Joseph of Austria. New York: Harper, 1903.
- Gerö, András. Emperor Francis Joseph: King of the Hungarians. Boulder, Colo.: Social Science Monographs, 2001.
- Palmer, Alan. Twilight of the Habsburgs: The Life and Times of Emperor Francis Joseph. New York: Weidenfeld &
Nicolson, 1995.
- Redlich, Joseph. Emperor Francis Joseph Of Austria. New York: Macmillan, 1929.
- Van der Kiste, John. Emperor Francis Joseph: Life, Death and the Fall of the Habsburg Empire. Stroud, England: Sutton,
2005.
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