François-Joseph Ier of Austria

François Joseph Charles of Habsbourg-Lorraine (Vienna, August 18th 1830 - Vienna, November 21st 1916), emperor of Austria (1848 - 1916) and king de Hongrie (1867 - 1916), resulting from the House of Habsbourg-Lorraine, under the name of François-Joseph Ier .

Birth and childhood

François-Joseph is born the August 18th 1830 with 9:45 with the Château from Schönbrunn, with Vienna. He is the oldest son of the archduke François-Charles of Austria and of the princess Sophie of Bavaria. He is affectionately called Franzi by his close relations.

François-Charles was one of the brothers of the archduchess Marie-Louise, former wife of Napoleon I {{er}} and ex- empress of the French, which makes of François-Joseph the First cousin of the duke of Reichstadt.

With the birth of François-Joseph, François-Charles is the heir apparent to his older brother, the emperor Ferdinand I {{er}}. On the councils of his Sophie wife, it decides to give up its rights to the throne in favor of his son. Thus, François-Joseph receives a strict and neat education which prepares it with its future role of sovereign and who stresses his future responsibilities.

Brothers and sisters

François-Joseph is the elder one of a phratry of five. He will have three brothers and a sister:

Ferdinand Maximilien Joseph Marie (1832 - 1867), archduke of Austria and emperor of Mexico.
Charles Louis Joseph Marie (1833 - 1896), archduke of Austria, ancestor of the current chief of the dynasty.
Marie Anne Caroline Pia (1835 - 1840), archduchess of Austria.
Louis Victor Joseph Antoine (1842 - 1919), archduke of Austria.

Crowning and titles

François-Joseph reaches the throne in 1848, after the abdication of his uncle Ferdinand Ist It is crowned on December 2nd, 1848 in Vienna. He obtains the following title thus:

Its Imperial and Apostolic Majesty , François-Joseph Ier, by the Grace of God Emperor of Austria, King de Hongrie and of Bohemia, Dalmatie, of Croatia, of Slavonia, Galicie, Lodomérie and Illyrie; King de Jérusalem; Archduke of Austria; Large-duke of Tuscany and Cracow; Duke of Lorraine, of Salzburg, of Würzburg, Franconie, Styrie and Carinthie, Carniole and Bucovine; Large prince de Transylvanie; Margrave de Moravie; Duke High and basic Silesia, of Modena, of Parma, of Pleasure and Guastalla, Auschwitz and Zator, Teschen, of the Friuli, of Raguse and Zara; Princely count of Habsbourg and the Tyrol, of Kybourg, Gorizia and Gradisca; Prince of Thirty and Brixen; of Berchtesgaden and Mergentheim; Margrave de Haute and basic Lusace, Margrave in Istrie; Count de Hohenems, of Feldkirch, Bregenz, Sonneberg; Lord of Trieste, Kotor and the Walk of Windisch; Large voïvode of the voïvodie of Serbia.

Marriage and descent

In August 1853, François-Joseph celebrates his twenty-third birthday in the imperial residence of summer, Kaiservilla with Bad Ischl. It is on this occasion that it must become engaged officially to his German cousin, the duchess Helene in Bavaria. But it is of the younger sister by Helene, Elisabeth known as Sissi , which it falls in love. With the great distress of her mother the archduchess Sophie, it announces the August 19th her marriage with the young person Sissi , hardly old of fifteen years and half.

The marriage is celebrated the April 24th 1854 in the Église of Augustins of Vienna. Elisabeth will give him four children:

Sophie Frederique Dorothée Marie Josèphe (1855-1857), archduchess of Austria.
Gisele Louise Marie (1856-1932), princess of Bavaria, born archduchess of Austria.
Rodolphe François Charles Joseph (1858-1889), archduke of Austria and crown prince to the Austro-Hungarian empire.
Marie Valerie Mathilde Amélie (1868-1924), archduchess of Austria-Tuscany, born archduchess of Austria.

Reign

Like his predecessors, François-Joseph is based primarily on the traditional forces of the dynasty Habsbourg: the nobility, clergy and the army. Conservative, it must however undergo the surging relations between his liberal governments and the the Holy See (and in particular rupture of the Legal settlement).

One of the most outstanding events of its reign remains however the abolition of the Austrian centralism the introduction of dualism; the ex-empire of Austria becomes Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, made up of:

empire of Austria (Cisleithanie): Austria, Bohemia, Moravie, Galicie, Styrie and Carniole.
the apostolic kingdom of Hungary (Transleithanie): Pannonia, Transylvania and Croatia.

Each State has of its Parliament and its government, the two States dividing the same sovereign (at the same time Empereur and King). The object of dualism is to put a term at the Hungarian independantism while safeguarding the unit of the Empire of Habsbourg.

On the military level, François-Joseph launches out in several localized conflicts:

1859 - 1860: it attacks the Royaume of Piedmont-Sardinia in order to prevent the unification of Italy. It is a failure.
1864 : in.liaison.with the Prussia, it attacks the Denmark.
1866 : caused by the government of Berlin, supported by the majority of the German states, it starts a war against the Prussia, which, victorious in Sadowa, takes again the traditional role of Austria in Germany.
1914 : it attacks the Serbia following the assassination of the archduke-heir; and so starts without the knowledge nor to want it, the First World War.

Family dramas

François-Joseph had to face many family dramas in particular:

1857 : died in low-age of his/her Sophie daughter in Hungary.
1867 : execution of his/her brother Maximilien with the Mexico, insanity of the wife of this one, untimely deaths of his/her brother-in-law, the prince of Tours and Taxis (36 years), of his/her beautiful sister the duchess in Bavaria (22 years), of her cousin the archduchess Mathilde (burned alive at 20 years). Rupture of engagement of his/her sister-in-law Sophie to the king of Bavaria.
1889 : Suicide (or Assassination) of his/her son Rodolphe with Mayerling (in company of its 17 year old mistress).
1897 : accidental death of his/her sister-in-law the duchess of Alençon in the fire of the Bazaar of Charity with Paris,
1898: assassination of its wife Elisabeth (known as Sissi ) with Geneva.
1914 : assassination of its nephew François-Ferdinand (heir apparent) with Sarajevo.

Died and burial

François-Joseph dies out the November 21st 1916 with the castle of Schönbrunn to Vienna, in full war. Its coffin rests in the crypt of the Capuchins in Vienna, overhanging the sarcophagus of his Elisabeth wife and that of her Rodolphe son.

Its great nephew succeeds to him under the name of Charles I {{er}}.

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