Franz Joseph ruled for almost 68 years and outlived most of his family
Franz Joseph took the Habsburg throne at eighteen in 1848 and died in the middle of the First World War. In between, his brother was executed in Mexico, his only son died by suicide, his wife was assassinated, and the killing of his heir in Sarajevo helped set Europe ablaze.
Franz Joseph came into the world at Vienna's Schönbrunn Palace on 18 August 1830. His uncle, who became Emperor Ferdinand in 1835, suffered from seizures, and his father lacked ambition, so his politically driven mother Sophie raised him from infancy as a future ruler. From age seven his state education stressed duty, piety and dynasty, and a theologian taught him that kingship came from God, leaving no need for parliaments. His study load grew from 18 to 50 hours a week by 16, including Hungarian, Czech, Italian and Polish. Made honorary colonel of a dragoon regiment at 13, he wore military uniform for the rest of his life.
He came to power amid revolution. In December 1848 Ferdinand abdicated at Olomouc as part of a plan by minister Felix zu Schwarzenberg to crush the Hungarian uprising. The young emperor, broadly reactionary, spent his early reign resisting constitutions. In 1854 he married his cousin Elisabeth of Bavaria, and they had four children. Wars in Italy in 1859 and 1866 cost Austria its influence in Tuscany and most of Lombardy-Venetia, and defeat by Prussia in 1866 settled the German question in Prussia's favour, ending hopes of a Habsburg-led Germany.
Nationalism dogged him throughout. The Compromise of 1867 gave Hungary broad self-rule and created the dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary, followed by 45 years of peace at home. Private grief piled up: his brother Maximilian, emperor of Mexico, was executed in 1867, his son Rudolf died by suicide in 1889, and Elisabeth was assassinated in 1898.
Attention then turned to the Balkans, where Austrian interests clashed with Ottoman and Russian ones. His 1908 annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, occupied since 1878, sparked an international crisis. On 28 June 1914 his nephew and heir Franz Ferdinand was assassinated in Sarajevo; Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, Russia's ally, and interlocking alliances turned it into the First World War. Franz Joseph died on 21 November 1916, succeeded by his grand-nephew Charles.
Source: Franz Joseph I
