Probably one of the most regrettable features of his character was the fact that as a pedantic official, sticking to conservative principles, he had no vision for the development of his state, which resulted in constant changes of the relations in European politics. Learning from his life experience, the Emperor increasingly favoured the policy of keeping to the current state of affairs and to peace, but the militarism of his self-seeking generals generated political crises in such a situation, with a multitude of political intricacies, the aged sovereign could do nothing better than act in such a way that it is possible to blame him for being a co-creator of World War I. Franz Joseph himself died during World War I, on November 21, 1916. In 1914 the Emperor’s nephew Franz Ferdinand, now Crown Prince, was assassinated in Sarajevo. Nine years later Empress Sissi was assassinated by a mentally deranged anarchist. The imperial couple had three daughters, one of whom died at the age of two, and a son – Crown Prince Rudolf, who tragically died in his thirty-first year of age. The marriage was far from being romantically ideal as it seemed to be. In 1854 he married a Bavarian duchess, Elisabeth (Sissi). During his long rule, the third longest among the European sovereigns, he enjoyed unshakeable glory, but fate was also extremely unkind to him, giving rise to tragic events in the closer circles of his relatives as well as to military and political defeats.įranz Joseph was born on August 18, 1830, and succeeded to the throne as early as the age of eighteen, replacing his sick uncle Ferdinand I. Franz Joseph was a monarch who was not Emperor only by name but who truly ruled.Īlthough he was surrounded by a luxurious court and had to follow an elaborate ceremonial, the Emperor remained ascetic until the end of his life, proverbially known to have died in a military iron bed. He represented the majesty who personified the idea of an eternal monarchy in which he ruled as Supreme Official and scrupulously managed the vast empire. Supported by his reputation, he, like a patriarch, coordinated the imperial-royal state with the population of fifty million and the mixture of eleven ethnicities. Historians’ judgement about Emperor Franz Joseph I and his rule differs according to the viewpoint of their dealing with the 68-year reign of – apart from Empress Maria Theresa – certainly the most popular member of the Habsburg House.
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