EMPEROR FRANZ JOSEPH
Politics
Born: August 18, 1830
Schonbrunn Palace, Vienna, Austria
Died: November 21, 1916

"Franz Joseph could not have been a better man even though the task for him exceeded his powers." Robert Kann

Emperor Franz (Francis) Joseph was emperor of Austria, King of Hungary and head of the house of Habsburg from 1848 to 1916. His 68-year reign, which was mostly peaceful, ended with World War I and the destruction of his empire. A proud man, Franz Joseph is often referred to as the last monarch of his school. Though he established a centralized absolutist regime under which all Habsburg lands were ruled by his Vienna-based bureaucracy and was a formal and unbending traditionalist, he was a universally respected, courteous and dignified ruler, who conscientiously fulfilled his duties as he saw fit.

Franz Josef's later years were marked by a series of tragedies in his family. In 1889 his only son and heir to the throne, Archduke Rudolf, committed suicide; Franz Josef's second younger brother, Karl Ludwig, had died in 1896 from illness due to bad water he drank while on a holy lands pilgrimage; in 1898 Elizabeth was assassinated by an Italian anarchist.

Succession to the Austrian throne was not simple. Following the suicide of Franz Josef's only son Rudolf, the next in succession would have been Franz Josef's younger brother Maximillian. Maximillian, however, had been executed by a firing squad in Mexico in 1867 after a 3 year reign as Emperor of Mexico. Karl Ludwig's oldest son, Franz Ferdinand replaced Rudolf as heir to the throne. Franz Ferdinand was assassinated by a Serbian nationalist in Sarajevo in June 1914. The assasination precipitated a crisis which led to the outbreak of World War I.

Franz Josef died on November 21, 1916. He did not live to see Austria's defeat in the war. His grand nephew, Karl I assumed the throne for two years, but was the last Habsburg monarch.