Emperor Franz Josef, Franz X. Winterhalter 1865

Emperor Franz Joseph I

Franz Joseph I

Franz Joseph I (1830/1848-1916) was born at Schönbrunn Palace in 1830. In 1848 at the age of 18 he succeeded his uncle, Ferdinand I, as Austrian emperor after the latter had been forced to abdicate during the course of the suppressed revolution and on account of his epilepsy. Franz Joseph's father, Archduke Franz Carl, had previously relinquished his claim to the throne. With a population of 56 million, the empire had developed over the course of the centuries into a multi-ethnic monarchy in which many different nationalities, including Germans, Hungarians, Czechs, Rumanians, Slovakians and Italians, lived under the one crown.

The early years of Franz Joseph's reign were overshadowed by a series of military defeats which saw the loss of the Italian possessions of Lombardy and Venetia as well as Austria's dominant position in the German League following the Battle of Königgrätz against Prussia. Franz Joseph continued the conservative policies of his predecessors, but found himself confronted with the growing tensions between the various nationalities in his empire. 1867 saw the Compromise with Hungary which laid the foundations of the Austro-Hungarian dual monarchy and ensured extensive independence for the Magyar nation. In the same year the emperor was crowned king of Hungary. Franz Joseph's reign saw the building of the Neue Hofburg on Heldenplatz (Heroes' Square) and the completion of the Michaelertrakt (St Michael's Wing), which gave the Hofburg the characteristic appearance it still has today.

In 1854 he married his cousin, the sixteen-year-old Archduchess Elisabeth in Bavaria, known to her family as Sisi.