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The Emperor of Austria was the ruler of the Austrian Empire and later the Austro-Hungarian Empire from 1867 onward. The hereditary imperial title and office was proclaimed on August 11, 1804 by Holy Roman Emperor Franz II, a member of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine, and continually held by him and his heirs until Emperor Charles I-IV relinquished power in 1918. Emperor Charles I-IV never technically abdicated.

The Emperors of Austria retained the title of Archduke of Austria. The wives of the Emperors held the title Empress, while other members of the family held the titles of Archduke or Archduchess,with the styles His or Her Imperial Highness.

Predecessors

Members of the House of Austria, the Habsburg Dynasty, had been the elected Holy Roman Emperors since 1438 (except for a five-year break from 1740 to 1745) and mostly resided in Vienna. Thus the term “Austrian Emperor” may occur in texts dealing with the time before 1804, when no Austrian Empire existed.

In these cases the word Austria means the composite monarchy ruled by the Habsburg dynasty, not the country. Therefore prior to August 11, 1804 it would be incorrect to refer to the Holy Roman Emperor as the “Emperor of Austria” despite the fact as previously mentioned that the Emperor made his home in Vienna the capital of the Archduchy of Austria for centuries.

A special case was Empress Maria Theresa. She did not bare the Imperial Title as an Empress in her own right. She was not an Empress Regnant. She was an Empress Consort as the wife of Holy Roman Emperor Franz I (r. 1745–1765).

However, Empress Maria Theresa was a Queen Regnant herself as the reigning monarch of the Austrian Hereditary Lands which included the Kingdoms of Bohemia, Hungary and Croatia. She was also the reigning Archduchess of Austria.

The Holy Roman Empire adhered to the Salic Law which barred women from inheriting the Imperial Title or passing on succession rights to her children.

Her father, Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI, King of Bohemia, Hungary and Croatia and Archduke of Austria, promulgated the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713 which allowed his eldest daughter, Archduchess Maria Theresa, to inherit the Habsburg Hereditary Lands, also known as the Composite Monarchy, in her own right.

Not all member states of the Holy Roman Empire acknowledged the Pragmatic Sanction so when Emperor Charles VI died in 1740 and Archduchess Maria Theresa inherited the Crowns of the Hereditary Habsburg Lands it sparked the War of the Austrian Succession.

Charles Albrecht, the Prince-Elector of Bavaria, was a son-in-law of Joseph I, Holy Roman Emperor, (Charles Albrecht was married to Emperor Joseph’s daughter, Archduchess Maria Amalia of Austria) and he rejected the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713 and claimed the German territories of the Habsburg dynasty for himself via by right of his wife, after the death of Emperor Charles VI in 1740. Prior to Emperor Charles VI enacting the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713 the plan was to have the eldest daughter of Emperor Joseph I inherit the Habsburg Hereditary Lands.

This meant, Charles Albrecht’ wife, Archduchess Maria Amalia of Austria was set to inherit the Habsburg Hereditary Lands. However, instead of her claiming her inheritance the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713 bypassed Archduchess Maria Amalia and the Hereditary Habsburg Lands went to Emperor Charles VI’s daughter, Archduchess Maria Theresa, instead.

During the War of the Austrian Succession, Prince-Elector Charles Albrecht invaded Upper Austria in 1741 and planned to conquer Vienna, but his allied French troops under the Duc de Belle-Isle were instead redirected to Bohemia, and the capital, Prague, was subsequentially conquered in November 1741.

That meant that Prince-Elector Charles Albrecht of Bavaria was crowned King of Bohemia in Prague on December 19, 1741, when the Habsburgs had not yet been defeated. He was unanimously elected “King of the Romans” on January 24, 1742 and became Holy Roman Emperor as Emperor Charles VII upon his coronation on February 12, 1742.

Emperor Charles VII died on January 20, 1745 . He was succeeded by François, Duke of Lorraine the fourth (but oldest surviving) son of Leopold, Duke of Lorraine, and the French princess Élisabeth Charlotte d’Orléans. François (Franz) was married to Archduchess Maria Theresa of Austria on February 14, 1736.

In the Treaty of Füssen, Queen Maria Theresa secured the election of her husband as Holy Roman Emperor, which took place on September 13, 1745. Maria Theresa made her husband co-regent of her hereditary dominions. In practice Emperor Franz had little influence or authority over the Empire as the States of the Empire had considerable autonomy and in the Hereditary Habsburg Lands Maria Theresa’s rule was near absolute.

Birth of the Empire of Austria

In the face of aggressions by Napoleon I, who had been proclaimed “Emperor of the French” by the French constitution on May 18, 1804 Holy Roman Emperor Franz II feared for the future of the Holy Roman Empire and wished to maintain his and his family’s Imperial status in case the Holy Roman Empire should be dissolved.

Therefore, on August 11, 1804 he created the new title of “Emperor of Austria” which United the Habsburg Hereditary Lands into one singular state. The creation of the title Emperor of Austria was not only for himself, but also for his successors as heads of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine. For two years Emperor Franz II carried two imperial titles: being Holy Roman Emperor and “by the Grace of God”, Emperor Franz I of Austria.

In 1805, an Austrian-led army suffered a humiliating defeat at the Battle of Austerlitz and the victorious Napoleon proceeded to dismantle the old Reich (which at this time was only a powerless confederation) by motivating or pressuring several German princes to enter the separate Confederation of the Rhine with their lands in July.

This led Emperor Franz II-I to declare the Holy Roman Empire dissolved on August 6, 1806. This meant Emperor Franz to lay down the Imperial Crown created in the second half of the 10th century for Emperor Otto I the Great in 962.

From 1806 onwards, Franz was Emperor of Austria only until his death in 1835. He had three successors—Ferdinand I (1835 – 1848), Franz Joseph I (1848 – 1916) and Charles I-IV, from 1916 until the Empire broke apart in 1918.

A coronation ceremony was never established; the heir to the throne became Emperor the moment his predecessor died or abdicated. The symbol of the Austrian Emperor was the dynasty’s private crown dating back to Holy Roman Emperor Rudolph II (r. 1576–1612).