December 2, 1848: Archduke Franz Joseph of Austria Succeeds to the Throne of the Austrian Empire.

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Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria, Elisabeth of Bavaria, Emperor Ferdinand of Austria, Emperor Franz Ferdinand of Austria, Holy Roman Emperor Franz II, Kingdom of Hungary, Revolution of 1848, Sophie of Bavaria

From the Emperor’s Desk: although this blog post is about the accession of Emperor Franz Joseph on the throne of the Austrian Empire during the revolutions of 1848, I will not be addressing the complicated relationship between Franz Joseph and the kingdom of Hungary which was also going through a revolutionary period in 1848. I will deal with the accession of Franz Joseph as king of Hungary in a separate blog post on Monday.

Franz Joseph I (August 18, 1830 – November 21, 1916) was Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary, Bohemia and Croatia and the other states of the Habsburg monarchy from December 2, 1848 until his death on November 21, 1916. In the early part of his reign, his realms and territories were referred to as the Austrian Empire, but were reconstituted as the dual monarchy of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1867. From May 1, 1850 to August 24, 1866, Franz Joseph was also President of the German Confederation.

Franz Joseph was born August 18, 1830 in the Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna (on the 65th anniversary of the death of his Great-Great-Grandfather Emperor Franz I of Lorraine) as the eldest son of Archduke Franz Charles (the younger son of Holy Roman Emperor Franz II), and his wife Princess Sophie of Bavaria. Archduke Franz Joseph was born during the reign of his grandfather Emperor Franz of Austria, who was the last Holy Roman Emperor Franz II.

Because his uncle, reigning from 1835 as the Emperor Ferdinand, was weak-minded, and his father unambitious and retiring, the mother of the young Archduke “Franzi” brought him up as a future Emperor, with emphasis on devotion, responsibility and diligence.

Since no issue from the marriage of the heir to the throne were expected, Archduke Ferdinand (Emperor from 1835), his next elder brother Archduke Franz Charles was to continue the succession of the Habsburgs, which is why the birth of his son Franz Joseph at the Viennese court was given special importance.

Archduke Franz Charles was physically as well as mentally of weak constitution and was therefore hardly suitable for a reign. For this reason, Franz Joseph was consistently built up as a potential successor to the imperial throne by his politically ambitious mother from early childhood.

Up to the age of seven, little “Franzi” was brought up in the care of the nanny (“Aja”) Louise von Sturmfeder. Then the “state education” began, the central contents of which were “sense of duty”, religiosity and dynastic awareness. The theologian Joseph Othmar von Rauscher conveyed to him the inviolable understanding of rulership of divine origin (divine grace), which is why no participation of the population in rulership in the form of parliaments is required.

During the Revolutions of 1848, the Austrian Chancellor Prince Metternich resigned (March–April 1848). The young Archduke, who (it was widely expected) would soon succeed his uncle on the throne, was appointed Governor of Bohemia on April 6, 1848, but never took up the post. Sent instead to the front in Italy, he joined Field Marshal Radetzky on campaign on April 29, receiving his baptism of fire on May 5 at Santa Lucia.

On December 2, 1848, Franz Joseph’s uncle, Emperor Ferdinand of Austria abdicated the throne at Olomouc, as part of Minister President Felix zu Schwarzenberg’s plan to end the Revolutions of 1848 in Hungary. At this point also came the renunciation of the rights to the throne of his father, the mild-mannered Archduke Franz Charles and Archduke Franz Joseph then acceded to the throne.

At this time, he first became known by his second as well as his first Christian name. The name “Franz Joseph” was chosen to bring back memories of the new Emperor’s great-granduncle, Emperor Joseph II (Holy Roman Emperor from 1765 to 1790), remembered as a modernising reformer.

Also, the new emperor wanted to be known as Emperor Franz III, however he soon realized that the ordinal number “III” was associated with the old Holy Roman Empire and he would therefore be Emperor Franz II of Austria. However, if he had called himself Emperor Franz II many of his advisors believed that would cause confusion since his grandfather was the last Holy Roman Emperor with the name Franz II and that was 42 years ago but still in the memory of the Austrian people. Therefore he chose to be known as Emperor Franz Joseph.

It was generally felt in the court that the Emperor should marry and produce heirs as soon as possible. Various potential brides were considered, including Princess Elisabeth of Modena, Princess Anna of Prussia and Princess Sidonia of Saxony. Although in public life Franz Joseph was the unquestioned director of affairs, in his private life his mother still wielded crucial influence.

The young Empress Elisabeth of Austria 1855.

His mother Sophie wanted to strengthen the relationship between the Houses of Habsburg and Wittelsbach—descending from the latter house herself—and hoped to match Franz Joseph with her sister Ludovika’s eldest daughter, Helene (“Néné”), who was four years the Emperor’s junior.

However, Franz Joseph fell deeply in love with Néné’s younger sister Elisabeth (“Sisi”), a beautiful girl of fifteen, and insisted on marrying her instead. Sophie acquiesced, despite her misgivings about Sisi’s appropriateness as an imperial consort, and the young couple were married on April 24, 1854 in St. Augustine’s Church, Vienna.

Marriage of Franz Joseph and Elisabeth
Their marriage would eventually prove to be an unhappy one; though Franz Joseph was passionately in love with his wife, the feeling was not mutual. Elisabeth never truly acclimatized to life at court, and was frequently in conflict with the imperial family. Their first daughter Sophie died as an infant, and their only son Rudolf died by suicide in 1889 in the infamous Mayerling Incident.

Reign

Largely considered to be a reactionary, he spent his early reign resisting constitutionalism in his domains. The Austrian Empire was forced to cede its influence over Tuscany and most of its claim to Lombardy–Venetia to the Kingdom of Sardinia, following the Second Italian War of Independence in 1859 and the Third Italian War of Independence in 1866.

Although Franz Joseph ceded no territory to the Kingdom of Prussia after the Austrian defeat in the Austro-Prussian War, the Peace of Prague (August 23, 1866) settled the German Question in favour of Prussia, which prevented the unification of Germany from occurring under the House of Habsburg.

Franz Joseph was troubled by nationalism during his entire reign. He concluded the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, which granted greater autonomy to Hungary and created the dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary.

He ruled peacefully for the next 45 years, but personally suffered the tragedies of the execution of his brother Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico in 1867, the murder-suicide of his son Crown Prince Rudolf and his mistress Mary Vetsara in 1889, the assassination of his wife Empress Elisabeth (“Sisi”) in 1898, and the assassination of his nephew and heir-presumptive, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, in 1914.

After the Austro-Prussian War, Austria-Hungary turned its attention to the Balkans, which was a hotspot of international tension because of conflicting interests of Austria with not only the Ottoman but also the Russian Empire.

The Bosnian Crisis was a result of Franz Joseph’s annexation in 1908 of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which had already been occupied by his troops since the Congress of Berlin (1878).

On June 28, 1914, the assassination of his nephew Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo resulted in Austria-Hungary’s declaration of war against the Kingdom of Serbia, which was an ally of the Russian Empire. That activated a system of alliances declaring war on each other, which resulted in World War I.

Emperor Franz Joseph died in 1916, after ruling his domains for almost 68 years. He was succeeded by his grandnephew as Emperor Charles I of Austria and as King Charles IV of Hungary. The Austro-Hungarian Empire collapsed in 1918 at the end of World War I.

Marriage of Princess Augusta of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach & Wilhelm I, German Emperor and King of Prussia.

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Augusta of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, Conservative, Elisabeth of Bavaria, Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia, German Chancellor, German Emperor and King of Prussia, Liberal, Marriage, Otto von Bismark, Wilhelm I of Germany

Princess Augusta of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach (Augusta Marie Luise Katharina; September 30, 1811 – January 7, 1890) was the Queen of Prussia and the first German Empress as the consort of Wilhelm I, German Emperor and King of Prussia.

Wilhelm I (March 22, 1797 – March 9, 1888) of the House of Hohenzollern, was King of Prussia from January 2, 1861 and the first German Emperor from January 18, 1871 to his death, the first Head of State of a united Germany. He was the second son of King Friedrich-Wilhelm III of Prussia (himself son of King Friedrich-Wilhelm II) and Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz.

Princess Augusta of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, circa 1838, by Carl Joseph Begas

Augusta was the second daughter of Carl-Friedrich, Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach and Maria Pavlovna of Russia, a daughter of Pavel I of Russia and Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg.

Meeting with Wilhelm

Augusta was only fifteen years old when, in 1826, she first met her future husband, Prince Wilhelm, who was more than fourteen years older than her. Wilhelm thought the young Augusta had an “excellent personality,” yet was less attractive than her older sister Marie, whom Wilhelm’s younger brother, Karl, had already married.

It was Wilhelm’s father who pressed him to consider Augusta as a potential wife. At this time, Wilhelm was in love with the Polish Princess Elisa Radziwill. The Crown Prince at the time was Wilhelm’s elder brother, Crown Prince Friedrich-Wilhelm (later King Friedrich-Wilhelm IV). He and his wife Elisabeth Ludovika* had been married three years and had no children. Although it was not anticipated that they would remain childless (which turned out to be the case), the court did expect that Wilhelm, as heir presumptive to the throne, should make a dynastic marriage and produce further heirs.

King Friedrich-Wilhelm III was indulgent of the relationship between his son Wilhelm and Elisa, but the Prussian court had discovered that her ancestors had purchased their princely title from Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I, and she was not deemed noble enough to marry a potential King of Prussia. Ironically, Crown Princess Elisabeth Ludovika, who as a Bavarian princess was considered to be of correct rank, counted both Bogusław Radziwiłł and Janusz Radziwiłł among her ancestors, albeit through female descent.

Wilhelm I, German Emperor and King of Prussia

It was suggested by some courtiers that if Eliza Radziwill was adopted by a family of adequate rank, then a marriage with Prince Wilhelm was possible. In 1824, the Prussians turned to the childless Alexander I of Russia to adopt Elisa, but the Russian Czar declined. The second adoption plan by Elisa’s uncle, Prince August of Prussia, likewise failed because the responsible committee considered that adoption does not change “the blood.” Another factor in the adoption falling through was the Mecklenburg relations of the deceased Queen Louise of Prussia (wife of Friedrich-Wilhelm III) influence in the German and Russian courts.

Thus, in June 1826, Wilhelm’s father felt forced to demand the renunciation of a potential marriage to Elisa. Thus, Wilhelm spent the next few months looking for a more suitable bride, but did not relinquish his emotional ties to Elisa. Eventually, Wilhelm asked for Augusta’s hand in marriage on August 25, 1826, in writing and through the intervention of his father. Augusta agreed and on October 25, 1828, they were engaged.

Wilhelm wrote to his sister Charlotte, the wife of Nikolai I of Russia, with reference to Elisa Radziwill: “One can love only once in life, really” and confessed with regard to Augusta, that “the Princess is nice and clever, but she leaves me cold.”Augusta liked her future husband and hoped for a happy marriage, in the end, it was an inwardly happy marriage despite outward appearances.

On June 11, 1829, Wilhelm and Augusta were married in the chapel of Schloss Charlottenburg.

Augusta, German Empress and Queen of Prussia

The first weeks of marriage were harmonious; Augusta was taken favorably in the Prussian King’s court, however, Augusta soon started to be bored with its military sobriety, and most courtly duties (which may have counteracted this boredom) were reserved to her sister-in-law, Crown Princess Elisabeth.

In a letter which Wilhelm wrote on 22 January 1831 to his sister Charlotte, he has mixed feelings of his wife’s “lack of femininity”.

Despite the coldness and distance between them they did conceive two children. The first was Prince Friedrich-Wilhelm (later Friedrich III, German Emperor), born on October 26, 1831. Seven years later Princess Louise, was born on December 3, 1838.

Friedrich III, German Emperor and King of Prussia.

Princess Louise of Prussia, Grand Duchess of Baden.

Augusta as a politician

A strong area of difference between Wilhelm and Augusta was politics. Wilhelm was a staunch Conservative while Augusta was very Liberal.

Augusta was very interested in politics. Like so many other liberally-minded people of the time, she was hopeful regarding the accession of Friedrich-Wilhelm IV, her brother-in-law, who was regarded as a potentially modern and open king. However, he refused to grant a constitution to Prussia and led a far more conservative government than was expected from his liberal ideals during his years as the crown prince.

In liberal circles, an idea was seriously discussed as to whether or not to force the King to abdicate, Prince Wilhelm renounce his rights to the throne, and instead have Augusta take up a regency for their son, Friedrich. Because the letters and diaries of that time were later destroyed by Augusta, it is not clear whether she seriously considered this option.

Victoria, Queen of the United Kingdom and Augusta, German Empress and Queen of Prussia. Their elldest children, Victoria the Princess Royal and German Emperor Friedrich III were married.

In his memoirs, Chancellor Bismarck describes Wilhelm I as an old-fashioned, courteous, infallibly polite gentleman and a genuine Prussian officer, whose good common sense was occasionally undermined by “female influences”. This was a reference to Wilhelm’s wife, who had been educated by, among others Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and was intellectually superior to her husband. She was also at times very outspoken in her opposition to official policies as she was a liberal. Wilhelm, however, had long been strongly opposed to liberal ideas.

Empress Augusta

* Here are some interesting genealogical information on Elisabeth Ludovika (November 13, 1801 – December 14, 1873) who was a Princess of Bavaria and later Queen consort of Prussia as the wife of King Friedrich-Wilhelm IV of Prussia.

Elisabeth Ludovika was born in Munich, the daughter of King Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria and his Queen, Friederike of Baden, and she was the identical twin sister of Amalie of Bavaria, consort of King Johann I of Saxony. Another sister was of Sophie of Bavaria Austria, wife of Archduke Franz-Carl of Austria and she was the mother of Emperor Franz-Josef I of Austria-Hungry and Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico. Another sister was Caroline of Bavaria the wife of Franz II, last Holy Roman Emperor and first Emperor of Austria. The youngest daughter was Ludovika of Bavaria, wife of her cousin, Duke Maximilian Joseph in Bavaria. Ludovika of Bavaria was the mother of Emperor Franz-Josef’s consort, Empress Elisabeth of Austria (Sisi), who was Elisabeth’s godchild and namesake.