December 8, 1708: Birth of Franz Stefan of Lorraine, Holy Roman Emperor

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Archduchess Maria Theresa of Austria, Duke of Lorraine and Bar, Franz Stefan of Lorraine, Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor Franz I, Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II, House of Habsburg, House of Habsburg-Lorraine, King Carlos III of Spain, King Friedrich II of Prussia

Franz I (French: François Étienne; German: Franz Stefan; December 8, 1708 – August 18, 1765) was Holy Roman Emperor (1745–1765), Archduke of Austria (1740–1765), Duke of Lorraine and Bar (1729–1737), and Grand Duke of Tuscany (1737–1765).

Franz Stefan was elected Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire because his wife, Archduchess Maria Theresa of Austria, (daughter of Emperor Charles VI) was unable to be elected Empress in her own right due to the Empire went by the Salic Law which bared women from holding the Imperial title in her own right.

Emperor Franz was the last non-Habsburg monarch of both the Empire and Austria, which were effectively governed by Maria Theresa. The couple were the founders of the Habsburg-Lorraine dynasty, and their marriage produced sixteen children, among them was Archduchess Marie Antoinette the wife of King Louis XVI or France and Navarre.

Franz I Stefan, Holy Roman Emperor, Grand Duke of Tuscany

Franz Stefan was the fourth (but oldest surviving) son of Leopold, Duke of Lorraine, and the French princess Élisabeth Charlotte d’Orléans.

Paternal Ancestry

Franz Stefan’s father Leopold was the son of Charles V, Duke of Lorraine, and his wife Archduchess Eleonora Maria of Austria, a half-sister of Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor Franz Stefan’s Paternal grandmother, Archduchess Eleonora Maria of Austria, was the daughter of Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand III and his wife, Eleanora of Mantua.

Archduchess Eleanor Maria Anna of Austria was a Habsburg. However, she also had strong Habsburg ancestry through her descent from her great-grandfather, Albrecht V, Duke of Bavaria who’s own mother, Archduchess Anna of Austria, who was the third of fifteen children of Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand I (1503–1564) from his marriage with the Jagiellonian princess Anna of Bohemia and Hungary (1503–1547).

Archduchess Anna of Austria’s siblings included: Elizabeth, Queen of Poland, Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II, Catherine, Queen of Poland, Eleanor, Duchess of Mantua, Barbara, Duchess of Ferrara, Charles II, Archduke of Austria and Johanna, Duchess of Tuscany.

Maternal Ancestry

Franz Stefan’s mother, Élisabeth Charlotte d’Orléans, was the daughter of Philippe I, Duke of Orléans, (brother of King Louis XIV of France and Navarre) and of his second wife Elizabeth Charlotte of the Palatine.

Franz Stefan’s maternal grandmother, Elizabeth Charlotte of the Palatine, was the daughter of Charles I Ludwig, Elector Palatine and his wife Charlotte of Hesse-Cassel. Elizabeth Charlotte was named after her paternal grandmother Elizabeth Stuart and her own mother.

Charles Ludwig of the Palatinate was the second son of Friedrich V of the Palatinate, the “Winter King” of Bohemia, and of Elizabeth Stuart, daughter of King James I-VI of England and Scotland and sister of Charles I of England of England and Scotland. This demonstrates how the House of Habsburg-Lorraine descends from the Kings and Queens of England and Scotland.

The Paternal and Maternal Ancestry of Emperor Franz I demonstrates a very strong Habsburg ancestry and connection. Though the House of Habsburg ceased in the male line with the death of Emperor Charles VI, his descendants through his daughter Archduchess Maria Theresa and her husband Franz Stefan of Lorraine have continued the Habsburg dynasty.

Although the dynasty is officially named Habsburg-Lorraine we can see that the House of Habsburg still exists because of Franz Stefan’s many paths of descent from the House of Habsburg

Duke Leopold died in 1729, and was succeeded by his son, under the French spelling of François Étienne, and became the Duke of Lorraine and Bar.

Emperor Charles VI favoured the family, who, besides being his cousins, had served the house of Austria with distinction. He had designed to marry his daughter Maria Theresa to Franz’s older brother Leopold Clement. On Leopold Clement’s death, Charles adopted the younger brother as his future son-in-law.

Archduchess Maria Theresa, Queen of Bohemia Hungary and Croatia, Archduchess of Austria and Holy Roman Empress

Prior to accepting Franz Stefan as the husband for his daughter, the Emperor considered other possibilities. Religious differences prevented him from arranging his daughter’s marriage to the Protestant prince Friedrich of Prussia the future King Friedrich II the Great of Prussia, his wife’s future rival. In 1725, he betrothed her to Infante Carlos of Spain (Carlos III of Spain) and her sister, Maria Anna, to Infante Felipe of Spain (The reigning Duke of Parma).

Other European powers compelled him to renounce the pact he had made with the Queen of Spain, Elisabeth Farnese. Maria Theresa, who had become close to Franz Stefan, was relieved.

On January 31, 1736 Franz agreed to marry Maria Theresa. He hesitated three times (and laid down the feather before signing). Especially his mother Élisabeth Charlotte d’Orléans and his brother Prince Charles Alexander of Lorraine were against the loss of Lorraine.

On February 12, 1736 Franz married Maria Theresa. In 1738, he left the Duchy of Lorraine and Bar for the deposed Polish king Stanisław Leszczyński in exchange for the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, as one of the terms ending the War of the Polish Succession.

Following the death of his father-in-law Charles VI in 1740, Franz was elected Emperor and his wife became the ruler of the hereditary Habsburg domains. Maria Theresa gave her husband responsibility for the empire’s financial affairs, which he handled well.

Though she was expected to cede power to her husband, Emperor Franz I, and later her eldest son, Emperor Joseph II, who were officially her co-rulers in Austria and Bohemia, Maria Theresa was the absolute sovereign who ruled with the counsel of her advisers.

Franz was a serial adulterer; many of his affairs well-known and indiscreet, notably one with Princess Maria Wilhelmina of Auersperg, who was thirty years his junior. This particular affair was remarked upon in the letters and journals of visitors to the court and in those of his children.

Franz died suddenly at the age of 56 in his carriage while returning from the opera at Innsbruck on August 18, 1765. He is buried in tomb number 55 in the Imperial Crypt in Vienna.

Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor, King of Bohemia, Hungary and Croatia

Franz was succeeded as Emperor by his eldest son, Joseph II, and as Grand Duke of Tuscany by his younger son, Peter Leopold (later Emperor Leopold II). Maria Theresa retained the government of her dominions until her own death in 1780.

The new Emperor was made co-regent (Co-Ruler) by his mother in the hereditary Austrian dominions. As emperor, he had little true power, and his mother had resolved that neither her husband nor her son should ever deprive her of sovereign control in her hereditary dominions.

With the death of Maria Theresa on November 29, 1780 Emperor Joseph II also became King of Bohemia, Hungary and Croatia and was free to pursue his own policy, and he immediately directed his government on a new course, attempting to realize his ideal of enlightened despotism acting on a definite system for the good of all.

October 20, 1685: Death of Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor.

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Empress Maria-Theresa of Austria, Holy Roman Emperor, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor Joseph I, Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I, Holy Roman Empire, House of Habsburg, King Carlos II of Spain, King Felipe VI of Spain, Pragmatic Sanction, War of the Austrian Succession, War of the Spanish Succession

Charles VI (October 1, 1685 – October 20, 1740) was Holy Roman Emperor and ruler of the Austrian Habsburg Monarchy from 1711 until his death, succeeding his elder brother, Joseph I. Archduke Charles was the second son of Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I and of his third wife, Princess Eleonor Magdalene of Neuburg, Archduke Charles was born on October 1, 1685. His tutor was Anton Florian, Prince of Liechtenstein.

Following the death of Carlos II of Spain, in 1700, without any direct heir, Charles declared himself King of Spain—both were members of the House of Habsburg. The ensuing War of the Spanish Succession, which pitted France’s candidate, Philippe, Duke of Anjou, Louis XIV of France’s grandson, against Austria’s Charles, lasted for almost 14 years. The Kingdom of Portugal, Kingdom of England, Scotland, Ireland and the majority of the Holy Roman Empire endorsed Charles’s candidature.

Carlos III, as he was known, disembarked in his kingdom in 1705, and stayed there for six years, only being able to exercise his rule in Catalonia, until the death of his brother, Joseph I, Holy Roman Emperor; he returned to Vienna to assume the imperial crown.

Not wanting to see Austria and Spain in personal union again, the new Kingdom of Great Britain withdrew its support from the Austrian coalition, and the war culminated with the Treaties of Utrecht and Rastatt three years later. The former, ratified in 1713, recognised the Duke of Anjou as King Felipe V of Spain; however, the Kingdom of Naples, the Duchy of Milan, the Austrian Netherlands and the Kingdom of Sardinia – all previously possessions of the Spanish—were ceded to Austria.

To prevent a union of Spain and France, Felipe was forced to renounce his right to succeed his grandfather’s throne. Charles was extremely discontented at the loss of Spain, and as a result, he mimicked the staid Spanish Habsburg court ceremonial, adopting the dress of a Spanish monarch, which, according to British historian Edward Crankshaw, consisted of “a black doublet and hose, black shoes and scarlet stockings”.

Charles’s father and his advisors went about arranging a marriage for him. Their eyes fell upon Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, the eldest daughter of Louis Rudolph, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel and his wife Princess Christine Louise of Oettingen-Oettingen. On August 1, 1708, in Barcelona, Charles married her by proxy. 

Succession to the Habsburg dominions

When Charles succeeded his brother in 1711, he was the last male Habsburg heir in the direct line. Since Habsburg possessions were subject to Salic law, barring women from inheriting in their own right, his own lack of a male heir meant they would be divided on his death.

The Pragmatic Sanction of April 19, 1713 abolished male-only succession in all Habsburg realms and declared their lands indivisible, although Hungary only approved it in 1723.

Charles had three daughters, Maria Theresa (1717-1780), Maria Anna (1718-1744) and Maria Amalia (1724-1730) but no surviving sons.

When Maria Theresa was born, he disinherited his nieces and the daughters of his elder brother, Emperor Joseph I, Maria Josepha and Maria Amalia. It was this act that undermined the chances of a smooth succession and obliged Charles to spend the rest of his reign seeking to ensure enforcement of the Sanction from other European powers.

In total, Great Britain, France, Saxony-Poland, the Dutch Republic, Spain, Venice, States of the Church, Prussia, Russia, Denmark, Savoy-Sardinia, Bavaria, and the Diet of the Holy Roman Empire recognised the sanction. France, Spain, Saxony-Poland, Bavaria and Prussia later reneged. Charles died in 1740, sparking the War of the Austrian Succession, which plagued his successor, Maria Theresa, for eight years.

At the time of Charles’ death, the Habsburg lands were saturated in debt; the exchequer contained a mere 100,000 florins; and desertion was rife in Austria’s sporadic army, spread across the Empire in small, ineffective barracks. Contemporaries expected that Austria-Hungary would wrench itself from the Habsburg yoke upon his death.

Despite the predicaments faced by Charles, the territorial extent of his Habsburg lands was at its greatest since the days of his cognatic ancestor Emperor Charles V, reaching the Southern Mediterranean and including the Duchy of Milan.

The Emperor, after a hunting trip across the Hungarian border in “a typical day in the wettest and coldest October in memory”, fell seriously ill at the Favorita Palace, Vienna, and he died on October 20, 1740 in the Hofburg. In his Memoirs Voltaire wrote that Charles’ death was caused by consuming a meal of death cap mushrooms. Charles’ life opus, the Pragmatic Sanction, was ultimately in vain.

Maria Theresa was forced to resort to arms to defend her inheritance from the coalition of Prussia, Bavaria, France, Spain, Saxony and Poland—all party to the sanction—who assaulted the Austrian frontier weeks after her father’s death. During the ensuing War of the Austrian Succession, Maria Theresa saved her crown and most of her territory but lost the mineral-rich Duchy of Silesia to Prussia and the Duchy of Parma to Spain.

April 17, 1711: death of Joseph I, Holy Roman Emperor.

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Claudia Felicitas of Austria, Eleonor Magdalene of Neuburg, Gypsies, Holy Roman Emperor, Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor Joseph I, Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I, Holy Roman Empire, House of Habsburg, Philip III of Spain, Philip IV of France, Romani

Joseph I (Joseph Jacob Ignaz Johann Anton Eustachius; July 26, 1678 – April 17, 1711) was Holy Roman Emperor from 1705 until his death in 1711. He was the eldest son of Emperor Leopold I from his third wife, Eleonor Magdalene of Neuburg, a Wittelsbach Princess and the oldest of 17 children born from Philipp Wilhelm, Count Palatine of Neuburg and Duke of Jülich-Berg (since 1685 Elector Palatine) and his second wife Landgravine Elisabeth Amalie of Hesse-Darmstadt.

Joseph I, Holy Roman Emperor, King of Hungary and Bohemia and Archduke of Austria

Although he was the first son and child born of his parents’ marriage, he was his father’s third son and seventh child and Eleonor Magdalene of Neuburg was his third wife. Previously, Joseph’s father, Emperor Leopold, was first married to Infanta Margaret Theresa of Spain (1651–1673) in 1666. She was the daughter of King Felipe IV of Spain, from his second marriage with his niece Mariana of Austria. Her mother, Mariana of Austria, was nearly thirty years younger than her father. This made Infanta Margaret Theresa of Spain both her husband’s niece and his first cousin.

Margaret Theresa’s paternal grandparents were King Felipe III of Spain and his wife Archduchess Margaret of Austria. Her maternal grandparents were Ferdinand III, Holy Roman Emperor and his wife Infanta Maria Anna of Spain, the daughter of her paternal grandparents.

Emperor Leopold and his first wife Infanta Margaret Theresa of Spain had four children, one of whom survived infancy.

Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor, King of Hungary and Bohemia and Archduke of Austria.

Eleonor Magdalene of Neuburg

Emperor Leopold I then married Claudia Felicitas of Austria. Claudia Felicitas was born in Florence on May 30, 1653. She was the first child and eldest daughter of Ferdinand Charles, Archduke of Further Austria and Count of Tyrol, by his wife and first-cousin Anna de’ Medici. On her father’s side, her grandparents were Leopold V, Archduke of Further Austria and his wife Claudia de’ Medici (after which she received her first name); on her mother’s side, her grandparents were Cosimo II de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany and his wife Archduchess Maria Magdalena of Austria. Claudia Felicitas gave him two short-lived daughters. Thus, Joseph had six half-siblings.

In April 1676 after Claudia Felicitas died, almost immediately began Leopold began to search for a new wife, urged by the need of a male heir. This time Eleonor Magdalene of Neuburg was chosen, over Duchess Maria Anna Victoria of Bavaria (later Dauphine of France), Princess Ulrika Eleonora of Denmark (later Queen consort of Sweden) and many other potential candidates.

The first meeting between Leopold I and Eleonore took place two days before the wedding and they made a favourable impression on each other. The wedding took place in Passau on 14 December 1676, and was somewhat private as ambassadors of foreign countries were not invited.

The new Empress soon proved her fertility, and within months she became pregnant with her first child, future Joseph I, Holy Roman Emperor. In total, Eleonore gave birth to ten children, of whom only five survived to adulthood.

Holy Roman Emperor

Joseph was crowned King of Hungary at the age of nine in 1687 and King in Germany at the age of eleven in 1690. He succeeded to the thrones of Bohemia and the Holy Roman Empire in 1705 after his father died.

Joseph continued the War of the Spanish Succession, begun by his father against Louis XIV of France, in a fruitless attempt to make his younger brother Charles (later Emperor Charles VI) King of Spain. In the process, however, owing to the victories won by his military commander, Prince Eugene of Savoy, he did succeed in establishing Austrian hegemony over Italy. Joseph also had to contend with a protracted revolt in Hungary, fomented by Louis XIV. Neither conflict was resolved until the Treaty of Utrecht, after his death. Although he never formally ceased to be a Roman Catholic, Joseph (unlike his parents and most of his other relatives) was not particularly devout by nature.He had two great enthusiasms: music and hunting.

Joseph also endeavoured to strengthen his position in the Holy Roman Empire – as a means of strengthening Austria’s standing as a great power. When he sought to lay claim to imperial rights in Italy and gain territories for the Habsburgs, he even risked a military conflict with the Pope over the duchy of Mantua. Joseph I was threatened with excommunication by Pope Clement XI on 16 June 1708.

Wilhelmine Amalia of Brunswick-Lüneburg

On February 24, 1699, he married Wilhelmine Amalia of Brunswick-Lüneburg in Vienna. She was the youngest daughter of Johann Friedrich, Duke of Brunswick-Calenberg, and Princess Benedicta Henrietta of the Palatinate. Early on, the Holy Roman Empress Eleonore Magdalene of Neuburg decided that Wilhelmine Amalia would be her daughter-in-law.

Prince Salm was instrumental in speaking for her candidacy. The adviser of Eleonor, Marco d’Aviano, had convinced her that Wilhelmine Amalia, being pious and older than Joseph, could act as a tempering influence and discontinue his sex life outside of marriage, and to Leopold, he claimed that he had a vision that the pair would be happy. She was subjected to medical examination to establish if she was fertile, and though she was senior to Joseph, which was initially to her disadvantage, it was decided that her mental maturity would benefit fertilization.

Maria Josepha of Austria, Queen of Poland

Maria Amalia of Austria, Holy Roman Empress

They had three children and their only son, Archduke Leopold Joseph, died of hydrocephalus before his first birthday. Their eldest daughter was Maria Josepha of Austria (Maria Josepha Benedikta Antonia Theresia Xaveria Philippine, Polish: Maria Józefa; December 8, 1699 – November 17, 1757) was the Queen of Poland by marriage to Augustus III. Their last child was Maria Amalia of Austria (Maria Amalie Josefa Anna; October 22, 1701 – December 11, 1756) was herself Holy Roman Empress, Queen of the Germans, Queen of Bohemia, Electress and Duchess of Bavaria as the spouse of the Wittelsbach Holy Roman Emperor Charles VII. Charles VII (1697-1745) was the Prince-elector of Bavaria from 1726 and Holy Roman Emperor from January 24, 1742 until his death in 1745.

Emperor Joseph had a passion for love affairs (none of which resulted in illegitimate children) and he caught a sexually transmittable disease, probably syphilis, which he passed on to his wife while they were trying to produce a new heir. This incident rendered her sterile.

In 1710, came a decision that would leave a black mark on his reign. Joseph I, issued an edict against the Romani (Gypsies), ordering “that all adult males were to be hanged without trial, whereas women and young males were to be flogged and banished forever.” In addition, in the kingdom of Bohemia, Romani men were to have their right ears cut off; in the March of Moravia, the left ear was to be cut off. In other parts of Austria, they would be branded on the back with a branding iron, representing the gallows. These mutilations enabled authorities to identify the individuals as Romani on their second arrest. The edict encouraged local officials to hunt down Romani in their areas by levying a fine of 100 Reichsthaler for those failing to do so. Anyone who helped Romani was to be punished by doing a half-year’s forced labor. The result was mass killings of Romani across the Holy Roman empire.

Despite such viciousness Emperor Joseph reversed many of the authoritarian measures of his father, thus helping to placate opponents. He began the attempts to settle the question of the Austrian inheritance by a pragmatic sanction, which was continued by his brother Charles VI.

During the smallpox epidemic of 1711, which killed Louis, le Grand Dauphin and three siblings of the future Holy Roman Emperor Franz I, Joseph became infected. He died on April 17, in the Hofburg Palace at the young age of 32. He had previously promised his wife to stop having affairs, should he survive.

December 8, 1708: Birth of Franz-Stephen of Lorraine, Holy Roman Emperor and Grand Duke of Tuscany.

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Austria, Bavaria, Francis Stephen of Lorraine, Holy Roman Emperor, Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor Charles VII, Holy Roman Emperor Francis I, Holy Roman Empire, Maria Therea of Austria, War of the Austrian Succession

Franz I (December 8, 1708 – August 18, 1765) was Holy Roman Emperor and Grand Duke of Tuscany, though his wife Maria Theresa effectively executed the real powers of those positions. They were the founders of the Habsburg-Lorraine dynasty. From 1728 until 1737 he was Duke of Lorraine.

Franz-Stephen was born in Nancy, Lorraine (now in France), the oldest surviving son of Leopold, Duke of Lorraine, and his wife Princess Élisabeth Charlotte d’Orléans, the daughter of Philippe I, Duke of Orléans, (brother of King Louis XIV of France and Navarre) and of his second wife Elizabeth Charlotte of the Palatinate, daughter of Carl I Ludwig, Elector Palatine of the Simmern branch of the House of Wittelsbach, and Landgravine Charlotte of Hesse-Cassel. Franz-Stephen was connected by blood to the with the Habsburgs through his grandmother Eleonore, who was the daughter of Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand III. He was very close to his brother Carl-Alexander and sister Anne Charlotte.

Franz I Stephen, Holy Roman Emperor and Grand Duke of Tuscany

Holy Roman Emperor Carl VI favoured the family, who, besides being his cousins, had served the House of Habsburg with distinction. He had designed to marry his daughter Maria Theresa to Franz-Stephen’s older brother Leopold Clement. On Leopold Clement’s death, Emperor Karl adopted the younger brother as his future son-in-law. Franz-Stephen was brought up in Vienna with Maria Theresa with the understanding that they were to be married, and a real affection arose between them.

When the War of the Polish Succession broke out in 1733, France used it as an opportunity to seize Lorraine, since France’s prime minister, Cardinal Fleury, was concerned that, as a Habsburg possession, it would bring Austrian power too close to France.

A preliminary peace was concluded in October 1735 and ratified in the Treaty of Vienna in November 1738. Under its terms, Stanisław I, the father-in-law of King Louis XV of France and the losing claimant to the Polish throne, received Lorraine, while Franz-Stephen, in compensation for his loss, was made heir to the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, which he would inherit in 1737.

On January 31, 1736 Franz-Stephen agreed to marry Maria Theresa. He hesitated three times (and laid down the feather before signing). Especially his mother Élisabeth Charlotte d’Orléans and his brother Prince Carl-Alexander of Lorraine were against the loss of Lorraine. On February 1, Maria Theresa sent Franz-Stephen a letter: she would withdraw from her future reign, when a male successor for her father appeared.

They married on February 12, 1736, in the Augustinian Church, Vienna. The (secret) treaty between the Emperor Carl VI and Franz-Stephen was signed on May 4, 1736. In January 1737, the Spanish troops withdrew from Tuscany, and were replaced by 6,000 Austrians. On January 24, 1737 Franz-Stephen received the Grand Duchy of Tuscany from his father-in-law. Until then, Maria Theresa was Duchess of Lorraine. In 1744 Franz-Stephen’s brother Carl-Alexander married the younger sister of Maria Theresa, Archduchess Maria Anna of Austria. In 1744 Carl became governor of the Austrian Netherlands, a post he held until his death in 1780.

Carl VII Albert of Bavaria, Holy Roman Emperor

As son-in-law of Joseph I, Holy Roman Emperor, Carl-Albert of Bavaria rejected the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713 and claimed the German territories of the Habsburg dynasty after the death of emperor Carl VI in 1740. After the two year War of the Austrian Succession he was elected as Holy Roman Emperor Carl VII from January 24, 1742 until his death in 1745. As a member of the House of Wittelsbach, Carl VII was the first person not born of the House of Habsburg to become emperor in three centuries, though he was connected to that house both by blood and by marriage. Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II was his great-great grandfather.

Since a woman could not be elected Holy Roman Empress, Maria Theresa wanted to secure the imperial office for her husband, but Franz-Stephen did not possess enough land or rank within the Holy Roman Empire. In order to make him eligible for the imperial throne and to enable him to vote in the imperial elections as elector of Bohemia (which she could not do because of her sex), Maria Theresa made Franz-Stephen co-ruler of the Austrian and Bohemian lands on November 21, 1740.

Empress Maria Theresa, Queen of Hungary and Bohemia, Archduchess of Austria, Empress Consort of the Holy Roman Empire

It took more than a year for the Diet of Hungary to accept Franz-Stephen as co-ruler, since they asserted that the sovereignty of Hungary could not be shared. Despite her love for him and his position as co-ruler, Maria Theresa never allowed her husband to decide matters of state and often dismissed him from council meetings when they disagreed.

The Treaty of Breslau of June 1742 ended hostilities between Austria and Prussia. With the First Silesian War at an end, the Queen Maria Theresa soon made the recovery of Bohemia her priority. French troops fled Bohemia in the winter of the same year. On May 12, 1743, Maria Theresa had herself crowned Queen of Bohemia in St. Vitus Cathedral.

Prussia became anxious at Austrian advances on the Rhine frontier, and Friedrich II of Prussia again invaded Bohemia, beginning a Second Silesian War; Prussian troops sacked Prague in August 1744. The French plans for the war fell apart when Holy Roman Emperor Carl VII Albert died in January 1745.

Franz-Stephen was elected Holy Roman Emperor on September 13, 1745 as Franz I. Prussia recognised Francis as emperor, and Maria Theresa once again recognised the loss of Silesia by the Treaty of Dresden in December 1745, ending the Second Silesian War.

Although Franz was the Holy Roman Emperor, his wife Maria Theresa was the sovereign in her own right in the Habsburg hereditary lands of Austria, Hungary, Croatia, Bohemia, Transylvania, Mantua, Milan, Lodomeria and Galicia, the Austrian Netherlands, and Parma. By marriage, she was Duchess of Lorraine, Grand Duchess of Tuscany and Holy Roman Empress.

Franz was well content to leave the wielding of power to his able wife. He had a natural fund of good sense and brilliant business capacity and was a useful assistant to Maria Theresa in the laborious task of governing the complicated Austrian dominions, but he was not active in politics or diplomacy. However, his wife left him in charge of the financial affairs, which he managed well until his death. Heavily indebted and on the verge of bankruptcy at the end of the Seven Years’ War, the Austrian Empire was in a better financial condition than France or England in the 1780s. He also took a great interest in the natural sciences. He was a member of the Freemasons.

Franz was a serial adulterer, many of his affairs well-known and indiscreet, notably one with Maria Wilhelmina, Princess of Auersperg, who was thirty years his junior. This particular affair was remarked upon in the letters and journals of visitors to the court and in those of his children.

Franz died suddenly in his carriage while returning from the opera at Innsbruck on 18 August 1765. He is buried in tomb number 55 in the Imperial Crypt in Vienna.

Maria Theresa and Franz I had sixteen children, amongst them the last pre-revolutionary queen consort of France, their youngest daughter, Marie Antoinette (1755–1793), who married King Louis XVI of France and Navarre. Franz was succeeded as Holy Roman Emperor by his eldest son, Joseph II, and as Grand Duke of Tuscany by his younger son, Peter Leopold (later Emperor Leopold II). Maria Theresa retained the government of her dominions as their sovereign until her own death in 1780.

House of Windsor to House of Glücksburg?

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Duke Carlo-Hugo of Burbon- Parma, Duke of Edinburgh, Emperor Peter II of Russia, Grand Duke Jean of Luxembourg, Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI, House of Holstein-Gottorp, House of Oldenburg, House of Romanov, House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, House of Windsor, HRH The Prince of Wales, King George V of Great Britain, Kings and Queens of England, kings and queens of Scotland, kings and queens of the United Kingdom, Prince Charles, Prince Philip, Prince William, World War I

On July 17, 1917 HM King George V of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland changed the name of the royal house from Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to Windsor. With World War I raging at the time there was a considerable amount of anti-German feelings in the land. For many people it didn’t seem right that the King had a German name while they were fighting a war against the German Empire In searching for a name to rechristened the royal dynasty they decided on the name Windsor, which was felt personified and the strength of the country and it also went along with the royal tradition that many European Royal Houses had of naming their dynasties after a Castle.  The original Windsor Castle was built-in the 11th century after the Norman invasion by William the Conqueror. Since the time of Henry I, it has been used by succeeding monarchs and it is the longest-occupied palace in Europe.

The royal house of the United Kingdom has been known as Windsor now for almost 100 years. Will it remain Windsor one Charles becomes king or will it change? Often when the throne passes through the female line the name of the dynasty will change to reflect the patrilineal descent of the new monarch. This has been the case for the majority of royal houses in Europe although there are  exceptions. Some claim that the changing the name of dynasties was the invention of modern historians and that during some of these time periods dynastic names were not consistently used. Even with the kings and queens of England dynastic name changes have not always been consistent. For example, King Stephen was technically a member of the House of Blois but most historians and text books place him as a member of the House of Normandy. The same case happens with William III. Most books place him as a member of the House of Stuart yet he was, in the male line, a member of the Dutch House of Orange.

From a Genelaogically perspective, Elizabeth II is a member of the Wettin Dynasty from the collateral branch of the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha line via her descent from Prince Albert, the consort of Queen Victoria. Her husband, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, is a member of the House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg. This makes The Prince of Wales and the Duke of Cambridge and his future offsprings members of that dynasty. This is all from a genealogical aspect of course because technically they are members of the House of Windsor. The House of Glücksburg itself is a collateral branch of the House of Oldenburg. The Oldenburg dynasty has ruled in Denmark, Russia, Greece, Norway, Schleswig, Holstein, Oldenburg and Sweden. The question now becomes will the name of the royal house change when Charles succeeds to the throne?

There has been no indication either way that it will change or that it will not change. In times past this would not have been an issue and the name of the royal house would automatically change once the Crown passed through the female line to reflect the patrilineal line. With the name Windsor the British monarchy has a name that does not have foreign roots like many of the former British royal houses had. This trend, of adopting or keeping nationalistic names for European Monarchies has become the new tradition. Many extant monarchies have chosen to keep the dynastic name even when passing through the female line. For example, in the Netherlands the dynastic name of the royal family is Orange-Nassau despite passing through the female line in the last three generations. Even further back in time Austria kept the Habsburg name even though the last male line Habsburg, Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI, died in 1740. In Russia the name of Romanov was kept even though the last male line Romanov died with the death of Emperor Peter II in 1730.

The dynasty that replaced the Romanov’s were the House of Holstein-Gottorp a collateral branch of the House of Oldenburg, but because Romanov was the name so associated with the Russian royal family it was decided to retain the name. In Belgium and Luxembourg they also have distanced themselves from their dynastic titles. In 1986, former Grand Duke Jean of Luxembourg, dropped the dynastic title of the House of Bourbon-Parma, because the head of that house, Duke Carlo-Hugo of Bourbon Parma deemed that Jean’s son, the current Grand Duke Henri, had entered into an unequal marriage. In 1921 King Albert I of Belgium dropped the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha dynastic name for the same reasons George V did. Today the Belgian royal family is simply known as being “of Belgium.”

With Britain now having a gender neutral succession it seems wise to just retain the name of Windsor for the name of the royal family even though it may, or will, pass through the female line many times in the future. With such a proud British (or specifically English) name such as Windsor attached to the royal family this association would be lost by changing it to the House of Glücksburg. It would once again be placing the family name under something foreign and not British or English. Some have theorized that a future Charles III could hyphenate Windsor with Mountbatten, something the queen herself decreed in 1961 for all their descendants who did not hold a royal title, or Charles III could call the royal house the House of Mountbatten or even the House Edinburgh. However, none of those scenarios seem likely.

Hopefully this all doesn’t sound xenophobic. My intent was to demonstrate that since the political atmosphere has changed over the centuries when royal families ruled over many different nation-states, and that the modern monarchy is more nationalistic, it makes great sense to abandon that old practice of renaming the royal dynasty when it passed through the female line and to retain a name that reflects and honors the people who the royal family serves.