September 19, 1803: Birth of Princess Maria Anna of Savoy

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Emperor Ferdinand I of Austria, Emperor Francis I of Austria, Emperor Franz Josef of Austria- Hungary, Empress Maria Theresa, Holy Roman Emperor Francis II, King Ferdinand V of Hungary and Bohemia, King Vittorio Emanuele I of Sardinia, Princess Maria Anna of Savoy

Maria Anna of Savoy (September 19, 1803 – May 4, 1884) was Empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary by marriage to Emperor Ferdinand I of Austria.

Biography

Maria Anna was born in Palazzo Colonna in Rome, the daughter of King Vittorio Emanuele I of Sardinia and his wife, Archduchess Maria Teresa of Austria-Este, daughter of Archduke Ferdinand of Austria, governor of Milan and son of Empress Maria Theresa after whom she was named. Her mother was Maria Beatrice d’Este, Duchess of Massa and heir to the Duchy of Modena. Maria Beatrice d’Este, Duchess of Massa, was born in Modena, the eldest child of two monarchs, Ercole III d’Este, Duke of Modena and Maria Teresa Cybo-Malaspina, reigning duchess of Massa and princess of Carrara.

Maria Anna of Savoy had a twin sister Maria Teresa, who became Duchess consort of Parma and Piacenza by marriage to Carlo II, Duke of Parma (Duke Charles I of Lucca).

The two princesses were baptised by Pope Pius VII. Their godparents were their maternal grandparents, Archduke Ferdinand of Austria-Este and his wife Maria Beatrice Ricciarda d’Este. In the Museo di Roma can be seen a painting of the baptism.

On February 12, 1831 Maria Anna was married by procuration in Turin to Archduke Ferdinand of Austria (later Emperor Ferdinand I of Austria). On February 27, the couple were married in person in Vienna in the Hofburg chapel by the Cardinal Archbishop of Olmütz.

Ferdinand was the eldest son of Franz II-I, Holy Roman Emperor and Emperor of Austria and Maria Theresa of Naples and Sicily. Possibly as a result of his parents’ genetic closeness (they were double first cousins), Ferdinand suffered from epilepsy, hydrocephalus, neurological problems, and a speech impediment. He was educated by Baron Josef Kalasanz von Erberg, and his wife Josephine, by birth a Countess von Attems.

When Princess Maria Anna and Archduke Ferdinand married, the court physician considered it unlikely that he would be able to consummate the marriage. When he tried to consummate the marriage, he had five seizures.

Ferdinand succeeded on the death of his father Franz II-I on March 2, 1835. Fredinand also became King Ferdinand V of Hungary. Ferdinand was incapable of ruling his empire because of his mental deficiency, so his father, before he died, made a will which promulgated that Ferdinand should consult Archduke Ludwig on all aspects of internal policy and urged him to be influenced by Prince Metternich, Austria’s Foreign Minister.

Following the Revolutions of 1848, Ferdinand abdicated on December 2, 1848. He was succeeded by his nephew, Franz Joseph. Following his abdication, he lived in Hradčany Palace, Prague, until his death in 1875.

Maria Anna and Ferdinand had no children.

When Ferdinand succeeded as Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary and Bohemia; Maria Anna became Empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary and Bohemia. On September 12, 1836 she was crowned as Queen of Bohemia at Prague.

After December 2, 1848 when Ferdinand abdicated as Emperor of Austria, but retaining his imperial rank; Maria Anna was henceforward titled Empress Maria Anna. They lived in retirement together, spending the winters at Prague Castle and the summers at Reichstadt (now Zákupy) or at Ploschkowitz (now Ploskovice).

Maria Anna died in Prague, May 4, 1884 (aged 80). She is buried next to her husband in tomb number 63 in the Imperial Crypt in Vienna.

August 6, 1806. Dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire.

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Confederation of the Rhine, Emperor of the French, Emperors of Russia, Holy Roman Emperor, Holy Roman Emperor Francis II, Holy Roman Empire, Napoleon Bonaparte

The dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire occurred de facto on August 6, 1806, when Emperor Franz II abdicated his Imperial title and released all imperial states and officials from their oaths and obligations to the empire. Although the abdication was considered legal, the dissolution of the imperial bonds was not and several states refused to recognise the end of the empire at the time.

Although today is the date the empire was dissolved, in many ways it was a mere formality as the empire had been deteriorating since the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648 that ended the Thirty Years War. The treaty gave the numerous states within the empire autonomy, ending the empire in all but name. The Swiss Confederation, which had already established quasi-independence in 1499, as well as the Northern Netherlands, also left the Empire at this juncture. The Habsburg Emperors then began to focus on consolidating their own estates in Austria and elsewhere.

Holy Roman Empire

By the reign of Louis XIV of France in the mid 17th and early 18th centuries, France began to surpass the Holy Roman Empire as the dominant power in Europe. Also, the Habsburgs were chiefly dependent on their hereditary lands to counter the recent rise of Prussia; some of whose territories lay inside the Empire. Throughout the 18th century, the Habsburgs were embroiled in various European conflicts, such as the War of the Spanish Succession, the War of the Polish Succession, and the War of the Austrian Succession. The German dualism between Austria and Prussia dominated the empire’s history in the 18th century as the two states vied for supremecy over the German lands.

From 1792 onwards, revolutionary France was at war with various parts of the Empire intermittently. 1792 was also the year Holy Roman Emperor Leopold II died and was succeeded by his son as Emperor Franz II, the last Holy Roman Emperor.

Franz II (February 12, 1768 – March 2, 1835) born in Florence, the capital of Tuscany, where his father reigned as Grand Duke at the time. His parents were Emperor Leopold II (1747–1792) and his wife Maria Luisa of Spain (1745–1792), (daughter of King Carlos III of Spain, Naples and Sicily and Princess Maria Amalia of Saxony, a daughter of the newly elected Polish king Augustus III and his (ironically) Austrian wife Maria Josepha of Austria.) Though Franz had a happy childhood surrounded by his many siblings, his family knew He was likely to be a future Emperor (his uncle Emperor Joseph II had no surviving issue from either of his two marriages), and so in 1784 the young Archduke Franz was sent to the Imperial Court in Vienna to educate and prepare him for his future role.

Franz II-I, Holy Roman Emperor and Emperor of Austria

As Emperor and the leader of the large multi-ethnic Habsburg Empire, Franz II felt threatened by Napoleon’s social and political reforms, which were being exported throughout Europe with the expansion of the first French Empire. Franz had a fraught relationship with France. His aunt Marie Antoinette, the wife of Louis XVI and Queen consort of France, was guillotined by the revolutionaries in 1793, at the beginning of his reign. Franz, on the whole, was indifferent to her fate (she was not close to his father, Leopold II and although Franz had met her, he had been too young at the time to have any memory of his aunt). Georges Danton attempted to negotiate with the Emperor for Marie Antoinette’s release, but Franz was unwilling to make any concessions in return.

In 1804, with the growing ambitions of Napoleon, who had himself proclaimed Emperor of the French that year, Franz, knowing the end of the Holy Roman Empire was drawing nigh, established the Austrian Empire and became Franz I, the first Emperor of Austria, ruling from 1804 to 1835. This act made him the only Doppelkaiser (double emperor) in history.For the two years between 1804 and 1806, Franz used the title and style by the Grace of God elected Roman Emperor, ever Augustus, hereditary Emperor of Austria and he was called the Emperor of both the Holy Roman Empire and Austria. He was also Apostolic King of Hungary, Croatia and Bohemia as Franz I.

With Napoleon’s victory over Austria at the Battle of Austerlitz on December 2, 1805, the French Emperor “transformed himself from the guarantor of the Reich to the arbiter of its fate.” The subsequent Peace of Pressburg (December 26) created deliberate ambiguities in the imperial constitution. Bavaria, Baden and Württemberg were to have full sovereignty while remaining a part of the Germanic Confederation, a novel name for the Empire.

With the the signing of the Peace of Pressburg Emperor Franz II recognized the kingly titles assumed by the Electors of Bavaria and Württemberg, which foreshadowed the end of the Holy Roman Empire. At this point, he believed his position as Holy Roman Emperor to be untenable, so on August 6, 1806, he abdicated the throne, declaring the empire to be already dissolved in the same declaration. This was a political move to impair the legitimacy of the new entity, the Confederation of the Rhine, which had been created by Napoleon.

Napoleon, Emperor of the French

After the defeat of Napoleon the major European powers convened the Congress of Vienna. The objective of the Congress was to provide a long-term peace plan for Europe by settling critical issues arising from the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. The goal was not simply to restore old boundaries but to resize the main powers so they could balance each other and remain at peace. The last Holy Roman Emperor Franz II, in his role as Emperor of Austria served as the first president of the German Confederation following its confirmation by the Congress in 1815.

May 18, 1797: Birth of Friedrich-August II, King of Saxony.

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Archduchess Maria-Caroline of Austria, Elector Friedrich-Christian of Saxony, Elector of Saxony, Emperor Francis I of Austria, Frederick Augustus II of Saxony, Frederick Augustus III of Saxony, Hereditary Prince of Saxony, Holy Roman Emperor Francis II, Holy Roman Empire, King Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria, King of Saxony, Maximilian of Saxony, Princess Amalie-Auguste of Bavaria, Princess Sophie of Bavaria

Friedrich-August II (May 18, 1797 in Dresden – August 1854 in Brennbüchel, Karrösten, Tyrol) was King of Saxony and a member of the House of Wettin.

Friedrich-August II, King of Saxony.

Family

He was the son of Hereditary Prince Maximilian of Saxony (1759-1838) was a German prince and a member of the House of Wettin. He was the sixth but third and youngest surviving son of Friedrich-Christian, Elector of Saxony (1722-1763)and the composer Princess Maria-Antonia of Bavaria (1724-1780)

Friedrich-August II’s paternal grandmother was Princess Maria-Antonia of Bavaria who was born at Nymphenburg Palace in Munich to Elector Charles-Albert of Bavaria, later Emperor Charles VII, (1697-1745) and Archduchess Maria-Amalia of Austria (1701-1756). Throughout her life she received an outstanding education, particularly in the arts (including painting, writing poetry, as well as music).

Maximilian, Hereditary Prince of Saxony

The mother of Friedrich-August II was Princess Carolina of Bourbon-Parma (1770-1804) the eldest of nine children born to Ferdinand, Duke of Parma (1751-1802) by his wife Archduchess Maria-Amalia of Austria (1746-1804).

Princess Carolina of Bourbon-Parma Parma

Princess Carolina of Bourbon-Parma’s full baptismal name was Carolina Maria Teresa Giuseppa. She was named after her godparents, her paternal great-uncle King Carlos III of Spain and her maternal grandmother Empress Maria-Theresa.

Friedrich-August’s maternal grandmother was Archduchess Maria-Amalia of Austria was a daughter of Empress Maria-Theresa and Emperor Franz I. She was thus younger sister to Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor and older sister to Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor, Maria-Carolina, Queen of Naples and Marie-Antoinette, Queen of France.

Archduchess Maria-Amalia of Austria

One of the siblings of Friedrich-August II was Maria-Josepha- Amalia of Saxony, Queen Consort of Spain. She died May 18, 1829 and her life will be reviewed next.

March to the Throne

From his birth, it was clear that one day Friedrich-August would become the ruler of Saxony. His father was the only son of the Elector Friedrich-Christian of Saxony who left surviving male issue. His uncle was King Friedrich-August I of Saxony (1750-1827) who reigned also reigned as Elector Friedrich-August III of Saxony from 1763 to 1806 and as King of Saxony from 1806 to 1827. He also served as Duke of Warsaw from 1807 to 1813.

Elector Friedrich-Christian of Saxony

Before 1806, Saxony was an Electorate as part of the Holy Roman Empire, a thousand-year-old entity that had become highly decentralised over the centuries. The rulers of the Electorate of Saxony of the House of Wettin had held the title of elector for several centuries. When the Holy Roman Empire was dissolved in August 1806 following the defeat of Emperor FranzII by Napoleon at the Battle of Austerlitz, the electorate was raised to the status of an independent kingdom with the support of the First French Empire, then the dominant power in Central Europe. The last elector of Saxony became King Friedrich-August I.

King Friedrich-August I-III, Elector and King of Saxony

King Friedrich-August I of Saxony married the Countess Palatine Amalie of Zweibrücken-Birkenfeld, the daughter of Count Palatine Frederick Michael of Palatinate-Zweibrücken-Birkenfeld-Bischweiler and his wife, Countess Palatine Maria Francisca of Palatinate-Sulzbach and sister of King Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria.

During their marriage, Amalia gave birth to four children, but only one daughter survived to adulthood: Princess Maria-Augusta of Saxony (1782-1863. Though she never married Her family had a claim to the throne of Poland (Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth) and the Constitution of May 3, 1791 named her as a potential successor to the Polish throne if the male line of the Wettin family were to end.

King Friedrich-August I died in 1827 and his brother Anton succeeded him as King. Friedrich-August then became second in line to the throne, preceded only by his father Maximilian.

Friedrich-August was an officer in the War of the Sixth Coalition. However, he had little interest in military affairs.

Marriages

In Vienna on September 26, 1819 (by proxy) and again in Dresden on October 7, 1819 (in person), Friedrich-August married firstly the Archduchess Maria-Caroline of Austria (1801-1832), a daughter of Franz II, Holy Roman Emperor, later Emperor Franz I of Austria after the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire, and Maria-Teresa of the Two Sicilies, and was named after an elder sister who had died in infancy. She belonged to the House of Habsburg-Lorraine. She was educated strictly, standing out in drawing, as proven by several sketches and crayons preserved in Austria.

Archduchess Maria-Caroline of Austria

The marriage was childless and unhappy. Marie-Caroline was sweet and pleasant, but she suffered from epilepsy and her attacks were so frequent that she was barely able to fulfill her duties as Crown Princess; they also seriously affected her marital relationship. Friedrich-August was unfaithful on several occasions. From one of these affairs he had an illegitimate son, the musician Theodor Uhlig (1822–1853). The long-suffering Maria Carolina died from an epileptic attack on May 22, 1832 at Pillnitz Castle near Dresden.

In Dresden on April 24, 1833 Friedrich-August married secondly Princess Maria-Anna of Bavaria (1805–1877), daughter of the King Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria, and his second wife Caroline of Baden. There were no children from the marriage.

Princess Maria-Anna of Bavaria

Princess Sophie of Bavaria, Princess Maria-Anna‘s twin sister.

Princess Maria-Anna She the identical twin sister of Princess Sophie of Bavaria, mother of Emperor Franz-Joseph I of Austria and Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico. King Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria and his wife had two sets of twins.

Friedrich-August’s brother, Prince Johann of Saxony, was married to Princess Maria-Anna of Bavaria’s sister, Princess Amalie-Auguste of Bavaria (1801-1877).

Princess Amalie-Auguste of Bavaria

Co-Regent of the Kingdom of Saxony

The July Revolution of 1830 in France marked the beginning of disturbances in Saxony that autumn. The people claimed a change in the constitution and demanded a young regent of the kingdom to share the government with the King Anton. On September 1, Hereditary Prince Maximilian renounced his rights of succession in favor of his son Friedrich-August, who was proclaimed Prince Co-Regent of Saxony. On February 2, 1832 Friedrich-August brought Free Autonomy to the cities. Also, by an edict of March of 17, that year, the farmers were freed from the corvée and hereditary submission.

King of Saxony

On June 6, 1836, King Anton died and Friedrich-August succeeded him. As an intelligent man, he was quickly popular with the people as he had been since the time of his regency. The new king solved political questions only from a pure sense of duty. Mostly he preferred to leave these things on the hands of his ministers.

A standardized jurisdiction for Saxony created the Criminal Code of 1836. During the Revolutionary disturbances of 1848 (March Revolution), he appointed liberal ministers in the government, lifted censorship, and remitted a liberal electoral law. Later his attitude changed. On April 28, Friedrich-August II dissolved the Parliament. In 1849, King Friedrich-August II was forced to flee to the Königstein Fortress during the May Uprising which was crushed by Saxon and Prussian troops and Friedrich-August II was able to return after only a few days.

Journey through England and Scotland

In 1844 Friedrich-August II accompanied by his personal physician Carl-Gustaf Carus, made an informal (incognito) visit to England and Scotland. Among places they visited were Lyme Regis where he purchased from the local fossil collector and dealer, Mary Anning, an ichthyosaur skeleton for his own extensive natural history collection. It was not a state visit, but the King was the guest of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert at Windsor Castle, visited many of the sights in London and in the university cities of Oxford and Cambridge, and toured widely in England, Wales and Scotland.

Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha

Accidental Death

During a journey in Tyrol, he had an accident in Brennbüchel in which he fell in front of a horse that stepped on his head. On August 8, 1854, he died in the Gasthof Neuner. He was buried on August 16, in the Katholische Hofkirche of Dresden. In his memory, the Dowager Queen Maria arranged to establish the Königskapelle (King’s Chapel) at the accident place, which was consecrated one year later, some of the last members of the Saxon royal family, including Maria-Emanuel, Margrave of Meissen (1926-2012) who was the head of the Royal House of Saxony are buried beside the chapel.

Without legitimate issue, after his death Friedrich-August II was succeeded by his younger brother, Johann.

March 2, 1835: Death of Franz II, last Holy Roman Emperor.

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Archduchess Maria Ludovika of Austria-Este, Caroline Augusta of Bavaria, Francis I of Austria, Holy Roman Emperor, Holy Roman Emperor Francis II, Holy Roman Empire, Maria Teresa of the Two Sicilies, Napoleon Bonaparte

Franz II (February 12, 1768 – March 2, 1835) was the last Holy Roman Emperor, ruling from 1792 until August 6, 1806, when he dissolved the Holy Roman Empire after the decisive defeat at the hands of the First French Empire led by Napoleon at the Battle of Austerlitz. In 1804, he had founded the Austrian Empire and became Franz I, the first Emperor of Austria, ruling from 1804 to 1835, so later he was named the first Doppelkaiser (double emperor) in history.

For the two years between 1804 and 1806, Franz used the title and style by the Grace of God elected Roman Emperor, ever Augustus, hereditary Emperor of Austria and he was called the Emperor of both the Holy Roman Empire and Austria. He was also Apostolic King of Hungary, Croatia and Bohemia as Franz I. He also served as the first president of the German Confederation following its establishment in 1815.

Franz II continued his leading role as an opponent of Napoleonic France in the Napoleonic Wars, and suffered several more defeats after Austerlitz. The proxy marriage of the state of his daughter Marie Louise of Austria to Emperor Napoleon on March 10, 1810 was arguably his severest personal defeat. After the abdication of Emperor Napoleon following the War of the Sixth Coalition, Austria participated as a leading member of the Holy Alliance at the Congress of Vienna, which was largely dominated by Franz’s chancellor Klemens Wenzel, Prince von Metternich, culminating in a new European map and the restoration of Franz’s ancient dominions (except the Holy Roman Empire which was dissolved). Due to the establishment of the Concert of Europe, which largely resisted popular nationalist and liberal tendencies, Franz became viewed as a reactionary later in his reign.

Emperor Franz II was married 4 times.

1.On January 6, 1788, to Elisabeth of Württemberg (April 21, 1767 – February 18, 1790). Elisabeth was the eighth of the twelve children of Friedrich II Eugene, Duke of Württemberg, by his wife, Sophia Dorothea of Brandenburg-Schwedt. At the end of 1789, Elisabeth became pregnant; however, her condition was very delicate. On the night of February 18, she prematurely gave birth to Archduchess Ludovika Elisabeth, who lived for only 16 months. Despite an emergency operation to save her life, Elisabeth did not survive the birth, which lasted more than 24 hours. She is buried in the Imperial Crypt, in Vienna.

Elisabeth of Württemberg

2. On September 15, 1790, Franz II married his double first cousin Maria Teresa of the Two Sicilies (June 6, 1772 – April 13, 1807), daughter of King Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies and Archduchess Maria Carolina of Austria, the thirteenth child of Empress Maria Theresa and Holy Emperor Franz I, (both were grandchildren of Empress Maria Theresa and shared all of their other grandparents in common), with whom he had twelve children, of whom only seven reached adulthood.

Maria Teresa of the Two Sicilies

3. On January 6, 1808, he married again to another first cousin, Archduchess Maria Ludovika of Austria-Este (December 14, 1787 – April 7, 1816) with no issue. She was the daughter of Archduke Ferdinand of Austria-Este and Maria Beatrice d’Este, Princess of Modena.

Archduchess Maria Ludovika of Austria-Este

4. On October 28, 1816, to Caroline Augusta of Bavaria (February 8, 1792 – February 9, 1873) with no issue. She was daughter of Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria and Princess Augusta Wilhelmine of Hesse-Darmstadt. Caroline Augusta of Bavaria had been previously married to Wilhelm I of Württemberg. Wilhelm of Württemberg, then Crown Prince, and Caroline Augusta never bonded with each other and the marriage was finally annulled by Pope Pius VII to enable both of them to make remarriages that were valid in the Catholic Church. At the time of the annulment, it was claimed by them that they had lived separately in the palace and that the marriage had never been consummated.

After the annulment of her marriage, Caroline Augusta was considered as a bride for both the Holy Roman Emperor Franz II and his younger brother, Ferdinand. Later, Ferdinand III, Grand Duke of Tuscany who had proposed to Caroline. Ferdinand withdrew his proposal and Caroline Augusta became the Emperor’s bride. She was 24 and the Emperor was 48.

Caroline Augusta of Bavaria

On March 2, 1835, 43 years and a day after his father’s death, Franz died in Vienna of a sudden fever aged 67, in the presence of many of his family and with all the religious comforts. His funeral was magnificent, with his Viennese subjects respectfully filing past his coffin in the chapel of Hofburg Palace for three days. Franz was interred in the traditional resting place of Habsburg monarchs, the Kapuziner Imperial Crypt in Vienna’s Neue Markt Square. He is buried in tomb number 57, surrounded by his four wives.

Franz II’s grandchildren include Napoleon II (Napoleon’s only legitimate son), Franz Joseph I of Austria, Maximillian I of Mexico, Maria II of Portugal and Pedro II of Brazil.

November 21, 1916: Death of Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria-Hungary.

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Archduke Franz Ferdinand, Archduke Franz Karl, Archduke of Austria, Austrian Empire, Charles I of Austria, Franz Joseph of Austria-Hungary, Holy Roman Emperor Francis II, Schönbrunn Palace, Sisi, Sophia of Bavaria, World War I

Franz Joseph I (August 18, 1830 – November 21, 1916) was Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary, King of Bohemia, and monarch of many other states of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, from December 2, 1848 to his death. From May 1, 1850 to August 24, 1866 he was also President of the German Confederation, the successor state to the Holy Roman Empire. He was the longest-reigning Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary, as well as the third-longest-reigning monarch of any country in European history, after Louis XIV of France and Johann II of Liechtenstein.

Franz Joseph was born in the Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna (on the 65th anniversary of the death his great-great grandfather Holy Roman Emperor Franz I of Lorraine) as the eldest son of Archduke Franz Karl (the younger son of Holy Roman Emperor Franz II), and his wife Princess Sophie of Bavaria. Because his uncle, reigning from 1835 as the Emperor Ferdinand, was weak-minded, and his father unambitious and retiring, his mother of the young Archduke Franz Joseph brought him up as a future Emperor, with emphasis on devotion, responsibility and diligence.

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. As the revolutionaries of 1848 were marching on the palace, Emperor Ferdinand is supposed to have asked Metternich for an explanation. When Metternich answered that they were making a revolution, Ferdinand is supposed to have said “But are they allowed to do that?”

Emperor Ferdinand was convinced by Felix zu Schwarzenberg to abdicate in favour of his nephew, Franz Joseph (the next in line was Ferdinand’s younger brother Franz Karl, but he was persuaded to waive his succession rights in favour of his son). Therefore, with the abdication of his uncle Ferdinand and the renunciation of his father (the mild-mannered Franz Karl) Franz Joseph succeeded as Emperor of Austria at Olomouc on December 2. At first Franz Joseph wanted to reign as Franz II but given that his grandfather Franz I was also known as Franz II as the last Holy Roman Emperor he decided to avoid any confusion and became known by his second as well as his first Christian name.

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 transformed the Austrian Empire into 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, the Emperor Maximilian of Mexico in 1867, the suicide of his only son and heir-apparent, Crown Prince Rudolf, in 1889, the assassination of his wife, Empress Elisabeth, in 1898, and the assassination of his nephew and heir-presumptive, the 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 with the Russian Empire. The Bosnian Crisis was a result of Franz Joseph’s annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1908, which had been occupied by his troops since the Congress of Berlin (1878).

On June 28, 1914, the assassination of his nephew and heir-presumptive, Archduke 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 which resulted in World War I.

Franz Joseph died in the Schönbrunn Palace on the evening of November 21, 1916, at the age of 86. His death was a result of developing pneumonia of the right lung several days after catching a coldwhile walking in Schönbrunn Park with King Ludwig III of Bavaria. He was succeeded by his grandnephew Karl I, who reigned until the collapse of the Empire following its defeat in 1918.

He is buried in the Imperial Crypt in Vienna, where flowers are still left by monarchists.

The full list of title held by Franz Joseph (after the loss of the Lombardy in 1859 and Venetia in 1866):

Emperor of Austria, 
Apostolic King of Hungary,
 King of Bohemia, of Dalmatia, of Croatia, of Slavonia, of Galicia, of Lodomeria, and of Illyria, 
King of Jerusalem, and so forth,
 Archduke of Austria,
 Grand Duke of Tuscany and of Cracow,
 Duke of Lorraine, of Salzburg, of Styria, of Carinthia, of Carniola and of the Bukovina,
 Grand Prince of Transylvania,
 Margrave in Moravia,
 Duke of Upper and Lower Silesia, of Modena, Parma, Piacenza and Guastalla, of Auschwitz and Zator, of Teschen, Friuli, Ragusa and Zara,
Princely Count of Habsburg and Tyrol, of Kyburg, Gorizia and Gradisca,
 Prince of Trent and Brixen,
 Margrave of Upper and Lower Lusatia and in Istria,
 Count of Hohenems, Feldkirch, Bregenz, Sonnenberg, and so forth, Lord of Trieste, of Cattaro and of the Windic March, Grand Voivode of the Voivodship of Serbia, and so forth, Sovereign of the Order of the Golden Fleece.

This date in History: August 11, 1804, Holy Roman Emperor Franz II assumes the title Emperor of Austria.

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Archduke Archduchess, Austria-Hungary, Austrian Empire, Emperor of the French, Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor, Holy Roman Emperor Francis II, Holy Roman Empire, Marie Theresa, Napoleon Bonaparte

On August 6 I posted about the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire under Franz II in 1806. Two years prior to that he assumed the title “Emperor of Austria” and consolidated Habsburg hereditary lands.

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 Franz II feared for the future of the Holy Roman Empire and wished to maintain his and his family’s Imperial status in the event that the Holy Roman Empire should be dissolved.

Holy Roman Emperor Franz II, Emperor of Austria.

Therefore, on August 11, 1804 he created the new title of “Emperor of Austria” for himself and his successors as heads of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine. For two years, Franz carried two imperial titles: being Holy Roman Emperor Franz II and “by the Grace of God” Emperor Franz I of Austria. This made Franz the only double Emperor in History.

Therefore the title Emperor of Austria (German: Kaiser von Österreich) was the title for ruler of the Austrian Empire which later became the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1867 when the emperor, who was also King of Hungary raised that Kingdom to equal political status with Austria. The title was an hereditary imperial title invested in a member of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine, and continually held by him and his heirs until Carl I relinquished power in 1918.

Although Austria was now an Empire the emperors and the imperial family retained the title of Archduke of Austria. The wives of the emperors held the title empress, while other members of the family maintained the title archduke or archduchess of Austria.

Imperial Crown of Austria

Predecessors

Prior to the creation of the Austrian Empire members of the House of Austria, the Habsburg dynasty, (later Habsburg-Lorraine) had for centuries been elected to be Holy Roman Emperors and mostly resided in Vienna. Thus the term “Austrian emperor” may occur in texts dealing with the time before 1804, even though no Austrian Empire existed. In these cases the word Austria means the composite monarchy ruled by the dynasty, not the country. A special case was Maria Theresa; daughter of Holy Roman Emperor Carl VI, she bore the imperial title as the consort of Holy Roman Emperor Franz I (r. 1745–1765), but she herself was the monarch by hereditary right of the Austrian Hereditary Lands including Austria, Bohemia and Hungary.

From 1806 onwards, after the ancient Holy Roman Empire was dissolved, Franz was Emperor of Austria only. He had three successors—Ferdinand I, Franz Joseph I and Carl I before 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 Rudolf II (r. 1576–1612), (called Rudolfinische Hauskrone by the experts), which should convey the dignity and myth of the Habsburgs.

Titles of the Emperor

The Austrian Emperors had an extensive list of titles and claims that reflected the geographic expanse and diversity of the lands ruled by the Austrian Habsburgs. The grand title of the Emperor of Austria had been changed several times: by a patent of August 11, 1804, by a court office decree from August 22 1836, by an Imperial court ministry decree of January 6, 1867 and finally by a letter of December 12, 1867. Shorter versions were recommended for official documents and international treaties: “Emperor of Austria, King of Bohemia etc. and Apostolic King of Hungary”, “Emperor of Austria and Apostolic King of Hungary”, “His Majesty the Emperor and King” and “His Imperial and Royal Apostolic Majesty”.

The full list (after the loss of the Lombardy in 1859 and Venetia in 1866):

Emperor of Austria,
Apostolic King of Hungary,
King of Bohemia, of Dalmatia, of Croatia, of Slavonia, of Galicia, of Lodomeria, and of Illyria,
King of Jerusalem, and so forth,
Archduke of Austria,
Grand Duke of Tuscany and of Cracow,
Duke of Lorraine, of Salzburg, of Styria, of Carinthia, of Carniola and of the Bukovina,
Grand Prince of Transylvania,
Margrave in Moravia,
Duke of Upper and Lower Silesia, of Modena, Parma, Piacenza and Guastalla, of Auschwitz and Zator, of Teschen, Friuli, Ragusa and Zara,
Princely Count of Habsburg and Tyrol, of Kyburg, Gorizia and Gradisca,
Prince of Trent and Brixen,
Margrave of Upper and Lower Lusatia and in Istria,
Count of Hohenems, Feldkirch, Bregenz, Sonnenberg, and so forth, Lord of Trieste, of Cattaro and of the Windic March,Grand Voivode of the Voivodship of Serbia, and so forth, Sovereign of the Order of the Golden Fleece.

This date in History: August 6, 1806. Dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire.

Tags

Austrian Empire, Carlos III of Spain, Congress of Vienna, Emperorvof the French, Holy Roman Emperor, Holy Roman Emperor Francis II, Holy Roman Empire, Joseph II, Leopold II, Louis XIV, Marie Antoinette, Napoleon, Napoleon Bonaparte

Although I’m in the middle of a series of posts examining the origins of the Holy Roman Empire, I’d like to discuss the dissolution of the Empire on the 213th Anniversary of the ending of the Empire.

The dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire occurred de facto on August 6, 1806, when Emperor Franz II abdicated his Imperial title and released all imperial states and officials from their oaths and obligations to the empire. Although the abdication was considered legal, the dissolution of the imperial bonds was not and several states refused to recognise the end of the empire at the time.

Although today is the date the empire was dissolved, in many ways it was a mere formality as the empire had been deteriorating since the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648 that ended the Thirty Years War. The treaty gave the numerous states within the empire autonomy, ending the empire in all but name. The Swiss Confederation, which had already established quasi-independence in 1499, as well as the Northern Netherlands, also left the Empire at this juncture. The Habsburg Emperors then began to focus on consolidating their own estates in Austria and elsewhere.

By the reign of Louis XIV of France in the mid 17th and early 18th centuries, France began to surpass the Holy Roman Empire as the dominant power in Europe. Also, the Habsburgs were chiefly dependent on their hereditary lands to counter the recent rise of Prussia; some of whose territories lay inside the Empire. Throughout the 18th century, the Habsburgs were embroiled in various European conflicts, such as the War of the Spanish Succession, the War of the Polish Succession, and the War of the Austrian Succession. The German dualism between Austria and Prussia dominated the empire’s history in the 18th century as the two states vied for supremecy over the German lands.

From 1792 onwards, revolutionary France was at war with various parts of the Empire intermittently. 1792 was also the year Holy Roman Emperor Leopold II died and was succeeded by his son as Emperor Franz II, the last Holy Roman Emperor.

Franz II, Holy Roman Emperor and Emperor of Austria.

Franz II (February 12, 1768 – March 2, 1835) born in Florence, the capital of Tuscany, where his father reigned as Grand Duke at the time. His parents were Emperor Leopold II (1747–1792) and his wife Maria Luisa of Spain (1745–1792), (daughter of King Carlos III of Spain, Naples and Sicily and Princess Maria Amalia of Saxony, a daughter of the newly elected Polish king Augustus III and his (ironically) Austrian wife Maria Josepha of Austria.) Though Franz had a happy childhood surrounded by his many siblings, his family knew He was likely to be a future Emperor (his uncle Emperor Joseph II had no surviving issue from either of his two marriages), and so in 1784 the young Archduke Franz was sent to the Imperial Court in Vienna to educate and prepare him for his future role.

As Emperor and the leader of the large multi-ethnic Habsburg Empire, Franz II felt threatened by Napoleon’s social and political reforms, which were being exported throughout Europe with the expansion of the first French Empire. Franz had a fraught relationship with France. His aunt Marie Antoinette, the wife of Louis XVI and Queen consort of France, was guillotined by the revolutionaries in 1793, at the beginning of his reign. Franz, on the whole, was indifferent to her fate (she was not close to his father, Leopold II and although Franz had met her, he had been too young at the time to have any memory of his aunt). Georges Danton attempted to negotiate with the Emperor for Marie Antoinette’s release, but Franz was unwilling to make any concessions in return.

Napoleon, Emperor of the French.

In 1804, with the growing ambitions of Napoleon, who had himself proclaimed Emperor of France that year, Franz, knowing the end of the Holy Roman Empire was drawing nigh, established the Austrian Empire and became Franz I, the first Emperor of Austria, ruling from 1804 to 1835. This act made him the only Doppelkaiser (double emperor) in history.For the two years between 1804 and 1806, Franz used the title and style by the Grace of God elected Roman Emperor, ever Augustus, hereditary Emperor of Austria and he was called the Emperor of both the Holy Roman Empire and Austria. He was also Apostolic King of Hungary, Croatia and Bohemia as Franz I.

With Napoleon’s victory over Austria at the Battle of Austerlitz on December 2, 1805, the French Emperor “transformed himself from the guarantor of the Reich to the arbiter of its fate.” The subsequent Peace of Pressburg (December 26) created deliberate ambiguities in the imperial constitution. Bavaria, Baden and Württemberg were to have full sovereignty while remaining a part of the Germanic Confederation, a novel name for the Empire.

With the the signing of the Peace of Pressburg Emperor Franz II recognized the kingly titles assumed by the Electors of Bavaria and Württemberg, which foreshadowed the end of the Holy Roman Empire. At this point, he believed his position as Holy Roman Emperor to be untenable, so on August 6, 1806, he abdicated the throne, declaring the empire to be already dissolved in the same declaration. This was a political move to impair the legitimacy of the new entity, the Confederation of the Rhine, which had been created by Napoleon.

After the defeat of Napoleon the major European powers convened the Congress of Vienna. The objective of the Congress was to provide a long-term peace plan for Europe by settling critical issues arising from the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. The goal was not simply to restore old boundaries but to resize the main powers so they could balance each other and remain at peace. The last Holy Roman Emperor Franz II, in his role as Emperor of Austria served as the first president of the German Confederation following its confirmation by the Congress in 1815.

Confederation of the Rhine