December 2, 1848: Abdication of Austrian Emperor Ferdinand and the Accession of Archduke Franz Joseph on the Imperial Throne.

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Archduke Franz Charles of Austria, Archduke Franz Joseph of Austria, Emperor Ferdinand of Austria, Emperor Franz of Austria, Ferdinand of the Two-Sicilies, Holy Roman Emperor Franz II, Prince Felix zu Schwarzenberg, Prince Klemens Wenzel von Metternich, Revolutions of 1848, Sophie of Bavaria

On this date Emperor Ferdinand of Austria abdicated the throne in favor of his nephew, Archduke Franz Joseph who ascended the throne and would reign for nearly 68 years.

Ferdinand I (April 19, 1793 – June 29, 1875) was the eldest son of Franz II, Holy Roman Emperor and Maria Theresa de Bourbon of Naples and Sicily. Possibly as a result of his parents’ genetic closeness (they were double first cousins), Ferdinand suffered from hydrocephalus, neurological problems including epilepsy, and a speech impediment. He was educated by Baron Josef Kalasanz von Erberg, and his wife Countess Josephine von Attems.

Ferdinand succeeded to the throne of the Habsburg Empire on the death of his father Emperor Franz of Austria on March 2, 1835. Previously his father was known as Franz II, the last Holy Roman Emperor, who abdicated that throne in August of 1806. As ruler of Austria, Emperor Ferdinand was also President of the German Confederation, King of Hungary, Croatia and Bohemia (as Ferdinand V), King of Lombardy–Venetia and holder of many other lesser titles.

Due to his rocky, passive but well-intentioned character, he gained the sobriquet The Benign or The Benevolent.

Emperor Ferdinand was incapable of ruling his empire because of a mental deficiency, so his father, before he died, made a will promulgating that Ferdinand should consult his uncle Archduke Ludwig on all aspects of internal policy and urged him to be influenced by Prince Metternich, Austria’s Foreign Minister.

Ferdinand’s abdication came as a result of Revolutions of 1848 that swept across most of Europe.

The Revolutions of 1848 in the Austrian Empire were a set of revolutions that took place in the Austrian Empire from March 1848 to November 1849. Much of the revolutionary activity had a nationalist character: the Empire, ruled from Vienna, included ethnic Germans, Hungarians, Slovenes, Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, Ruthenians (Ukrainians), Romanians, Croats, Venetians (Italians) and Serbs; all of whom attempted in the course of the revolution to either achieve autonomy, independence, or even hegemony over other nationalities.

The nationalist picture was further complicated by the simultaneous events in the German states, which moved toward greater German national unity. Besides these nationalists, liberal and even socialist currents resisted the Empire’s longstanding conservatism.

Photo of Emperor Ferdinand of Austria

The early rumblings

The events of 1848 were the product of mounting social and political tensions after the Congress of Vienna of 1815. During the “pre-March” period, the already conservative Austrian Empire moved further away from ideas of the Age of Enlightenment, by restricting freedom of the press, limited many university activities, and banned fraternities.

As the revolutionaries of 1848 were marching on the palace, he 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?” (Viennese German: Ja, dürfen’s denn des?) He was convinced by Prince Felix of Schwarzenberg to abdicate in favour of his nephew, Archduke Franz Joseph (the next in line was Ferdinand’s younger brother Archduke Franz Charles, but he was persuaded to waive his succession rights in favour of his son)

The reason Archduke Franz Charles was the heir was due to the fact that Emperor Ferdinand didn’t have any children. When Ferdinand married Princess Maria Anna of Savoy, 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.

Therefore the heir to the throne was his brother Archduke Franz Charles of Austria (December 17, 1802 – March 8, 1878). He was the father of two emperors: Franz Joseph I of Austria and Maximilian I of Mexico. Through his third son Charles Ludwig, he was the grandfather of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria – whose assassination sparked the hostilities that led to the outbreak of World War I – and the great-grandfather of the last Habsburg emperor Charles I.

Archduke Franz Charles of Austria

Franz Charles was born in Vienna, the third son of Emperor Franz of Austria by his second marriage with Princess Maria Theresa from the House of Bourbon, daughter of King Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies and Maria Carolina of Austria. Archduchess Maria Carolina was the thirteenth child of Empress Maria Theresa, Archduchess of Austria, Queen of Hungry etc and Emperor Franz I. Archduchess Maria Carolina was also a sister to Archduchess Marie Antoinette of Austria, Queen Consort to Louis XVI of France and Navarre.

On November 4, 1824 in Vienna Archduke Franz Charles married Princess Sophie of Bavaria from the House of Wittelsbach, a daughter of King Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria by his second wife Caroline of Baden. Sophie’s paternal half-sister, Caroline Augusta of Bavaria was by this time Franz Charles’ stepmother, having married his thrice-widowed father, Emperor Franz, in 1816. The Wittelsbachs condoned the unappealing manners of Sophie’s husband in consideration of the incapability of his elder brother Ferdinand and Sophie’s chance to become Austrian Empress.

A young Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria

Franz Charles was an unambitious and generally ineffectual man, although he was, together with his uncle Archduke Ludwig, a member of the Geheime Staatskonferenz council, which after the death of Emperor Franz ruled the Austrian Empire in the place of his mentally ill brother Ferdinand from 1835 to 1848.

The decisions, however, were actually made by the Minister of State Prince Klemens Wenzel von Metternich and his rival Count Franz Anton von Kolowrat-Liebsteinsky. His wife Sophie had already transferred her ambitions, when she urged Franz Charles to renounce his claims to the throne at the time of his brother’s abdication on December 2, 1848, allowing their eldest son Archduke Franz Joseph to take the Imperia Throne of the vast Austrian Empire.

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 Franz III, however he realized that the ordinal number “III” was associated with the old Holy Roman Empire and he would therefore be Emperor Franz II of Austria, but it was believed that would cause confusion since his grandfather was the last Holy Roman Emperorwith the name Franz II.

August 24, 1883: Death of Prince Henri, Count of Chambord, pretender to the French throne. Part I.

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Abdication, French Empire, French Republic, Henri de Chambord, Henri V of France, July Monarchy, King Charles X of France, King Louis Philippe of the French, Revolutions of 1848

Prince Henri, Count of Chambord (French: Henri Charles Ferdinand Marie Dieudonné d’Artois, duc de Bordeaux, comte de Chambord; September 29, 1820 – August 24, 1883) was disputedly King of France from 2 to 9 August 1830 as Henry V, although he was never officially proclaimed as such.

Afterwards, he was the Legitimist pretender to the throne of France from 1844 until his death in 1883.

Henri was the only son of Charles Ferdinand, Duke of Berry, born after his father’s death. The Duke of Berry was the younger son of Charles X of France and Navarre by his wife, Princess Carolina of Naples and Sicily, daughter of King Francis I of the Two Sicilies. As the grandson of Charles X, Henri was a Petit-Fils de France. He was the last legitimate descendant in the senior male line of Louis XV of France.

Henri d’Artois was born on September 29, 1820, in the Pavillon de Marsan, a portion of the Tuileries Palace that still survives in the compound of the Louvre Palace in Paris. His father, the duc de Berry, had been assassinated seven months before his birth.

At birth, Henri was given the title of duc de Bordeaux. Because of his birth after his father’s death, when the senior male line of the House of Bourbon was on the verge of extinction, Henri was named Dieudonné (“God-given”). Royalists called him “the miracle child”. Louis XVIII was overjoyed, bestowing 35 royal orders to mark the occasion. Henri’s birth was a major setback for Duke of Orleans’ ambitions to ascend the French throne. During his customary visit to congratulate the newborn’s mother, the duke made such offensive remarks about the baby’s appearance that the lady holding him was brought to tears.

On August 2, 1830, in response to the July Revolution, Henri’s grandfather, Charles X, abdicated, and twenty minutes later Charles’ elder son Louis Antoine, duc d’Angoulême, (Louis XIX) himself renounced his rights, in favour of the young duc de Bordeaux. Charles X urged his cousin Louis Philippe of Orléans, as Lieutenant général du royaume, to proclaim Henri as Henri V, King of France.

Louis Philippe requested the duc de Bordeaux to be brought in Paris to have his rights recognized. The duchess of Berry was denied to escort her son, therefore both the grand-father and the mother refused to leave the child in France . As a consequence, after seven days, a period in which legitimist monarchists considered that Henri had been the rightful monarch of France, the National Assembly decreed that the throne should pass to Louis Philippe, who was proclaimed King of the French on August, 9.

Henri and his family left France and went into exile on August 16, 1830. While some French monarchists recognized him as their sovereign, others disputed the validity of the abdications of his grandfather and of his uncle.

Still others recognised the July Monarchy of Louis Philippe. With the death of his 79-year-old grandfather, Charles X, in 1836 and of his uncle, Louis Antoine, duc d’Angoulême, (Louis XIX) in 1844, young Henri became the genealogically senior claimant to the French throne. His supporters were called Legitimists to distinguish them from the Orléanists, the supporters of the family of Louis Philippe.

In November 1846, the comte de Chambord married his second cousin Archduchess Maria Theresa of Austria-Este, daughter of Duke Francis IV of Modena and Princess Maria Beatrice of Savoy. The couple had no children.

April 19, 1793: Birth of Ferdinand I, Emperor of Austria.

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Emperor Franz I of Austria, Emperor Franz Joseph, Ferdinand I of Austria, Holy Roman Emperor Franz II, Pope Pius VII, Princess Maria Anna of Savoy, Revolutions of 1848

Ferdinand I (April 19, 1793 – June 29, 1875) was the Emperor of Austria from 1835 until his abdication in 1848. As ruler of Austria, he was also President of the German Confederation, King of Hungary, Croatia and Bohemia (as Ferdinand V), King of Lombardy–Venetia and holder of many other lesser titles. Had the Holy Roman Empire not been abolished during the reign of his father, Ferdinand would have reigned as Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand IV.

Ferdinand was the eldest son of Franz II-I, Holy Roman Emperor and Emperor of Austria, and Maria Theresa of Naples and Sicily. Ferdinand’s mother was the eldest of 18 children born to King Ferdinand IV-III of Naples and Sicily (later King Ferdinand I of the Two-Sicilies) and Maria Carolina of Austria, the thirteenth child of Holy Roman Empress Maria Theresa of Austria and Holy Roman Emperor Franz I.

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.

Ferdinand has been depicted as feeble-minded and incapable of ruling. Yet, although he had epilepsy, he kept a coherent and legible diary and has even been said to have had a sharp wit. However, suffering as many as twenty seizures per day severely restricted his ability to rule with any effectiveness. Though he was not declared incapacitated, a Regent’s Council (Archduke Ludwig of Austria-Tuscany, Count Kolowrat, and Prince Metternich) steered the government.

Archduke Ludwig, Prince Royal of Hungary and Bohemia and Prince of Tuscany (1784 – 1864), was the 14th child of Holy Roman Emperor Leopold II, King of Hungary and Bohemia, Grand Duke of Tuscany, and Infanta Maria Luisa of Spain.

When Ferdinand married Princess Maria Anna of Savoy, the court physician considered it unlikely that he would be able to consummate the marriage.

Princess Maria Anna of Savoy

Princess Maria Anna of Savoy was the daughter of King Victor Emmanuel I of Sardinia and of his wife, Archduchess Maria Teresa of Austria-Este, daughter of Archduke Ferdinand of Austria, Maria Beatrice d’Este of Modena. Princess Maria Anna of Savoy had a twin sister Princess Maria Teresa. The two Princesses were baptized by Pope Pius VII. Princess Maria Teresa married Charles Louis, Prince of Lucca.

When Ferdinand and Maria Anna tried to consummate the marriage, he had five seizures. Ferdinand is best remembered for his command to his cook: when told he could not have apricot dumplings (Marillenknödel) because apricots were out of season, he said “I am the Emperor, and I want dumplings!” (German: Ich bin der Kaiser und ich will Knödel!).

In 1848 revolutions swept across Europe. As the revolutionaries were marching on the palace, he 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?” He was convinced by Prince Felix of Schwarzenberg to abdicate in favour of his nephew, Archduke Franz Joseph (the next in line was Ferdinand’s younger brother Archduke Franz Charles, but he was persuaded to waive his succession rights in favour of his son). The new Emperor, Franz Joseph, would occupy the Austrian throne for the next sixty-eight years.

Ferdinand was the last King of Bohemia to be crowned as such, as King Ferdinand V of Bohemia. Due to his sympathy with Bohemia (where he spent the rest of his life in Prague Castle) he was given the Czech nickname “Ferdinand the Good” In Austria, Ferdinand was similarly nicknamed Ferdinand the Benign.

Ferdinand died on June 29, 1875 and is interred in tomb number 62 in the Imperial Crypt in Vienna.

January 18, 1871: Proclamation of the German Empire.

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Emperor of Germany, Emperor of the Germans, Frankfurt Parliament, Frederick III of Germany, German Chancellor, German Emperor, German Empire, Great Hall of Mirrors, Otto von Bismark, Palace of Versailles, Revolutions of 1848, Wilhelm I of Germany, Wilhelm II of Germany

The future king and emperor was born Wilhelm Friedrich Ludwig of Prussia in the Kronprinzenpalais in Berlin on March 22, 1797. As the second son of Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz and King Friedrich Wilhelm III, himself son of King Friedrich Wilhelm II, Wilhelm was not expected to ascend to the throne. His grandfather died the year he was born, at age 53, in 1797, and his father Became the King of Prussia.

Ever since the Holy Roman Empire was dissolved in 1806 uniting the German lands into a modern Nation State, a new empire, was the goal of many statesman as well as the populace of the multi German states that had made up the Holy Roman Empire.

The first attempt to create the Second German Reich occurred in 1848. In the wake of the revolutions of 1848 that swept across Europe, where the people of the many autocratic monarchies demanded that their governments be ruled by laws granted in a Constitution, the liberal Frankfurt Parliament offered the title “Emperor of the Germans” (German: Kaiser der Deutschen) to King Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia in 1849 but he declined it citing that it was “not the Parliament’s to give.” Friedrich Wilhelm further stated he would not “stoop down in the gutter to pick up a crown” for he strongly believed that only the German princes had the right to make such an offer, in accordance with the traditions of the Holy Roman Empire.

German Emperor Wilhelm I

Despite this false start creating a German Empire was still the ultimate goal. After a series of wars orchestrated by the ultra conservative Otto von Bismarck, Minister President of Prussia and Chancellor of the North German Confederation; which culminated in uniting the North and South German Confederations at the end of the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71), King Wilhelm I of Prussia was proclaimed Emperor in the Great Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles on January18, 1871. However, creating the title of Emperor and convincing the King of Prussia to take the crown proved almost as difficult as forging the Empire itself.

The German Emperor (German: Deutscher Kaiser [ˈdɔʏtʃɐ ˈkaɪzɐ]) became the official title of the head of state and hereditary ruler of the German Empire. The title German Emperor was in direct contrast to both Emperor of the Germans or even Emperor of Germany (German: Kaiser von Deutschland).

The title was carefully chosen by Otto von Bismarck, after a discussion which continued until the proclamation of King Wilhelm I of Prussia as emperor at the Palace of Versailles during the Siege of Paris. Wilhelm accepted this title grudgingly on January 18 having preferred “Emperor of Germany.” However, that would have signaled a territorial sovereignty and superiority over all German monarchs and this was particularly unacceptable to the South German monarchs, as well as a claim to lands outside his reign (Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg, etc.).

“Emperor of the Germans”, as had been proposed at the Frankfurt Parliament in 1849, was ruled out by Wilhelm as he considered himself a king who ruled by divine right and chosen “By the Grace of God”, not by the people in a popular monarchy. This was an identical stance held by his brother, Friedrich Wilhelm IV. But more in general, Wilhelm was unhappy about a crown that looked artificial (like Napoléon’s), having been created by a constitution. He was afraid that it would overshadow the Prussian crown.

Since 1867, the presidency of the North German Confederation had been a hereditary office of the kings of Prussia. The new constitution of January 1, 1871, following Reichstag and Bundesrat decisions on December 9/10, legally transformed the North German Confederation into the German Empire. This empire was a federal monarchy; the emperor was head of state and president of the federated monarchs (the kings of Bavaria, Württemberg, Saxony, the grand dukes of Baden, Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Hesse, among others, as well as the principalities, duchies and of the free cities of Hamburg, Lübeck and Bremen).

German Emperor Friedrich III

Under the imperial constitution, the empire was a federation of states under the permanent presidency of the King of Prussia. Thus, the imperial crown was directly tied to the Prussian crown—something Wilhelm II discovered in the aftermath of World War I. He erroneously believed that he ruled the empire in personal union with Prussia. With the war’s end, he conceded that he could not remain emperor, but initially thought he could at least retain his Prussian crown.

However, his last chancellor, Prince Max of Baden, knew this was legally impossible, and announced Wilhelm II’s abdication of both thrones on November 9, 1918, two days before the Armistice. Realizing his situation was untenable, Wilhelm II went into exile in the Netherlands later that night. It was not until November 28 that Wilhelm II formally gave up all claim to “the throne of Prussia and to the German imperial throne connected therewith.”

German Emperor Wilhelm II

Full titles of the German Emperor

The German Emperors had an extensive list of titles and claims that reflected the geographic expanse and diversity of the lands ruled by the House of Hohenzollern.

His Imperial and Royal Majesty Wilhelm I, By the Grace of God, German Emperor and King of Prussia; Margrave of Brandenburg, Burgrave of Nuremberg, Count of Hohenzollern; sovereign and supreme Duke of Silesia and of the County of Glatz; Grand Duke of the Lower Rhine and of Posen; Duke of Saxony, of Westphalia, of Angria, of Pomerania, Lunenburg, Holstein and Schleswig, of Magdeburg, of Bremen, of Guelders, Cleves, Jülich and Berg, Duke of the Wends and the Kassubes, of Crossen, Lauenburg and Mecklenburg; Landgrave of Hesse and Thuringia; Margrave of Upper and Lower Lusatia; Prince of Orange; Prince of Rügen, of East Friesland, of Paderborn and Pyrmont, of Halberstadt, Münster, Minden, Osnabrück, Hildesheim, of Verden, Cammin, Fulda, Nassau and Moers; Princely Count of Henneberg; Count of Mark, of Ravensberg, of Hohenstein, Tecklenburg and Lingen, of Mansfeld, Sigmaringen and Veringen; Lord of Frankfurt.