Franz Joseph I Timeline

Under the guidance of Prince Felix of Schwarzenberg, the new emperor initially pursued a cautious course, granting a constitution in March 1849. However, the constitution was soon suspended and a policy of absolutist centralism established under Interior Minister Alexander Bach.

Image source: March Constitution (Austria)

Franz Joseph founded the Order of Franz Joseph on 2 December 1849, one year after his accession to the throne.

Image source: Order of Franz Joseph

After Schwarzenberg's premature death in 1852, he could not be replaced by statesmen of equal stature, and the emperor himself effectively took over as prime minister.

Image source: Prince Felix of Schwarzenberg

Seeking to borrow money on foreign markets, Franz Joseph relented and issued the February Patent in 1861 which established the Empire's constitution. In 1861, negotiations with Bohemian representatives failed because of unsolved constitutional problems.

Image source: February Patent

In contrast to his predecessor Ferdinand, Franz Joseph was never crowned separately as king of Bohemia. However, in 1866, a visit of the monarch to Prague following defeat at the Battle of Königgrätz was a huge success, testified by considerable numbers of photographs taken.

He concluded the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, which both granted greater autonomy to Hungary and created the dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary, putting an end to 18 years of absolutist rule introduced after the Hungarian Revolution of 1848.

Image source: Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867

In an Imperial Rescript of 26 September 1870, Franz Joseph referred again to the prestige and glory of the Bohemian Crown and to his intention to hold a coronation, reviving Czech hopes of recognition of separate Bohemian state rights.

Image source: Coronation of the Bohemian monarch

Under Minister-President Karl Hohenwart in 1871, the government of Cisleithania negotiated a series of fundamental articles spelling out the relationship of the Bohemian Crown to the rest of the Habsburg Monarchy.

In 1875, Franz Joseph became the principal heir to the substantial fortune left by his predecessor and uncle, Ferdinand I, consisting mainly of the Bohemian estates of the Duke of Reichstadt.

Tomáš Masaryk served in the Reichsrat from 1891 to 1893 in the Young Czech Party and again from 1907 to 1914 in the Realist Party he founded in 1900, though he did not campaign for independence during this period. In Vienna in 1909 he helped Hinko Hinković's defense in a fabricated trial against prominent Croats and Serbs.

Image source: Tomáš Masaryk

On 18 February 1853, Franz Joseph survived an assassination attempt by the Hungarian nationalist János Libényi while walking in Vienna.

Image source: János Libényi

One of Franz Joseph's personal tragedies was the execution of his younger brother, Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico, in 1867, shot by a firing squad in Querétaro after the collapse of the Second Mexican Empire.

The death by suicide of his only son Rudolf in 1889 in the infamous Mayerling Incident was one of the great personal tragedies of Franz Joseph's life, leaving the succession uncertain.

Image source: Mayerling incident

His wife Elisabeth was stabbed to death by an Italian anarchist in Geneva in 1898 while on a visit there. Franz Joseph founded the Order of Elizabeth in her memory that same year.

Image source: Empress Elisabeth of Austria

On 28 June 1914, Franz Joseph's nephew and heir presumptive Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie were assassinated by Gavrilo Princip during a visit to Sarajevo, resulting in Austria-Hungary's declaration of war against Serbia, an ally of Russia.

Image source: Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand

In 1854, Franz Joseph married his first cousin Duchess Elisabeth in Bavaria, known affectionately as Sisi. Their first daughter Sophie died as an infant, and their only son Rudolf died by suicide in 1889 in the infamous Mayerling Incident.

Archduchess Sophie of Austria, the eldest child of Franz Joseph and Elisabeth, was born on 5 March 1855 and tragically died as an infant on 29 May 1857.

Image source: Archduchess Sophie of Austria

Archduchess Gisela of Austria was born on 12 July 1856. She later married Prince Leopold of Bavaria, her second cousin, in 1873, and lived until 27 July 1932.

Image source: Archduchess Gisela of Austria

Rudolf, Crown Prince of Austria, was born on 21 August 1858. He married Princess Stephanie of Belgium in 1881 and died by suicide at Mayerling in January 1889.

Image source: Rudolf, Crown Prince of Austria

In 1885, Franz Joseph met Katharina Schratt, a leading actress of the Vienna stage, and she became his friend and confidante for the remainder of his life.

Image source: Katharina Schratt

After long resistance to his nephew's desire to marry Countess Sophie Chotek, despite letters beseeching him throughout 1899, Franz Joseph finally gave his consent in 1900. The couple were married on 1 July 1900 at Reichstadt.

Image source: Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg

Franz Joseph founded in 1872 the Franz Joseph University in the city of Cluj-Napoca, at that time part of Austria-Hungary under the name of Kolozsvár.

Image source: Babeș-Bolyai University

Franz Josef Land in the Russian Arctic was named in his honour in 1873 by the Austro-Hungarian North Pole expedition which first reported finding it.

Image source: Franz Josef Land

After ruling his domains for almost 68 years, Franz Joseph died in the Schönbrunn Palace on the evening of 21 November 1916, at the age of 86.

Franz Joseph was succeeded by his grandnephew Charles I & IV, whom the late emperor had expressed greater confidence in, who reigned until the collapse of the empire following its defeat at the end of the First World War in 1918.

Image source: Charles I of Austria