Franz Joseph I

Franz Joseph (in English also Francis Joseph) (August 18, 1830 - November 21, 1916) of the Habsburg Dynasty was Emperor of Austria and King of Bohemia from 1848 until 1916 and King of Hungary from 1867 until 1916. He was born in Vienna, Austria.

Archduke Franz was the eldest son of Archduke Franz Karl (and Sophie, Archduchess of Austria and Princess of Bavaria), who was brother and heir of Austrian Emperor Ferdinand I. Because his father renounced his claim to the throne, Franz became emperor as Franz Joseph I when Ferdinand abdicated near the end of the Revolution of 1848.

In 1854 Franz Joseph married Duchess Elisabeth in Bavaria (also Princess of Bavaria through her mother's side of the family), who became Elisabeth of Austria ("Sisi" or "Sissi"). Their only son, Crown Prince Rudolf, committed suicide in 1889 in the famous Mayerling episode with his young mistress Baroness Marie Vetsera. Rudolf's killing of the Baroness Vetsera was an extremely grim chapter in the long line of outbreaks of mental instability in the Habsburg Dynasty caused by their long history of inbreeding. The younger brother to Emperor Franz Joseph, the Archduke Viktor Ludwig, spent most of his life exiled on the island of Capri, following a series of scandals involving dressing up in women's clothes and molesting his military aides.

Franz Joseph and his great-grandnephew Otto von Habsburg

Notwithstanding the scandals there were times when Franz Joseph took firm moral stands. When Pope Pius IX detained the six year old Jewish boy Edgardo Mortara on account of the claim that a housekeeper had secretly baptized him, Emperor Franz Joseph sent the Pope a plea to return the child to his parents. The Pope refused his request.

Their three other children were Sophie, Archduchess of Austria (1855 - 1858), Gisela, Archduchess of Austria (1856 - 1932) and Marie-Valerie, Archduchess of Austria (1868 - 1924).

The archipelago Franz Josef Land in the Russian high arctic was named in his honor in 1873. Franz Josef Glacier at New Zealand's South Island also bears his name.

Names in other languages: German: Franz Josef, Italian Francesco Giuseppe, Czech: František Josef, Hungarian: I. Ferenc József, Slovak: František Jozef I, Polish: Franciszek Józef, Croatian: Franjo Josip, Slovenian: Franc Jožef, Serbian: Franc Josif