Emperor Francis Joseph

by John Van der Kiste

"In 1848, the Year of Revolutions, the popular but feeble-minded Emperor Ferdinand of Austria abdicated and his heir Archduke Francis Charles renounced his place in the succession in favour of his son Francis Joseph. Aged eighteen, Francis Joseph began a reign which would last for almost sixty-eight years, longer than any other modern European monarch. Yet, despite some successes, his reign would see the decline of the powerful Habsburg Empire, which had held sway in southern Europe for several centuries, and would be coloured by family tragedies." "As a ruler Francis Joseph was a natural autocrat but tempered absolutism with reform: during his reign he introduced general suffrage and presided over the Reichsrat, the forerunner to a constitutional parliament. Politically, his reign was a disaster: Austrian defeats in Italy led to the loss of the states of Lombardy, Tuscany and Modena, and the Empire was expelled from the German Confederation after her ally Prussia declared war and defe