Habsburg emperor who came to the throne at eighteen, crushed the Hungarian revolution with Russian help and made the Compromise of 1867
Born in 1830 at Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna, the eldest son of Archduke Franz Karl, he became emperor of Austria at eighteen on 2 December 1848, when his uncle Ferdinand I abdicated at Olmütz under Schwarzenberg's plan to end the Hungarian revolution. He "revoked" without any legal competence the Hungarian April Laws his uncle had sanctioned, setting himself against the Hungarian parliament, and in 1849 called in Russian help to crush the revolution. A reactionary who resisted constitutionalism early in his reign, after the defeats of 1859 and 1866 he concluded the Compromise of 1867, granting Hungary autonomy and creating the dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary. When his nephew Franz Ferdinand was assassinated in Sarajevo in 1914 he declared war on Serbia, and he died at Schönbrunn in 1916 after ruling for almost sixty-eight years.
Also known as: Francis Joseph I
Activities and affiliations
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1848–1916
Austria state institutionsMain
Monarchs and royalty
Career Timeline
- 1848–1916Emperor of Austria
- 1849Crushed the Hungarian revolution with Russian help
- 1867Austro-Hungarian Compromise; crowned king of Hungary
- 1914Declared war on Serbia
Related historical events
- 1848.03–1849.07The German Revolution of 1848–1849Emperor of AustriaAcceding in December 1848, he made clear he would not accept the title of emperor from Frankfurt, and Austria's centralised constitution ended the Greater German solution.
- 1848.03–1849.10The Hungarian Revolution and War of IndependenceEmperor of AustriaAscended the throne on 2 December 1848, revoked the April Laws, outlawed the Hungarian government and called in Nicholas I's army to crush the revolution.
- 1848–1849The Revolutions of 1848Austrian emperor from December 1848Enthroned as a monarch not bound by the revolution's concessions, he imposed the March Constitution and called in Russia.