FRANCIS II, EMPEROR OF AUSTRIA (1768–1835)

FRANCIS II, EMPEROR OF AUSTRIA (1768–1835)

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Francis II was the last Holy Roman emperor, the first emperor of Austria, and king of Hungary and Bohemia. Francis Joseph Charles was born on February 12, 1768, in Florence. The eldest son of Leopold, Grand Duke of Tuscany and future Holy Roman emperor, and his wife, Archduchess Maria Louisa of Spain, Francis would have 15 siblings. He was reared by a gentle governess in simple surroundings. Through private tutors, Francis was taught religion, languages, translation, history, writing, arithmetic, and sports in a strict daily educational regimen that began at 7 a.m. and ended at 5 p.m. Exacting order combined with a methodical upbringing were his educational mainstays. Francis enjoyed learning about the historical vagaries of Europe’s royal houses. He concluded that the downfall of Athens was due to its democratic form of government and distrusted the idea of letting the people take part in government. Francis became a steadfast and absolute conservative, his beliefs never wavering.

Francis grew up to be vain, arrogant, miserly, deceitful, suspicious, and critical. He scarcely paid attention to his lessons, often misbehaved, and was apathetic to matters not directly related to him. He moved to Vienna and joined his uncle Emperor Joseph II in 1784. Francis’s work habits changed; he learned to work diligently and attained an encyclopedic knowledge. In Vienna he began to assemble what would become a 40,000-volume library and a magnificent portrait collection. Francis disagreed with Emperor Joseph’s liberal innovations, and as a future monarch he tried to learn what mistakes to avoid.

To complete his studies, Francis became involved in the Habsburg Empire’s military affairs, which he enjoyed. This final component of his education taught him an immense capacity for work, a trait that never deserted him. He studied every aspect of military affairs in excruciatingly close detail. Francis also fought in numerous battles and learned to enjoy war. He also traveled extensively through his uncle’s domains and took copious notes in his journals about the places he visited and the characteristics of the people he met. Francis also demonstrated a strong interest in the economies and societies of the lands through which he traveled.

Empress Maria Theresa and Emperor Joseph II arranged Francis’s marriage to Duchess Elizabeth Wilhelmina Louise of Württemberg. The ceremony was held on January 6, 1788, but Elizabeth died on February 19, 1790, after a difficult birth. The baby, Ludovica, herself died 16 months later. Further tragedy in Francis’s life ensued: Emperor Joseph died on March 1, and on May 15, Francis’s mother died. His second marriage to a cousin, Maria Theresa of the Kingdom of Naples, on August 15, 1790, produced 12 children, of whom only 7 reached adulthood.

Upon Joseph II’s death, Francis became Holy Roman emperor on March 1, 1792, at the age of 24. He inherited a troubling legacy: the Holy Roman Empire consisted of far-fl ung domains, from the Austrian Netherlands in the Low Countries to the middle of Europe, including most of Germany and parts of northern Italy, and of eastern Europe, consisting of present-day Croatia, Hungary, and Bohemia. These countries were populated by multiethnic groups who vied with one another for primacy. Francis also faced territorial encroachment, not only from Russia, Prussia, and the Ottoman Empire, but more ominously from France.

Francis strongly opposed the ideology behind the French Revolution, which preached the spread of equality and liberty not only throughout France but beyond her borders. Queen Marie Antoinette, Francis’s aunt, and her husband, King Louis XVI, had both been guillotined in 1793. His cousins, the couple’s children, were kept in prison, where 10-year-old Louis XVII died.

Francis fought against the French in five wars during his reign. His determination to maintain the status of his royal house led to several foreign policy disasters during his period of rule. The Treaty of Campo Formio (October 17, 1797) not only destroyed the First Coalition against France but also substantially redrew the map of Europe. As a result of this settlement, Francis was forced to cede Belgium to France, by which he lost 1.5 million subjects, in exchange for Venice, Istria, Friuli, and Dalmatia, by which he gained a half-million subjects. He also ceded some islands in the Mediterranean, including Corfu. The French were guaranteed free navigation of the Rhine, Moselle, and Meuse rivers, and Austria was forced to recognize the Cisalpine and Ligurian republics—satellite states of revolutionary France.

As a result of French victories at the battles of Marengo and of Hohenlinden on June 14 and December 3, 1800, respectively, on February 9, 1801, Francis was forced to conclude the Treaty of Lunéville, which confirmed and extended the terms of Campo Formio. Austria was the principal member of the Second Coalition against France but was defeated at the Battle of Austerlitz on December 2, 1805, as a result of which Francis had, by the Treaty of Pressburg on December 26, to cede Venice, Tyrol, Swabia, and Dalmatia to France or her allies. On August 6, 1806, Napoleon forced Francis to renounce his title as Holy Roman emperor and assume in its stead the designation of Emperor Francis I of Austria.

In 1806 Napoleon established the Confederation of the Rhine, which initially consisted of 16 German states that had been part of the Holy Roman Empire under Francis. Napoleon used the territory, with a population of 15 million inhabitants, as a counterbalance to Austria and Prussia. The Confederation would eventually accept 23 more German states. Napoleon created the kingdoms of Württemberg and Bavaria as well as grand duchies and principalities, all under his auspices. As part of the Fifth Coalition, Austria was again defeated in 1809. The Treaty of Schönbrunn, signed on October 14, 1809, cost the Habsburgs considerable territorial losses, and nearly 2 million inhabitants found themselves under new rulers.

In 1810 Napoleon stood at the height of his power, but only after making many enemies. Francis had little choice but to allow his daughter Archduchess Marie Louise to marry the French emperor on March 11, 1810, in Vienna, and on April 1 in Paris. The marriage was politically arranged by Austrian foreign minister Clemens von Metternich and produced a son, Napoleon II, known as the king of Rome.

Austria was finally victorious in the campaigns against Napoleon of 1813 and 1814 as a result of a grand alliance with Russia, Prussia, and Britain. The Congress of Vienna, which convened in the wake of the Napoleonic Wars, largely returned Europe back to the conservative style of politics that had existed before the French Revolution. Francis himself, who believed his authority was granted by God, vehemently opposed the influence of revolutionary thought in Austria, where he strictly adhered to the repressive policies pursued by Metternich despite the criticism he received from liberals throughout Europe who deemed him a tyrant. Francis opposed reform and insisted on employing his own antiquated methods of governance, as a result of which the Habsburg political system grew stagnant. Francis died in Vienna on March 2, 1835, and was buried in the Imperial Crypt.