Franz Joseph I of Austria

Franz Joseph I was emperor of Austria from 1848 and king of Hungary after the creation of Austria-Hungary in 1867. His long reign encompassed revolution, military defeats, constitutional compromise, nationalist conflict and the July Crisis that led to the First World War.

Franz Joseph I of Austria also held the offices or ranks of duke, Apostolic King of Hungary, King of Bohemia, and Head of the House of Habsburg. Franz Joseph I of Austria belonged to the House of Habsburg-Lorraine and operated within Austrian Empire; Cisleithania. Franz Joseph I of Austria was born in Schönbrunn Palace.

Max Hastings’ Catastrophe examines Franz Joseph among the monarchs and governments whose decisions during the July Crisis helped turn the Sarajevo assassination into general war. Gary Jennings’ Spangle: The Center Ring brings its travelling circus to Franz Joseph and Elisabeth’s Habsburg court during the nationalist and military upheavals of the 1860s. Gigi Griffis’ The Empress moves back to 1853, portraying the young emperor’s unexpected choice of Elisabeth rather than her sister Helene as his bride. Christopher Clark’s The Sleepwalkers follows the Austro-Hungarian decision-making of his final years as Serbia, Russia, Germany and the other powers move towards war. Clark’s Revolutionary Spring shows the upheavals of 1848 that brought the eighteen-year-old Franz Joseph to the throne in the first place.