Franz Karl Joseph of Austria-Habsburg, Archduke of Austria

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Francis was a son of Emperor Leopold II (1747–1792) and his wife Maria Luisa of Spain (1745–1792), daughter of Charles III of Spain. Francis was born in Florence, the capital of Tuscany, where his father reigned as Grand Duke from 1765–90. Though he had a happy childhood surrounded by his many siblings,[2] his family knew Francis was likely to be a future Emperor (his uncle Joseph had no surviving issue from either of his two marriages), and so in 1784 the young Archduke was sent to the Imperial Court in Vienna to educate and prepare him for his future role.[3]

Emperor Joseph II himself took charge of Francis's development. His disciplinarian regime was a stark contrast to the indulgent Florentine Court of Leopold. The Emperor wrote that Francis was "stunted in growth", "backward in bodily dexterity and deportment", and "neither more nor less than a spoiled mother's child". Joseph concluded that "…the manner in which he was treated for upwards of sixteen years could not but have confirmed him in the delusion that the preservation of his own person was the only thing of importance."[3]

Joseph's martinet method of improving the young Francis were "fear and unpleasantness".[4] The young Archduke was isolated, the reasoning being that this would make him more self-sufficient as it was felt by Joseph that Francis "fail[ed] to lead himself, to do his own thinking". Nonetheless, Francis greatly admired his uncle, if rather feared him. To complete his training, Francis was sent to join an army regiment in Hungary and he settled easily into the routine of military life.[5]

After the death of Joseph II in 1790, Francis's father became Emperor. He had an early taste of power while acting as Leopold's deputy in Vienna while the incoming Emperor traversed the Empire attempting to win back those alienated by his brother's policies.[6] The strain told on Leopold and by the winter of 1791, he became ill. He gradually worsened throughout early 1792; on the afternoon of 1 March Leopold died, at the relatively young age of 44. Francis, just past his 24th birthday, was now Emperor, much sooner than he had expected.

Children[edit]

From his first wife Elisabeth of Württemberg, one daughter, and his second wife Maria Teresa of the Two Sicilies, eight daughters and four sons:

Archduchess Ludovika Elisabeth of Austria 18 February 1790 24 June 1791 (aged 1) died in childhood, no issue

Archduchess Marie-Louise 12 December 1791 17 December 1847 (aged 56) married first Napoleon Bonaparte, had issue, married second Adam, Count of Neippberg, had issue, married third to Charles, Count of Bombelles, no issue

Emperor Ferdinand I 19 April 1793 29 June 1875 (aged 82) married Maria Anna, Princess of Sardinia, no issue

Archduchess Marie Caroline 8 June 1794 16 March 1795 (aged 0) died in childhood, no issue

Archduchess Caroline Ludovika 22 December 1795 30 June 1797 (aged 1) died in childhood, no issue

Archduchess Maria Leopoldina 22 January 1797 11 December 1826 (aged 29) married Pedro I of Brazil, had issue

Archduchess Maria Clementina 1 March 1798 3 September 1881 (aged 83) married her maternal uncle Prince Leopoldo of the Two Sicilies, had issue

Archduke Joseph Franz Leopold 9 April 1799 30 June 1807 (aged 8) died some weeks after his mother in childhood, no issue

Archduchess Marie Caroline of Austria 8 April 1801 22 May 1832 (aged 31) married Crown Prince (later King) Frederick Augustus II of Saxony, no issue

Archduke Franz Karl of Austria 17 December 1802 8 March 1878 (aged 75) married Princess Sophie of Bavaria; issue included Franz Joseph I of Austria and Maximilian I of Mexico.

Archduchess Maria Anna 8 June 1804 28 December 1858 (aged 54) died unmarried

Archduke Johann Nepomuk 30 August 1805 19 February 1809 (aged 3) died in childhood, no issue

Archduchess Amalie Theresa 6 April 1807 9 April 1807 (aged 0) died in childhood, no issue

Archduke Franz Karl Joseph of Austria (17 December 1802 – 8 March 1878) was father of two emperors (Austria and Mexico) and the grandfather of Franz Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria, whose assassination helped precipitate the start of World War I.

He was born in Vienna, the second son of Emperor Francis II and his wife Maria Theresa of the Two Sicilies.

On 4 November 1824 in Vienna he married Sophie of Bavaria, a daughter of King Maximilian I of Bavaria by his second wife Karoline of Baden. Franz Karl was an unambitious and generally ineffectual man, although he was a member of the Council that ruled in the stead of his mentally retarded brother Emperor Ferdinand from 1835 to 1848. At the urging of his wife, he renounced his claims to the throne at the time of his brother's abdication in December 1848, allowing their eldest son Franz Joseph to take the throne. Archduke Franz Karl died in Vienna in 1878, six years after the death of his wife.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archduke_Franz_Karl_of_Austria

Franz Karl was born in Vienna, the third son of Emperor Francis II by his second marriage with Princess Maria Theresa from the House of Bourbon, daughter of King Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies and Maria Carolina of Habsburg-Lorraine. On 4 November 1824 in Vienna he married Princess Sophie of Bavaria from the House of Wittelsbach, a daughter of King Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria by his second wife Caroline of Baden (Sophie's paternal half-sister, Caroline Augusta of Bavaria was by this time Franz Karl's stepmother, having married his thrice-widowed father in 1816.) The Wittelsbachs condoned the unappealing manners of Sophie's husband in consideration of the incapability of his elder brother Ferdinand and Sophie's chance to become Austrian Empress.

Franz Karl was an unambitious and generally ineffectual man, although he was, together with his uncle Archduke Louis a member of the Geheime Staatskonferenz council, which after the death of Emperor Francis II ruled the Austrian Empire in the stead of his mentally ill brother Ferdinand from 1835 to 1848. The decisions, however, were actually made by the Minister of State Prince Klemens Wenzel von Metternich and his rival Count Franz Anton von Kolowrat-Liebsteinsky. His wife Sophie had already given up her ambitions, when she urged Franz Karl to renounce his claims to the throne at the time of his brother's abdication on 2 December 1848, allowing their eldest son Franz Joseph I to take the throne.

Archduke Franz Karl died in Vienna in 1878, six years after the death of his wife. He is buried at the Imperial Crypt at the Capuchin Church. Franz Karl was the last Habsburg whose viscera were entombed at the Ducal Crypt of St. Stephen's Cathedral and whose heart was placed at the Herzgruft of the Augustinian Church according to a centuries-long family rite.