Portal:Austria/Selected biography/30

Franz Joseph I of Austria was (18 August 1830 – 21 November 1916) was Emperor of Austria, King of Bohemia and Apostolic King of Hungary from 1848 until 1916.

Born in Schönbrunn Palace, he became emperor in the tumultuous Revolutions of 1848 at the young age of 18. He initially ruled with absolutism until the 1860s when the defeat in the Austro-Prussian War forced him to sign the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, which established the dual monarchy with him as King of Hungary. Franz Joseph eventually also allowed the establishment of a constitutional monarchy. Under his later rule, Austria experienced unprecedented industrial growth and a flowering of the arts and culture. His reign would become the longest rule of an Austrian monarch.

He was married to the legendary Elisabeth of Bavaria. Their son Crown Prince Rudolph would later commit suicide in Mayerling. World War I broke out in 1914 after the assassination of the heir to the throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Franz Joseph would not witness the collapse of his empire, dying in 1916 at the age of 86 years, in his birthplace, the palace of Schönbrunn. With his passing, an era came to an end.