Archduke Franz Karl of Austria

Franz Karl
Archduke of Austria
Lithograph by Josef Kriehuber, about 1850
Spouse	Princess Sophie of Bavaria
Issue
Franz Joseph I Maximilian I of Mexico Archduke Karl Ludwig Maria Anna Archduke Ludwig Viktor
House	House of Habsburg-Lorraine
Father	Francis II
Mother	Maria Theresa of Naples and Sicily
Born	17 December 1802(1802-12-17) Vienna, Austria
Died	8 March 1878(1878-03-08) (aged 75) Vienna

Monarchical styles of Archduke Franz Carl of Austria
Reference style	His Imperial and Royal Highness
Spoken style	Your Imperial and Royal Highness
Alternative style	Sir

Archduke Franz Karl Joseph of Austria (17 December 1802 – 8 March 1878) from the House of Habsburg was father of two emperors (Franz Joseph I of Austria and Maximilian I of Mexico) as well as the grandfather of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, whose assassination sparked the hostilities that led to the outbreak of World War I, and the great-grandfather of the last Habsburg emperor Karl I.

Life

Franz Karl and Sophie in their later years

Early life and marriage

He was born in Vienna, the second son of Emperor Francis II (I) 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. The Wittelsbach condoned the unappealing manners of her 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 I ruled the Austrian Empire in the stead of his mentally retarded 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.

Death and burial

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.

Honours and awards

Austro-Hungarian

• Knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece
• Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Saint Stephen of Hungary

Foreign

• Senator of the Grand Cross with Collar of the Sacred Military Constantinian Order of Saint George (Duchy of Parma)
• Knight of the Order of St. Andrew (Russia)
• Knight of the Order of St. Alexander Nevsky (Russia)
• Knight of the Order of St. Anna (Russia)
• Knight of the Order of the White Eagle (Poland)
• Knight of the Order of the Black Eagle (Prussia)
• Knight of the Order of the Holy Spirit (French Monarchy)
• Knight of the Order of Saint Hubert (Bavaria)
• Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Southern Cross (Brazil)
• Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Saint Ferdinand and of Merit (Kingdom of the Two Sicilies)
• Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Guelphic Order (Hanover)
• Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Zähringer Lion (Baden)
• Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Loyalty (Baden)
• Knight of the Order of Louis (Hesse)

Issue

Name	Birth	Death	Notes
By Sophie, Princess of Bavaria (27 January 1805-28 May 1872; married on 4 November 1824 in St. Augustine's Church, Vienna)
Franz Joseph	18 August 1830	21 November 1916	succeeded as Emperor of Austria married his first cousin Elisabeth, Duchess in Bavaria, and had issue
Maximilian	6 July 1832	19 June 1867	proclaimed Emperor of Mexico executed by a firing squad married Charlotte, Princess of Belgium, no issue
Karl Ludwig	30 July 1833	19 May 1896	married 1) his first cousin Margaretha, Princess of and Duchess in Saxony, (1840–1858) from 1856 to 1858, no issue, married 2) to Maria Annunziata, Princess of the Two-Sicilies (1843–1871) from 1862 to 1871, had issue (three sons and one daughter) and married 3) to Maria Theresia, Infanta of Portugal, (1855–1944), from 1873 to 1899, had issue (two daughters)
Maria Anna	27 October 1835	5 February 1840	died in childhood, no issue
Stillborn son	24 October 1840	24 October 1840
Ludwig Viktor	15 May 1842	18 January 1919	died unmarried, no issue

See also

• List of heirs to the Austrian throne

External links

Media related to Archduke Franz Karl of Austria at Wikimedia Commons

Archduke Franz Karl of Austria House of Habsburg-Lorraine Cadet branch of the House of Lorraine Born: 17 December 1802 Died: 8 March 1878
Austro-Hungarian royalty
Preceded by Crown Prince Ferdinand	Heir to the Austrian throne 2 March 1835 – 2 December 1848	Succeeded by Ferdinand Maximilian