| Emperor ofAustria | |
|---|---|
| Kaiser von Österreich Kaiser von Oesterreich Pre-1918 spelling | |
Imperial | |
 | |
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| Details | |
| Style | His Imperial Majesty |
| First monarch | Francis I |
| Last monarch | Charles I |
| Formation | 11 August 1804 |
| Abolition | 11 November 1918 |
| Residence | Hofburg(main residence) Schönbrunn(summer residence) |
| Appointer | Hereditary |
| Pretender | Karl von Habsburg |
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Theemperor of Austria (German:Kaiser vonÖsterreich,Latin:Imperator Austriae) was the ruler of theAustrian Empire and later theAustro-Hungarian Empire. Thehereditary imperial title and office was proclaimed in 1804 byFrancis II, Holy Roman Emperor, a member of theHouse of Habsburg-Lorraine, and continually held by him and his heirs untilCharles I relinquished power in 1918.
The emperors retained the title ofArchduke of Austria. The wives of the emperors held the titleempress, while other members of the family held the titles ofarchduke or archduchess.
Members of the House of Austria, theHabsburg dynasty, had been theelectedHoly Roman Emperors since 1438 (except for a five-year break from 1740 to 1745) and mostly resided inVienna. Thus the term "Austrian emperor" may occur in texts dealing with the time before 1804, when no Austrian Empire existed. In these cases the word Austria means thecomposite monarchy ruled by the dynasty, not the country. A special case wasMaria Theresa; she bore the imperial title as the consort ofFrancis I (r. 1745–1765), but she herself was the monarch of theAustrian hereditary lands includingBohemia andHungary.
In the face of aggressions byNapoleon, who had been proclaimedEmperor of the French (French:Empereur des Français), by theConstitution of the Year XII on 18 May 1804, Francis II feared for the future of theHoly Roman Empire and wished to maintain his and his family's imperial status in case the Holy Roman Empire should be dissolved. Therefore, on 11 August 1804 he created the new title of "Emperor of Austria" for himself and his successors as heads of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine.[2] For two years, Francis carried two imperial titles: being Holy Roman Emperor Francis II and "by the Grace of God" (Von Gottes Gnaden) Emperor Francis I of Austria.
In 1805, an Austrian-led army suffered a humiliating defeat at theBattle of Austerlitz and the victorious Napoleon proceeded to dismantle the oldReich (which at this time was only a powerless confederation) by motivating or pressuring several German princes to enter the separateConfederation of the Rhine with their lands in July. This led Francis II/I on 6 August 1806 to declare theReich dissolved and to lay down theImperial Crown created in the second half of the 10th century (today displayed at theTreasury of Hofburg Palace in Vienna).[3]
From 1806 onwards, Francis was Emperor of Austria only. He had three successors—Ferdinand I,Francis Joseph I andCharles I—before the empire broke apart in 1918. A coronation ceremony was never established; the heir to the throne became emperor the moment his predecessor died or abdicated. The symbol of the Austrian emperor was the dynasty'sprivate crown dating back toRudolf II (r. 1576–1612), (calledRudolfinische Hauskrone by the experts).
The Austrian emperors had an extensive list of titles and claims that reflected the geographic expanse and diversity of the lands ruled by the Austrian Habsburgs. Thegrand title of the emperor of Austria had been changed several times: by a patent of 1 August 1804, by a court office decree from 22 August 1836, by an Imperial court ministry decree of 6 January 1867 and finally by a letter of 12 December 1867. Shorter versions were recommended for official documents and international treaties: "Emperor of Austria, King of Bohemia etc. and Apostolic King of Hungary", "Emperor of Austria and Apostolic King of Hungary", "His Majesty the Emperor and King" and "His Imperial and RoyalApostolic Majesty".
The full list (after the loss of theLombardy in 1859 andVenetia in 1866):
Emperor ofAustria,
Apostolic King ofHungary,
King ofBohemia, ofDalmatia, ofCroatia, ofSlavonia, ofGalicia, of Lodomeria, and ofIllyria,
King ofJerusalem, and so forth,
Archduke ofAustria,
Grand Duke ofTuscany and ofCracow,
Duke ofLorraine, ofSalzburg, ofStyria, ofCarinthia, ofCarniola and of theBukovina,
Grand Prince ofTransylvania,
Margrave inMoravia,
Duke ofUpper and Lower Silesia, ofModena,Parma, Piacenza andGuastalla, ofAuschwitz andZator, ofTeschen,Friuli,Ragusa andZara,
Princely Count ofHabsburg andTyrol, ofKyburg,Gorizia and Gradisca,
Prince ofTrent andBrixen,
Margrave ofUpper andLower Lusatia and inIstria,
Count ofHohenems,Feldkirch,Bregenz,Sonnenberg, and so forth,
Lord ofTrieste, ofCattaro and of theWindic March,
Grand Voivode of theVoivodship of Serbia, and so forth,
Sovereign of theOrder of the Golden Fleece.
The function of the emperor was styled like a secular papacy. Therefore, it was the overall goal to demonstrate the all-highest (allerhöchste) majesty and dignity of the monarch to his subjects and to other monarchs and countries. His and his entourage's life was governed by very strict rules all the time.
The members of the House of Habsburg were ranked as princes and princesses of the blood imperial, with the honorary title ofErzherzog orErzherzogin (archduke or archduchess). Their permanent address and their travels abroad had to be agreed to by the Emperor.
Whoever wanted to marry an archduke or archduchess of the Habsburg dynasty had to originate from a ruling or formerly ruling house, as was stipulated by theFamilienstatut des Allerhöchsten Herrscherhauses, the Family Statute of the Highest Monarch's House, issued by Ferdinand I in 1839. Otherwise the marriage would be one "to the left hand", called amorganatic marriage, excluding the offspring of the couple from any right the House of Habsburg possessed. (The problems of such a situation were encountered whenArchduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir presumptive to the throne, married a simple countess in 1900).
To manage the political implications of the Imperial house after 1867 the Emperor and King appointed thek.u.k. Minister des kaiserlichen und königlichen Hauses und des Äußeren (the I.& R. Minister of the Imperial and Royal House and of the Exterior), one of the three ministers common to Austria and Hungary. Under Francis I,Klemens von Metternich had covered these and many other agenda, bearing the titleHaus-, Hof- und Staatskanzler (Chancellor of the House, the Court and the State).
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The Emperor's household, his personal officers and the premises where they worked were calledHof ("court").
The four highest officials managing the Imperial Court, who were drawn from among the highest noblemen of the Empire, were
Whoever sought an audience with the Emperor himself had to apply at the Office of the Grand Master (Obersthofmeisteramt). Francis I used to wear civilian clothes of theBiedermeier era, while Francis Joseph I and Charles I mostly were seen in the uniform of an Austrian field marshal to underline the importance of the army to the throne. Francis Joseph I expected soldiers to appear in uniform at his court and civilians to appear intails. He never shook hands with visitors; in letters he never addressed his subjects as "Sir" or "Mr." (Herr).
The Emperor's court managed the following institutions:
TheAustrian Empire (Kaisertum Österreich) from 1804 to 1867 consisted of the Habsburg lands as a whole, leaving each land its special definition as kingdom (e.g.,Bohemia, Hungary), archduchy (Lower and Upper Austria), duchy (e.g.,Carniola) or princely county (e.g.,Tyrol), however theKingdom of Hungary—as Regnum Independens—was administered by its own institutions separately from the rest of the empire.[6]Kaisertum might literally be translated as "emperordom" on analogy with "kingdom" or "emperor-ship"; the term denotes specifically "the territory ruled by an emperor". Austria proper (as opposed to the complex of Habsburg lands as a whole) had been an archduchy since the 15th century, and most of the other territories of the Empire had their own institutions and territorial history, although there were some attempts at centralization, especially between 1848 and 1859.
In 1866, Austria lost thewar withPrussia andItaly. Francis Joseph I was urged to solve the internal problems of his realm and was well-advised to provide a substantial concession to theHungarian nobility, which had stayed in passive resistance to him after the crushedHungarian revolution of 1848–1849. By theAustro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 (Ausgleich), the Kingdom of Hungary and the Empire of Austria, as two separate entities, joined on an equal basis to form the Dual Monarchy of Austria-Hungary. Thus the former Habsburg-ruled lands were restructured into adual union which shared a monarch and acommon army,navy andforeign policy.Transylvania became again an integral part of Hungary whileCroatia-Slavonia were acknowledged as part of theLands of the Crown of Saint Stephen, which were called Transleithania by government officials to distinguish them fromCisleithania, the Austrian part of the empire from 1867 onwards. The latter were known in the internal administration as the "Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council" (Die im Reichsrat vertretenen Königreiche und Länder). Unofficially ever since, these territories officially were called "Austria" from 1915 to 1918 only, despite the fact that all the citizens held the common Austrian citizenship since 1867.
Austria-Hungary disintegrated at the end ofWorld War I in 1918, when the Austrian lands established their independence.Bohemia andMoravia in the newly createdCzechoslovakia,Galicia joinedPoland, whileBukovina became a part ofRomania.Carniola andDalmatia joined theKingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. Other territories were annexed by Italy (South Tyrol,Trieste andIstria). Yet the last Emperor, Charles I, used his imperial title until the end of his life. The Kingdom of Hungary, due to measures enacted during peace proceedings after the Great War and having terminated the 1867 compromise by 31 October 1918, similarlybroke apart.
The termKaiserlich und Königlich (k.u.k., spoken/kaʔʊntka/, meaning "Imperial and Royal") was decreed in a letter of 17 October 1889 for the army, the navy and the institutions shared by both parts of the monarchy.[7] Institutions of Cisleithania used the termKaiserlich-Königlich (K.K., meaning "Imperial Royal", e.g.K.K. österreichische Staatsbahnen,Imperial Royal Austrian State Railways).
| Name | Lifespan | Reign start | Reign end | Notes | Family | Image |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Franz I | (1768-02-12)12 February 1768 – 2 March 1835(1835-03-02) (aged 67) | 11 August 1804 | 2 March 1835 (30 years, 203 days) | The lastHoly Roman Emperor; Son ofLeopold II | Habsburg-Lorraine |  |
| Ferdinand I | (1793-04-19)19 April 1793 – 29 June 1875(1875-06-29) (aged 82) | 2 March 1835 | 2 December 1848 (abdicated) (13 years, 275 days) | Son of Francis I | Habsburg-Lorraine |  |
| Francis Joseph I | (1830-08-18)18 August 1830 – 21 November 1916(1916-11-21) (aged 86) | 2 December 1848 | 21 November 1916 (67 years, 355 days) | Nephew of Ferdinand I; grandson of Francis I | Habsburg-Lorraine |  |
Charles I
| (1887-08-17)17 August 1887 – 1 April 1922(1922-04-01) (aged 34) | 21 November 1916 | 11 November 1918 (resigned) (1 year, 355 days) | Grand-Nephew of Francis Joseph I; great-great-grandson of Francis I | Habsburg-Lorraine |  |
Theheir apparent to the throne bore the title ofCrown Prince (Kronprinz);heirs presumptive were calledThronfolger, in addition to their title of archduke. Francis I was followed byFerdinand Charles, (later Ferdinand I). In the wake of the 1848 revolutions, the empire's existence was in danger. The Habsburg family tried a new start with a new emperor: Ferdinand I was urged to hand over government on 2 December 1848. He then moved toPrague Castle and, without laying down his imperial title, lived there privately until his death in 1875.[8]
As Ferdinand I had no sons, his brotherFrancis Charles would have become emperor, but was persuaded by his wifePrincess Sophie of Bavaria to pass over the right of succession to their son, Francis Joseph. He accepted the duty of the Emperor of Austria without having been Crown Prince orThronfolger before. Francis Joseph's only sonRudolfcommitted suicide in 1889, Francis Joseph's brotherKarl Ludwig died in 1896. Karl Ludwig's sonFranz Ferdinand became heir presumptive to the throne. He wasassassinated inSarajevo,Bosnia in 1914; due to hismorganatic marriage, his son had no rights to the throne. At this time his younger brotherOtto Franz had already died, which made Otto's sonCharles the new heir presumptive to the throne, to which he acceded in 1916 as Charles I, upon the death of Francis Joseph I. In this moment Charles I's son, four-year-oldOtto became the last Crown Prince of Austria-Hungary. He declared himself a loyal citizen of the Republic of Austria in 1961.
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Karl I did not see himself as a pretender but as the monarch of Austria, while theHabsburg Law of the Republic of Austria of 1919 called him "the former bearer of the crown" (der ehemalige Träger der Krone). His son Otto von Habsburg, who had used the title Archduke of Austria in his earlier life outside of Austria, declared himself a loyal citizen of the Republic in order to be allowed to enter Austria; from 1961 onwards he no longer considered himself pretender. Otto's son Karl von Habsburg has never pretended to be the rightful monarch of Austria.
