Archduke Franz Karl of Austria

Archduke Franz Karl Joseph of Austria (17 December 1802 – 8 March 1878) was a member of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine. He was the father of two emperors: Franz Joseph I of Austria and Maximilian I of Mexico. Through his third son Karl Ludwig, he was the grandfather of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria – whose assassination sparked the hostilities that led to the outbreak of World War I.

Archduke Franz Karl
Franz Karl in his final years
Born	(1802-12-17)17 December 1802 Vienna, Archduchy of Austria, Holy Roman Empire
Died	8 March 1878(1878-03-08) (aged 75) Vienna, Austria-Hungary
Burial	Imperial Crypt
Spouse	Princess Sophie of Bavaria ​ ​ (m. 1824; died 1872)​
Issue Detail	Franz Joseph I of Austria Maximilian I of Mexico Archduke Karl Ludwig Archduchess Maria Anna Archduke Ludwig Viktor
Names German: Franz Karl Joseph English: Francis Charles Joseph
House	Habsburg-Lorraine
Father	Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor
Mother	Princess Maria Theresa of Naples and Sicily
Signature

Life

Early life and marriage

Franz Karl was born in Vienna, the third son of Emperor Francis II of the Holy Roman Empire 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 Austria. 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 in the uniform of an Austrian field marshal, 1839.

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 Chancellor Prince Klemens Wenzel von Metternich and his rival Count Franz Anton von Kolowrat-Liebsteinsky. His wife Sophie had already transferred 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.

Honors and awards

He received the following awards:^[1]

• Austrian Empire:
  • Knight of the Golden Fleece, 1817^[2]
  • Grand Cross of St. Stephen, 1835^[3]
• Kingdom of France: Knight of the Holy Spirit, 5 February 1824^[4]
• Kingdom of Bavaria: Knight of St. Hubert, 1824^[5]
• Duchy of Parma: Senator Grand Cross of the Constantinian Order of St. George, with Collar, 1827^[6]
• Kingdom of Prussia:
  • Knight of the Black Eagle, 9 September 1835^[7]
  • Knight of the Red Eagle, 1st Class
• Baden:^[8]
  • Grand Cross of the House Order of Fidelity, 1835
  • Grand Cross of the Zähringer Lion, 1835
• Russian Empire:^[9]
  • Knight of St. Andrew, 1835
  • Knight of St. Alexander Nevsky, 1835
  • Knight of the White Eagle, 1835
  • Knight of St. Anna, 1st Class, 1835
• Grand Duchy of Hesse: Grand Cross of the Ludwig Order, 30 August 1837^[10]
• Kingdom of Hanover:^[11]
  • Grand Cross of the Royal Guelphic Order, 1839
  • Knight of St. George, 1847
• Württemberg: Grand Cross of the Württemberg Crown, 1844^[12]
• Sweden-Norway: Knight of the Seraphim, 9 July 1850^[13]
• Kingdom of Saxony: Knight of the Rue Crown, 1856^[14]
• Oldenburg: Grand Cross of Duke Peter Friedrich Ludwig, with Golden Crown, 13 July 1858^[15]
• Ernestine duchies: Grand Cross of the Saxe-Ernestine House Order, February 1859^[16]
• Empire of Brazil: Grand Cross of the Southern Cross
• Brunswick: Grand Cross of Henry the Lion
• Kingdom of Greece: Grand Cross of the Redeemer
• Grand Duchy of Tuscany: Grand Cross of St. Joseph
• Two Sicilies: Grand Cross of St. Ferdinand and Merit

Children

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 Theresa, Infanta of Portugal, (1855–1944), from 1873 to 1896, 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

Ancestors

Ancestors of Archduke Franz Karl of Austria

8. Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor[17] (= 14) 4. Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor[18] 9. Maria Theresa of Austria[17] (= 15) 2. Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor 10. Charles III of Spain[19] (= 12) 5. Maria Louisa of Spain[18] 11. Maria Amalia of Saxony[19] (= 13) 1. Archduke Franz Karl of Austria 12. Charles III of Spain[20] (= 10) 6. Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies[21] 13. Maria Amalia of Saxony[20] (= 11) 3. Maria Theresa of Naples and Sicily 14. Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor[17] (= 8) 7. Maria Carolina of Austria[21] 15. Maria Theresa of Austria[17] (= 9)