Franz Joseph was born in the
Schönbrunn Palace in
Vienna, the oldest son of
Archduke Franz Karl (the younger son of
Emperor Franz), and his wife
Princess Sophie of Bavaria. Because his uncle, from
1835 the Emperor
Ferdinand, was weak-minded, and his father unambitious and retiring, the young Archduke "Franzl" was brought up by his mother as a future Emperor with emphasis on devoutness, responsibility and diligence. Franzl came to idealize his grandfather,
der Gute Kaiser Franz, who had died shortly before his fifth birthday, as the ideal monarch. At the age of 13 young Archduke Franz started a career as a colonel in the Austrian army. From that point onward, his fashion was dictated by army style and for the rest of his life he normally wore the uniform of a junior officer.
Franz Joseph was soon joined by three younger brothers -
Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian (born
1832, the future Emperor Maximilian of
Mexico); Archduke Karl Ludwig (born
1833), and
Archduke Ludwig Viktor (born
1842), but a sister, Maria Anna (born
1835), died young, at the age of four.
Following the resignation of the Chancellor
Prince Metternich during the
Revolutions of 1848, the young Archduke, who it was widely expected would soon succeed his uncle on the throne, was appointed Governor of
Bohemia on
6 April, but never took up the post. Instead, Franz was sent to the front in Italy, joining
Field Marshal Radetzky on campaign on
29 April, receiving his baptism of fire on
5 May at Santa Lucia. By all accounts he handled his first military experience calmly and with dignity. Around the same time, the Imperial Family was fleeing revolutionary
Vienna for the calmer setting of
Innsbruck, in the
Tyrol. Soon, the Archduke was called back from Italy, joining the rest of his family at Innsbruck by mid-June. It was at Innsbruck at this time that Franz Joseph first met his cousin
Elisabeth, Duchess in Bavaria, his future bride, then a girl of ten, but apparently the meeting made little impact.
Following victory over the Italians at
Custoza in late July, the court felt safe to return to Vienna, and Franz Joseph travelled with them. But within a few months Vienna again appeared unsafe, and in September the court left again, this time for
Olmütz in
Moravia. By now,
Prince Windischgrätz, the influential military commander in Bohemia, was determined to see the young Archduke soon put onto the throne. It was thought that a new ruler would not be bound by the oaths to respect constitutional government to which Ferdinand had been forced to agree, and that it was necessary to find a young, energetic emperor to replace the kindly, but mentally unfit Emperor. It was thus at Olmütz on
2 December that, by the abdication of his uncle Ferdinand and the renunciation of his father, the mild-mannered Franz Karl, Franz Joseph succeeded as Emperor of Austria. It was at this time that he first became known by his second as well as his first given name. The name "Franz Joseph" was chosen deliberately to bring back memories of the new Emperor's great-grand-uncle, Emperor
Joseph II, remembered as a modernizing reformer.
