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Archduchess Gisela of Austria

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74-421: Archduchess Gisela Louise Marie of Austria Princess of Hungary, Princess of Bohemia, Princess of Galicia and Lodomeria, Princess of Croatia, Slavonia and Dalmatia (12 July 1856 – 27 July 1932) was the second daughter and eldest surviving child of Emperor Franz Joseph I and Empress Elisabeth of Austria . She became a Princess of Bavaria through her marriage to her second cousin, Leopold . The Archduchess

148-533: A German one, and that its inclusion would bring millions of non-Germans into the German nation state. If Greater Germany were to prevail, the crown would necessarily have to go to Franz Joseph, who had no desire to cede it in the first place to anyone else. On the other hand, if the idea of a smaller Germany won out, the German crown could of course not possibly go to the Emperor of Austria , but would naturally be offered to

222-576: A coronation. Under Minister-President Karl Hohenwart in 1871, the government of Cisleithania negotiated a series of fundamental articles spelling out the relationship of the Bohemian Crown to the rest of the Habsburg Monarchy. On 12 September 1871, Franz Joseph announced: Having in mind the constitutional position of the Bohemian Crown and being conscious of the glory and power which that Crown has given us and our predecessors … we gladly recognise

296-601: A half a million guilders and soon overcame his former infatuation with Princess Amalie. Gisela's mother remained absent during the wedding celebrations. The young couple was made welcome in Munich by her husband's family and went on to live in the Palais Leopold residence in Schwabing . The Palais was renamed Giselastraße in her honor in 1873. A year after her wedding, she gave birth to her first child and Empress Elisabeth attended

370-454: A letter to his mother written in 1872, Emperor Franz Josef wanted the match between his daughter and the Wittelsbach prince, as there were so few Catholic princes available at that time. It seems he felt he had to secure the only viable candidate to whom he could give Gisela (whom he called "our darling girl" during the wedding rites) with confidence. Prince Leopold received the immense dowry of

444-518: A number of death penalties. The Bohemian question would remain unresolved for the entirety of Franz Joseph's reign. The main foreign policy goal of Franz Joseph had been the unification of Germany under the House of Habsburg . This was justified on grounds of precedence; from 1452 to the end of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, with only one brief period of interruption under the House of Wittelsbach ,

518-798: A sister, Archduchess Maria Anna (born 1835), who died at the age of four. During the Revolutions of 1848 , the Austrian Chancellor Prince Klemens von Metternich resigned (March–April 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 1848, but never took up the post. Sent instead to the front in Italy , he joined 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

592-743: The Reichsrat (Upper House) from 1891 to 1893 in the Young Czech Party and again from 1907 to 1914 in the Realist Party (which he had founded in 1900), but he did not campaign for the independence of Czechs and Slovaks from Austria-Hungary. In Vienna in 1909 he helped Hinko Hinković 's defense in the fabricated trial against prominent Croats and Serbs members of the Serbo-Croatian Coalition (such as Frano Supilo and Svetozar Pribićević ), and others, who were sentenced to more than 150 years and

666-607: The 12 points that established modern civil and political rights, economic and societal reforms in Hungary. The Compromise partially re-established the sovereignty of the Kingdom of Hungary, separate from, and no longer subject to the Austrian Empire. Instead, it was regarded as an equal partner with Austria. The compromise put an end to 18 years of absolutist rule and military dictatorship which had been introduced by Francis Joseph after

740-679: The Austro-Prussian War of 1866, which resulted in the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 . The Hungarian political leaders had two main goals during the negotiations. One was to regain the traditional status (both legal and political) of the Hungarian state, which was lost after the Hungarian Revolution of 1848 . The other was to restore the series of reform laws of the revolutionary parliament of 1848, which were based on

814-474: The German Question in favour of Prussia, which prevented the unification of Germany from occurring under the House of Habsburg . Franz Joseph was troubled by nationalism throughout his reign. He concluded the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 , which granted greater autonomy to Hungary and created the dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary. He ruled peacefully for the next 45 years, but personally suffered

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888-622: The Giselabahn (a train running from Salzburg to Tirol ), the still active paddle steamer Gisela on the Traunsee and the Gisela Gymnasium in Munich. Gisela and her husband celebrated their golden wedding anniversary in 1923. Her husband died in 1930; Gisela only survived him by two years. She died aged 76 in Munich on 27 July 1932, and is buried next to Prince Leopold in the Colombarium at

962-655: The Habsburg monarchy from 2 December 1848 until his death in 1916. In the early part of his reign, his realms and territories were referred to as the Austrian Empire , but were reconstituted as the dual monarchy of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1867. From 1 May 1850 to 24 August 1866, he was also president of the German Confederation . In December 1848, Franz Joseph's uncle Emperor Ferdinand I abdicated

1036-481: The League of Three Emperors ( Dreikaiserbund ) with Emperor Wilhelm I of Germany and Emperor Alexander II of Russia , who was succeeded by Tsar Alexander III in 1881. The league had been designed by the German chancellor Otto von Bismarck , as an attempt to maintain the peace of Europe. It would last intermittently until 1887. In 1903, Franz Joseph's veto of Jus exclusivae of Cardinal Mariano Rampolla 's election to

1110-723: The Ottoman but also the Russian Empire . The Bosnian Crisis was a result of Franz Joseph's annexation in 1908 of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which had already been occupied by his troops since the Congress of Berlin (1878). On 28 June 1914, the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo resulted in Austria-Hungary's declaration of war against the Kingdom of Serbia , which was an ally of

1184-560: The Principality of Transylvania would be reestablished. These events represented a clear and obvious existential threat for the Hungarian state. The new constrained Stadion Constitution of Austria, the revocation of the April laws and the Austrian military campaign against Kingdom of Hungary resulted in the fall of the pacifist Batthyány government (which sought agreement with the court) and led to

1258-569: The Revolution broke out in 1918, the rest of her family fled the city, but Gisela remained and took part in the 1919 elections for the Weimar National Assembly where women above the age of 20 were allowed to vote for the first time. Such was the esteem in which she was held that she was commonly known as the Good Angel from Vienna and became patron for a number of institutions, such as

1332-454: The St.Michaelskirche , Munich. She received the following orders: Emperor Franz Joseph I Franz Joseph I or Francis Joseph I ( German : Franz Joseph Karl [fʁants ˈjoːzɛf ˈkaʁl] ; Hungarian : Ferenc József Károly [ˈfɛrɛnt͡s ˈjoːʒɛf ˈkaːroj] ; 18 August 1830 – 21 November 1916) was Emperor of Austria , King of Hungary , and the ruler of the other states of

1406-474: The 20th century. However, Franz Joseph remained immensely respected; the emperor's patriarchal authority held the Empire together while the politicians squabbled among themselves. Following the accession of Franz Joseph to the throne in 1848, the political representatives of the Kingdom of Bohemia hoped and insisted that account should be taken of their historical state rights in the upcoming constitution. They felt

1480-399: The Austrian Empire a unitary, centralised and bureaucratically administered state. When Franz Joseph returned to constitutional rule after the debacles in Italy at Magenta and Solferino and summoned the diets of his lands, the question of his coronation as king of Bohemia again returned to the agenda, as it had not since 1848. On 14 April 1861, Emperor Franz Joseph received a delegation from

1554-425: The Austrian Empire. The next few years saw the seeming recovery of Austria's position on the international scene following the near disasters of 1848–1849. Under Schwarzenberg's guidance, Austria was able to stymie Prussian scheming to create a new German Federation under Prussian leadership, excluding Austria. After Schwarzenberg's premature death in 1852, he could not be replaced by statesmen of equal stature, and

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1628-456: The Austrian territories had been suppressed by 1849, in Hungary, the situation was more severe and Austrian defeat seemed imminent. Sensing a need to secure his right to rule, Franz Joseph sought help from Russia , requesting the intervention of Tsar Nicolas I , in order "to prevent the Hungarian insurrection developing into a European calamity". For the Russian military support, Franz Joseph kissed

1702-588: The Austro-Prussian War, and had just seen their historic state rights tossed aside and their land subsumed into the "other" half of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, commonly called "Cisleithania". The Czech hopes were revived again in 1870–1871. In an Imperial Rescript of 26 September 1870, Franz Joseph referred again to the prestige and glory of the Bohemian Crown and to his intention to hold

1776-669: The Bohemian Diet with his words (in Czech): I will have myself crowned King of Bohemia in Prague, and I am convinced that a new, indissoluble bond of trust and loyalty between My throne and My Bohemian Kingdom will be strengthened by this holy rite. In contrast to his predecessor Emperor Ferdinand (who spent the rest of his life after his abdication in 1848 in Bohemia and especially in Prague), Franz Joseph

1850-524: The Buchlau Conference. However, Izvolsky made this agreement with Aehrenthal without the knowledge of Tsar Nicholas II or his government in St. Petersburg, or any of the other foreign powers including Britain , France and Serbia . Based upon the assurances of the Buchlau Conference and the treaties that preceded it, Franz Joseph signed the proclamation announcing the annexation of Bosnia-Herzegovina into

1924-492: The Emperor Ferdinand , was disabled by seizures, and his father unambitious and retiring, the mother of the young Archduke "Franzi" brought him up as a future emperor, with emphasis on devotion, responsibility and diligence. For this reason, Franz Joseph was consistently built up as a potential successor to the imperial throne by his politically ambitious mother from early childhood. Up to the age of seven, little "Franzi"

1998-455: The Emperor was wounded and bleeding, the collar saved his life. Count O'Donnell struck Libényi down with his sabre. O'Donnell, hitherto a Count only by virtue of his Irish nobility, was made a Count of the Habsburg monarchy ( Reichsgraf ). Another witness who happened to be nearby, the butcher Joseph Ettenreich, swiftly overpowered Libényi. For his deed he was later elevated to the nobility by

2072-625: The Empire on 6 October 1908. However a diplomatic crisis erupted, as both the Serbs and the Italians demanded compensation for the annexation, which the Austro-Hungarian government refused to entertain. The incident was not resolved until the revision of the Treaty of Berlin in April 1909, exacerbating tensions between Austria-Hungary and the Serbs. Patron Too Many Requests If you report this error to

2146-610: The Habsburgs had generally held the German crown. However, Franz Joseph's desire to retain the non-German territories of the Habsburg Austrian Empire in the event of German unification proved problematic. Two factions quickly developed: a party of German intellectuals favouring a Greater Germany ( Großdeutschland ) under the House of Habsburg; the other favouring a Lesser Germany ( Kleindeutschland ). The Greater Germans favoured

2220-647: The Hungarian Revolution of 1848. Franz Joseph was crowned King of Hungary on 8 June, and on 28 July he promulgated the laws that officially turned the Habsburg domains into the Dual Monarchy of Austria-Hungary . According to Emperor Franz Joseph, "There were three of us who made the agreement: Deák , Andrássy and myself." Political difficulties in Austria mounted continuously through the late 19th century and into

2294-606: The Hungarians, who had rebelled against Habsburg central authority in the name of their ancient constitution. Franz Joseph was also almost immediately faced with a renewal of the fighting in Italy , with King Charles Albert of Sardinia taking advantage of setbacks in Hungary to resume the war in March 1849. However, the military tide began to turn swiftly in favor of Franz Joseph and the Austrian whitecoats. Almost immediately, Charles Albert

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2368-556: The Italians at Custoza in late July 1848, the court felt it safe to return to Vienna, and Franz Joseph travelled with them. But within a few weeks Vienna again appeared unsafe, and in September the court left once more, this time for Olmütz in Moravia . By now, Alfred I, Prince of Windisch-Grätz , an influential military commander in Bohemia, was determined to see the young archduke soon put on

2442-575: The Ottomans, sought and obtained an agreement with Austria-Hungary. In the Budapest Convention of 1877 , the two powers agreed that Russia would annex southern Bessarabia , and Austria-Hungary would observe a benevolent neutrality toward Russia in the pending war with the Turks. As compensation for this support, Russia agreed to Austria-Hungary's annexation of Bosnia-Herzegovina. A scant 15 months later,

2516-770: The Russian Empire. This activated a system of alliances declaring war on each other, which resulted in World War I . Franz Joseph died in 1916, after ruling his domains for almost 68 years. He was succeeded by his grandnephew Charles I & IV . Franz Joseph was born on 18 August 1830 in the Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna (on the 65th anniversary of the death of Francis of Lorraine ) as the eldest son of Archduke Franz Karl (the younger son of Francis I ), and his wife Sophie, Princess of Bavaria . Because his uncle, reigning from 1835 as

2590-562: The Russian foreign minister, Alexander Izvolsky , offered Russian support, for the third time, for the annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina by Austria-Hungary, in exchange for Austrian support for the opening of the Bosporus Strait and the Dardanelles to Russian warships. Austria's foreign minister, Alois von Aehrenthal , pursued this offer vigorously, resulting in the quid pro quo understanding with Izvolsky, reached on 16 September 1908 at

2664-561: The Russians imposed on the Ottomans the Treaty of San Stefano , which reneged on the Budapest accord and declared that Bosnia-Herzegovina would be jointly occupied by Russian and Austrian troops. The treaty was overturned by the 1878 Treaty of Berlin , which allowed sole Austrian occupation of Bosnia-Herzegovina but did not specify a final disposition of the provinces. That omission was addressed in

2738-591: The Three Emperors' League agreement of 1881, when both Germany and Russia endorsed Austria-Hungary's right to annex Bosnia-Herzegovina. However, by 1897, under a new tsar , the Russian Imperial government had again withdrawn its support for Austrian annexation of Bosnia-Herzegovina. The Russian foreign minister, Count Mikhail Muravyov , stated that an Austrian annexation of Bosnia-Herzegovina would raise "an extensive question requiring special scrutiny". In 1908,

2812-403: The baptism. Gisela and Leopold had four children: Especially after the death of her brother, Gisela was deeply involved in a variety of social and political issues and founded charities to support the poor, blind, and deaf people where she took an active role herself. During World War I she ran a military hospital in her Palais while her husband was a field marshal on the eastern front. When

2886-502: The conflict between the Hungarian parliament and Francis Joseph. The Austrian Stadion Constitution was accepted by the Imperial Diet of Austria , where Hungary had no representation, and which traditionally had no legislative power in the territory of Kingdom of Hungary; despite this, it also tried to abolish the Diet of Hungary (which existed as the supreme legislative power in Hungary since

2960-533: The constitutional concessions he had made, especially as the Austrian parliament meeting at Kremsier had behaved—in the young Emperor's eyes—abominably. The 1849 constitution was suspended, and a policy of absolutist centralism was established, guided by the Minister of the Interior, Alexander Bach . On 18 February 1853, Franz Joseph survived an assassination attempt by Hungarian nationalist János Libényi . The emperor

3034-471: The emperor and became Joseph von Ettenreich. Libényi was subsequently put on trial and condemned to death for attempted regicide . He was executed on the Simmeringer Heide. After this unsuccessful attack, the emperor's brother Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian called upon Europe's royal families for donations to construct a new church on the site of the attack. The church was to be a votive offering for

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3108-566: The emperor himself effectively took over as prime minister. He was one of the most prominent Roman Catholic rulers in Europe, and a fierce enemy of Freemasonry . The 1850s witnessed several failures of Austrian external policy: the Crimean War , the dissolution of its alliance with Russia, and defeat in the Second Italian War of Independence . The setbacks continued in the 1860s with defeat in

3182-422: The family's personal items, such as the first pair of shoes worn by each of his children. Among these keepsakes was a poem written for him by a young Gisela one Christmas; the poem was said to be the most treasured item among this collection. Archduchess Gisela was also known to paint in her later years. On 20 April 1873, at the age of 16, Gisela was married to Prince Leopold of Bavaria in Vienna . Prince Leopold

3256-402: The form of parliaments was required. The educators Heinrich Franz von Bombelles and Colonel Johann Baptist Coronini-Cronberg ordered Archduke Franz to study an enormous amount of time, which initially comprised 18 hours per week and was expanded to 50 hours per week by the age of 16. One of the main focuses of the lessons was language acquisition: in addition to French, the diplomatic language of

3330-484: The fundaments of modern civil and political rights, economic and societal reforms in the Kingdom of Hungary. The crucial turning point of the Hungarian events were the April laws which was ratified by his uncle King Ferdinand, however the new young Austrian monarch Francis Joseph arbitrarily "revoked" the laws without any legal competence. The monarchs had no right to revoke Hungarian parliamentary laws which were already signed. This unconstitutional act irreversibly escalated

3404-444: The hand of the tsar in Warsaw on 21 May 1849. Tsar Nicholas supported Franz Joseph in the name of the Holy Alliance , and sent a 200,000 strong army with 80,000 auxiliary forces. Finally, the joint army of Russian and Austrian forces defeated the Hungarian forces. After the restoration of Habsburg power, Hungary was placed under brutal martial law . With order now restored throughout his empire, Franz Joseph felt free to renege on

3478-442: The head of the largest and most powerful German state outside of Austria—the King of Prussia . The contest between the two ideas, quickly developed into a contest between Austria and Prussia . After Prussia decisively won the Seven Weeks War , this question was solved; Austria lost no territories to Prussia as long as they remained out of German affairs. In 1873, two years after the unification of Germany, Franz Joseph entered into

3552-413: The inclusion of Austria in a new all-German state on the grounds that Austria had always been a part of Germanic empires, that it was the leading power of the German Confederation , and that it would be absurd to exclude eight million Austrian Germans from an all-German nation state. The champions of a lesser Germany argued against the inclusion of Austria on the grounds that it was a multi-nation state, not

3626-514: The king was alive and unable to do his duty as ruler, a governor (or regent, as they would be called in English) had to assume the royal duties. Constitutionally, Franz Josef's uncle Ferdinand was still the legal king of Hungary . If there was no possibility to inherit the throne automatically due to the death of the predecessor king (since King Ferdinand was still alive), but the monarch wanted to relinquish his throne and appoint another king before his death, technically only one legal solution remained:

3700-442: The late 12th century.) The new Austrian constitution also went against the historical constitution of Hungary, and even tried to nullify it. Even the territorial integrity of the country was in danger: On 7 March 1849 an imperial proclamation was issued in the name of the Emperor Francis Joseph, according to the new proclamation, the territory of Kingdom of Hungary would be carved up and administered by five military districts, while

3774-408: The long personal union between the Kingdom of Hungary and other Habsburg ruled areas, the Habsburg monarchs had to be crowned as King of Hungary in order to promulgate laws there or exercise royal prerogatives in the territory of the Kingdom of Hungary. From a legal point of view, according to the coronation oath, a crowned Hungarian king could not relinquish the Hungarian throne during his life; if

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3848-459: The papacy was transmitted to the Papal conclave by Cardinal Jan Puzyna de Kosielsko . It was the last use of such a veto, as the new Pope Pius X prohibited future uses and provided for excommunication for any attempt. During the mid-1870s a series of violent rebellions against Ottoman rule broke out in the Balkans, and the Turks responded with equally violent and oppressive reprisals. Tsar Alexander II of Russia , wanting to intervene against

3922-417: The parliament had the power to dethrone the king and elect a new king. Due to the legal and military tensions, the Hungarian parliament did not grant Franz Joseph that favour. This event gave to the revolt an excuse of legality. Actually, from this time until the collapse of the revolution, Lajos Kossuth (as elected regent-president) became the de facto and de jure ruler of Hungary. While the revolutions in

3996-430: The position of Bohemia within the Habsburg monarchy should have been highlighted by a coronation of the new ruler to the king of Bohemia in Prague (the last coronation took place in 1836). However, before the 19th century the Habsburgs had ruled Bohemia by hereditary right and a separate coronation was not deemed necessary. His new government installed the system of neoabsolutism in Austrian internal affairs to make

4070-484: The recognition of separate Bohemian state rights for which they had hoped. Bohemia remained part of the Austrian Crown Lands . In Bohemia, opposition to dualism took the form of isolated street demonstrations, resolutions from district representations, and even open air mass protest meetings, confined to the biggest cities, such as Prague. The Czech newspaper Národní listy complained that the Czechs had not yet been compensated for their wartime losses and sufferings during

4144-576: The rights of the kingdom and are prepared to renew that recognition through our coronation oath. For the planned coronation, the composer Bedřich Smetana had written the opera Libuše , but the ceremony did not take place. The creation of the German Empire , domestic opposition from German-speaking liberals (especially German-Bohemians ) and from Hungarians doomed the Fundamental Articles . Hohenwart resigned and nothing changed. Many Czech people were waiting for political changes in monarchy, including Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk and others. Masaryk served in

4218-407: The same time, the imperial family was fleeing revolutionary Vienna for the calmer setting of Innsbruck , in Tyrol . Called back from Italy, the archduke joined the rest of his family at Innsbruck by mid-June. It was here that Franz Joseph first met his cousin and eventual future bride, Elisabeth, then a girl of ten, but apparently the meeting made little impression. Following Austria's victory over

4292-420: The sudden emergence of Lajos Kossuth 's followers in the Hungarian parliament, who demanded the full independence of Hungary. The Austrian military intervention in the Kingdom of Hungary resulted in strong anti-Habsburg sentiment among Hungarians, thus the events in Hungary grew into a war for total independence from the Habsburg dynasty . On 7 December 1848, the Diet of Hungary formally refused to acknowledge

4366-428: The survival of the emperor. It is located on Ringstraße in the district of Alsergrund close to the University of Vienna , and is known as the Votivkirche . The survival of Franz Joseph was also commemorated in Prague by erecting a new statue of St. Francis of Assisi , the patron saint of the emperor, on Charles Bridge . It was donated by Count Franz Anton von Kolowrat-Liebsteinsky , the first minister-president of

4440-461: The throne at Olomouc , as part of Minister President Felix zu Schwarzenberg 's plan to end the Hungarian Revolution of 1848 . Franz Joseph then acceded to the throne. In 1854, he married his cousin Duchess Elisabeth in Bavaria , with whom he had four children: Sophie , Gisela , Rudolf , and Marie Valerie . Largely considered to be a reactionary , Franz Joseph spent his early reign resisting constitutionalism in his domains. The Austrian Empire

4514-567: 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 Ferdinand. 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 at Olmütz on 2 December 1848. At this time, he first became known by his second as well as his first Christian name. The name "Franz Joseph"

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4588-444: The time, Latin and Ancient Greek , Hungarian , Czech, Italian and Polish were the most important national languages of the monarchy. In addition, the archduke received general education that was customary at the time (including mathematics, physics, history, geography), which was later supplemented by law and political science. Various forms of physical education completed the extensive program. On his 13th birthday, Franz Joseph

4662-435: The title of the new king, "as without the knowledge and consent of the diet no one could sit on the Hungarian throne", and called the nation to arms. While in most Western European countries (like France and the United Kingdom) the monarch's reign began immediately upon the death of their predecessor , in Hungary the coronation was indispensable; if it were not properly executed, the kingdom remained " orphaned ". Even during

4736-448: The tragedies of the execution of his brother Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico in 1867, the suicide of his son Rudolf in 1889, and the assassinations of his wife Elisabeth in 1898 and his nephew and heir presumptive, Archduke Franz Ferdinand , in 1914. After the Austro-Prussian War, Austria-Hungary turned its attention to the Balkans , which was a hotspot of international tension because of conflicting interests of Austria with not only

4810-438: Was a son of Prince Regent Luitpold of Bavaria and Auguste Ferdinande of Austria : Gisela's second cousin . Leopold had initially fallen for Princess Amalie of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha , whom Empress Elisabeth's younger brother Duke Maximilian Emanuel in Bavaria intended to marry. The Empress therefore arranged an encounter of Leopold and Gisela at Gödöllő Palace , and the prince knew he could not refuse her offer. According to

4884-567: Was appointed Colonel- Inhaber of Dragoon Regiment No. 3 and the focus of his training shifted to imparting basic strategic and tactical knowledge. From that point onward, army style dictated his personal fashion—for the rest of his life, he normally wore the uniform of a military 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, father of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria ), and Archduke Ludwig Viktor (born 1842), and

4958-416: Was born on 12 July 1856, the second child of Franz Joseph I of Austria and Elisabeth in Bavaria . She was named Gisella Louise Marie; the name Gisella was taken after Queen Gisela of Hungary , wife of Stephen I , first Christian Hungarian king. Although christened Gisella , she only ever wrote her name with one L. Just like her elder sister Archduchess Sophie and her brother Crown Prince Rudolf , Gisela

5032-406: Was brought up in the care of the nanny ("Aja") Louise von Sturmfeder. Then the "state education" began, the central contents of which were "sense of duty", religiosity and dynastic awareness. The theologian Joseph Othmar von Rauscher conveyed to him the inviolable understanding of rulership of divine origin (divine grace), and therefore a belief that no participation of the population in rulership in

5106-405: Was chosen to bring back memories of the new Emperor's great-granduncle, Emperor Joseph II (Holy Roman Emperor from 1765 to 1790), remembered as a modernising reformer. Under the guidance of the new prime minister, Prince Felix of Schwarzenberg , the new emperor at first pursued a cautious course, granting a constitution in March 1849 . At the same time, a military campaign was necessary against

5180-415: Was decisively beaten by Radetzky at Novara and forced to sue for peace, as well as to renounce his throne. Unlike other Habsburg ruled areas, the Kingdom of Hungary had an old historic constitution , which limited the power of the crown and had greatly increased the authority of the parliament since the 13th century. The Hungarian reform laws ( April laws ) were based on the 12 points that established

5254-405: Was forced to cede its influence over Tuscany and most of its claim to Lombardy–Venetia to the Kingdom of Sardinia , following the Second Italian War of Independence in 1859 and the Third Italian War of Independence in 1866. Although Franz Joseph ceded no territory to the Kingdom of Prussia after the Austrian defeat in the Austro-Prussian War , the Peace of Prague (23 August 1866) settled

5328-536: Was never crowned separately as king of Bohemia. In 1861, the negotiations failed because of unsolved constitutional problems. However, in 1866, a visit of the monarch to Prague following defeat at the Battle of Königgrätz was a huge success, testified by the considerable numbers of new photographs taken. In 1867, the Austro-Hungarian compromise and the introduction of the dual monarchy left the Czechs and their aristocracy without

5402-494: Was raised by her paternal grandmother, Archduchess Sophie of Austria . Of a sober nature like her father, she kept a reserved attitude towards her mother. She had a very close relationship with her brother, whose suicide affected her greatly. Her royal titles were: Archduchess of Austria; Princess of Hungary; Princess of Bohemia; Princess of Galicia and Lodomeria; Princess of Croatia, Slavonia and Dalmatia; Princess of Bavaria; and Countess of Habsburg... Her father collected some of

5476-456: Was taking a stroll with one of his officers, Count Maximilian Karl Lamoral O'Donnell , on a city bastion , when Libényi approached him. He immediately struck the emperor from behind with a knife straight at the neck. Franz Joseph almost always wore a uniform, which had a high collar that almost completely enclosed the neck. The collars of uniforms at that time were made from very sturdy material, precisely to counter this kind of attack. Even though

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