Biography of Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor

Last Holy Roman Emperor

12 February 1768
2 March 1835
Francis von Habsburg was born in Florence, on 12 February 1768, the Grand Duke of Tuscany Leopold II and Maria Ludovica of Bourbon of Spain. At the age of sixteen he moved to Vienna, at the Court of his uncle, Emperor Joseph II, to receive an education appropriate to his rank. Two years after receiving the baptism of fire by participating, in tow of the same Emperor, in the war against the Ottoman Empire. Before departure, however, married Elisabeth Wilhelmine of Württemberg, which will give him a daughter, Ludovika Elisabeth, but childbirth will be fatal. Sixteen months after it dies even Ludovica Elizabeth. On 15 August 1790 Francis contracted a second marriage to his cousin Maria Teresa of the two Sicilies, which, besides giving him twelve children, will also have an important role in some policy decisions, how to fight Napoleon. In 1792 inherits the Crown of the Holy Roman Empire, continuing the anti-French war effort started by his father even when Prussia, after the peace of Basel of 1795. From 1792 to 1796 was the last Duke of Milan.
Defeated repeatedly by Napoleon in 1797 is forced to accept the inglorious peace of Campo Formio, followed by the Treaty of Luneville in 1801: the two events would rob it of the Netherlands, Milan and Tuscany, even though it receives in Exchange for the Venice, Istria, Dalmatia and the Islands. Day 11 August 1804 also assumes the title of hereditary emperor of Austria as Francis I, having understood that the Holy Roman Empire now has a short life and indeed, after Bonaparte will declare that it no longer recognize him, in 1806 he will Crown decreeing the end.
With the successive treaties of Pressburg (today Bratislava), in 1805, following the defeat at Austerlitz, and Schonbrunn (also called of Vienna) of 1809, after the defeat of Wagram, back to Miss Venice, in addition to Galicia and the Illyrian provinces. Having Meanwhile died the second wife in April 1807, the year goes to a new marriage with the 20-year-old Maria Ludovika of Austria-Este, another cousin. But for an arcane game of fate a third wife died prematurely, on 7 April 1816, and he, more stubborn in the same fate, for the fourth time and only seven months later, back on the altar to get married Caroline Augusta of Bavaria, daughter of King Maximilian I of the French Emperor, in 1810 by now slave Francis gives his daughter Maria Luisa and squeezes with him an Alliance against Russia but the fortunes of war allow him to get rid of the awkward ally.
Enters the coalition formed by England, Russia and Prussia, contributing to the defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte, in Leipzig, in 1813, and retrieving this way all States lost, but rejects the idea of a restoration of the Holy Roman Empire. The Napoleonic experience, which ended for the moment with the exile of the former Emperor, Russian, Prussian and Austrian potencies inducing to strike a Pact of mutual assistance founded on Christian principles, and this is called "Holy Alliance", born in September of 1814 at the Congress of Vienna which, in fact, it establishes the process of restoration of the Ancien régime. Actually the Austrian Chancellor Metternich, real Director of the maneuver, intended to create an Alliance for the affirmation of absolutism against liberal movements in Europe and that, at the same time, represents a possible brake expansionist of individual signatory powers. Strictly faithful to the principles of the "Holy Alliance", badgered by Metternich-who has played a key role in the most delicate decisions of the Emperor-opera a systematic and brutal repression of constitutional motions in the Empire in the years 1820-1821: Piedmontese uprisings, which rushes to the rescue of the Savoy and Naples, in aid of the Bourbons, are smothered with the use of the army. Arrived at the age of 67 years, Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor died in Vienna on 2 March 1835.
Article contributed by the team of collaborators.