Archduke Franz Karl Joseph of Austria (17 December 1802 – 8 March 1878) was a member of the

House of Habsburg-Lorraine The House of Habsburg-Lorraine (german: Haus Habsburg-Lothringen) originated from the marriage in 1736 of Francis III, Duke of Lorraine and Bar, and Maria Theresa of Austria, later successively Queen of Bohemia, Queen of Hungary, Queen of C ...

. He was the father of two emperors:

Franz Joseph I of Austria Franz Joseph I or Francis Joseph I (german: Franz Joseph Karl, hu, Ferenc József Károly, 18 August 1830 – 21 November 1916) was Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary, and the other states of the Habsburg monarchy from 2 December 1848 until his ...

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 World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

– and the great-grandfather of the last Habsburg emperor

Karl I Charles I or Karl I (german: Karl Franz Josef Ludwig Hubert Georg Otto Maria, hu, Károly Ferenc József Lajos Hubert György Ottó Mária; 17 August 18871 April 1922) was Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary (as Charles IV, ), King of Croatia, ...

Life

Early life and marriage

Franz Karl was born in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

, the third son of Emperor Francis II of the Holy Roman Emperor by his second marriage with Princess Maria Theresa from the House of Bourbon, daughter of King

Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies Ferdinand I (12 January 1751 – 4 January 1825) was the King of the Two Sicilies from 1816, after his restoration following victory in the Napoleonic Wars. Before that he had been, since 1759, Ferdinand IV of the Kingdom of Naples and Ferdinand I ...

and Maria Carolina of Habsburg-Lorraine. On 4 November 1824 in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

, he married

Princess Sophie of Bavaria Princess Sophie of Bavaria (Sophie Friederike Dorothea Wilhelmine; 27 January 1805 – 28 May 1872) was the daughter of King Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria and his second wife Caroline of Baden. The identical twin sister of Queen Maria Anna of S ...

from the House of Wittelsbach, a daughter of King

Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria Maximilian I Joseph (german: Maximilian I. Joseph; 27 May 1756 – 13 October 1825) was Duke of Zweibrücken from 1795 to 1799, prince-elector of Bavaria (as Maximilian IV Joseph) from 1799 to 1806, then King of Bavaria (as Maximilian I Joseph) ...

by his second wife

Caroline of Baden Caroline of Baden (german: Friederike Karoline Wilhelmine von Baden; 13 July 1776 – 13 November 1841) was by marriage an Electress of Bavaria and later the first Queen consort of Bavaria by marriage to Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria. Life E ...

. 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 Ferdinand is a Germanic name composed of the elements "protection", "peace" (PIE "to love, to make peace") or alternatively "journey, travel", Proto-Germanic , abstract noun from root "to fare, travel" (PIE , "to lead, pass over"), and "co ...

and Sophie's chance to become Austrian Empress. 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 The Austrian Empire (german: link=no, Kaiserthum Oesterreich, modern spelling , ) was a Central-Eastern European multinational great power from 1804 to 1867, created by proclamation out of the realms of the Habsburgs. During its existence ...

in the stead of his mentally ill brother Ferdinand from 1835 to 1848. The decisions, however, were actually made by the Minister of State

Prince Klemens Wenzel von Metternich Klemens Wenzel Nepomuk Lothar, Prince of Metternich-Winneburg zu Beilstein ; german: Klemens Wenzel Nepomuk Lothar Fürst von Metternich-Winneburg zu Beilstein (15 May 1773 – 11 June 1859), known as Klemens von Metternich or Prince Metternic ...

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 In biology, an organ is a collection of tissues joined in a structural unit to serve a common function. In the hierarchy of life, an organ lies between tissue and an organ system. Tissues are formed from same type cells to act together in a f ...

were entombed at the Ducal Crypt of St. Stephen's Cathedral and whose heart was placed at the ''

Herzgruft The Herzgruft () is a burial chamber that protects 54 urns containing the hearts of members of the House of Habsburg. The crypt is located behind the Loreto Chapel in the Augustinian Church within the Hofburg Palace complex in Vienna, Austria. ...

'' of the Augustinian Church according to a centuries-long family rite.

Honours and awards

He received the following awards:
Hof- und Staats-Handbuch des Kaiserthumes Österreich
' (1878), Genealogy p. 5

Issue

Ancestors

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Franz Karl Of Austria, Archduke 1802 births 1878 deaths Nobility from Vienna House of Habsburg-Lorraine Austrian princes Knights of the Golden Fleece of Austria Grand Crosses of the Order of Saint Stephen of Hungary Recipients of the Order of St. Anna, 1st class Recipients of the Order of the White Eagle (Russia) Burials at the Imperial Crypt Burials at St. Stephen's Cathedral, Vienna Sons of emperors Children of Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor Sons of kings