EUROPE, AUSTRIA, NAPOLEON, FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY WARS, etc.) Seeing that the Empire was in the last stage of dissolution, and that, even were it to survive, it would pass from the house of Habsburg to that of Bonaparte, he in 1804 assumed the title of hereditary emperor of Austria, thus giving some semblance of unity to his complex dominions in Germany, Bohemia, Hungary and Italy, by providing a common title for the supreme ruler. His action was justified when, in 1806, the establishment of the Confederation of the Rhine forced him to abdicate the empty title of Holy Roman emperor.
In 1805 he changed the basis of his administration. He had hitherto been assisted by a cabinet minister who was in direct relation with all the "chanceries" and boards which formed the executive government, and who acted as the channel of com munication between them and the emperor and was in fact a prime minister. In 1805 Napoleon insisted on the removal of Count Colloredo, who held the post. From that time forward the emperor Francis acted as his own prime minister, superintending every detail of his administration. In foreign affairs after 1809 he reposed full confidence in Prince Metternich. But Metternich himself declared at the close of his life that he had sometimes held Europe in the palm of his hand, but never Austria. Francis was sole master, and the history of the Austrian empire under his rule and after his death bears testimony to both his merits and his limitations. His indomitable patience and loyalty to his inherit ed task enable him to triumph over Napoleon. By consenting to the marriage of his daughter, Marie Louise, to Napoleon in 1810, he gained a respite which he turned to good account. By following the guidance of Metternich in foreign affairs he was able to inter vene with decisive effect in 1813. The settlement of Europe in 1815 left Austria stronger and more compact than she had been in 1792, and that this was the case was largely due to the emperor.
During the 20 years which preceded his death in 1835, Francis was wholly in sympathy with the policy of "repression" which came, in popular view, to be identified with the Holy Alliance; and though Metternich was primarily responsible for the part played by Austria in the "policing" of Europe, Francis cannot but be held personally responsible for the cruel and impolitic severi ties, associated especially with the sinister name of the fortress prison of the Spielberg, which made so many martyrs to freedom. He was denounced by Liberals throughout Europe as a tyrant and an obscurantist. Nevertheless he was always popular among the mass of his subjects, who called him "our good Kaiser Franz." His capital error as a ruler of Austria was that he persisted in a system of administration which depended upon the indefatigable industry of a single man. Government in Austria broke down under a successor who had not his capacity for work. Francis died on March 2, 1835.
See Wolfsgruber, Franz I. Kaiser von Osterreich (2 vols., . Ample bibliographies will be found in Krones von Marchland's Grundriss der osterreichischen Geschichte (Berlin, 1882). See also HABSBURG.