FRANCIS JOSEPH, the present emperor of Austria, b. 18th Aug., 1830, is the eldest son of the arChduke Francis (sou of the emperor Francis I.), and Sophia, a princess of Bavaria. Francis was taught to speak all the various languages of his heterogeneous dominions, and only the year before the Hungarian revolution addressed the Magyar nobles at Pesth in their own language—a circumstance which .secured him a certain transient popularity. In 1848, he served under Radetzky in the Italian wars. The emperor Fer dinand having, in the hour of his extremity, made certain constitutional promises to the nation, the archduchess, Francis's mother, who the whole year had directed the schemes of the anti-revolutionary party, resolved that the fulfillment of these promises should be evaded by a change of sovereign. Ferdinand accordingly abdicated in favor of his nephew (2d Dec., 1848), and Francis assumed the government as emperor of Austria, and king of Hungary and Bohemia. Hungary, however, which had lost all faith in the house of Hapsburg, rose in arms, and refused to accede to a change of succession; and Italy again tried the fortune of war. The progress of the struggle between Francis and the constitutionalists of Hungary is described in the biographies of Kossuth, Bern, Dem binski, Batthyani, etc. Suffice it to say that Austria triumphed in Italy, and also in Hungary, through the alleged treachery of GOrgei and the help of Russia. Francis now
devoted himself, with characteristic persistency, to the re-establishment of " order," that is to say, of despotism. He dissolved the national guard, and took away the freedom of the press, and on Jan. 1, 1859, abolished the constitution of his uncle, which had been a dead-letter from the beginning. In 1853, he nearly lost his life by assassination, and in the Crimean war forfeited the respect of all the belligerents by his indecisive attitude. The concordat of 1855, by which certain extraordinary privileges were conferred on the bishops of the Roman Catholic church, was another step backwards. Meanwhile the dissatisfaction of Lombardy, Venice, and Hungary hourly increased. Sardinia encour aged the national feeling in Italy, and at last, in 1859, Francis hurried thoughtlessly into a. war with that kingdom, which ended in the cession of Lombardy. For the war with Denmark, see SLESVIG; for the war with Prussia, and the subsequent work of recon structing the empire. See GERMANY. Francis was crowned as king of Hungary at Pesth in 1867. He was present at the opening of the Suez canal in 1869. See also AUSTRIA, HUNGARY.