The emperor sustained as severe blows in his family relations as in war. His brother, the ill-fated Maximilian, was shot after the success ful revolution against him as Emperor of Mexico. His wife, a beautiful hut eccentric woman, was the Princess Elizabeth Amalie Eu genie, °Duchess of Bavarian and daughter of Duke Maximilian-Joseph. They were married in 1854, but had become estranged long before her death. She was assassinated in Geneva, 10 Sept. 1898.
The only son of the imperial couple, the Crown Prince Rudolph, died mysteriously by violence in 1899 at his hunting lodge of Meyer ling in company with the young Baroness Vet sera. His daughter, the Princess Elizabeth, after making a love match with Prince Otto of Windischgratz, quarreled with him and shot his mistress, an actress whom she found in his rooms at Prague. The emperor's daughter Gisela is the wife of Leopold, second son of Prince Luitpold, the late regent of Bavaria.
Three attempts were made to assassinate the emperor himself, but from all of them he es caped unscathed. The first was in 1853, when a Hungarian tried to cut his throat. Bystanders seized the man and he was hanged the next day. The second attempt took place 13 years later. The emperor attended a performance in the Bohemian Theatre in Prague. As he was enter ing a carriage after the performance a Bo hemian in the crowd drew a revolver, but was struck down by a bystander before he could shoot. Every effort was made to hush up the attempt and no one was ever prosecuted for it. The third and last attempt upon the emperor's life was made in September 1882, when an ef fort was made to blow up the ruler with bombs at Trieste. A man named Overdank, the head of the conspiracy, was tried and executed for his share in it.
The emperor's last years, in addition to the dread of assassination and family troubles, were perplexed by dissensions in his empire growing out of its inchoate components and complicated system of government.
To his faculty as a linguist the emperor owed part of the great personal popularity that was his throughout the empire. Once when as a mere boy he had occasion to address a meet ing of Hungarian nobles he won all their hearts by speaking to them in their own tongue, the Magyar.
The emperor's generosity had as much to do with his popularity as his ability as a linguist, and his gifts to charity were lavish. It has been estimated that his civil list was worth perhaps something approaching $5,500,000 a year, but the demands upon it were not infrequently greater still.
His golden jubilee was celebrated with great acclaim in 1908, the Kaiser and 11 German kings -and reigning princes visiting Schoenbrunn Cas tle to congratulate the aged monarch. During the celebration an imperial rescript annexing Bosnia and Herzegovina was issued and ac quiesced in by the powers. There were gala performances at the opera and the theatre and the time was one of popular rejoicing. Sav age race riots occurred during the period in Bohemia and gave rise to the epigram that the longer the emperor lives the more his peoples love and hate each other.
To the end the emperor continued to live the life of simple habits formed in his youth. He rose early, went to bed early and dieted like the poorest of his peasants. To the end he continued to meet his people and to hear their grievances.
The last tragedy came when the heir ap parent, Archduke Francis Ferdinand, was killed at Sarajevo, Bosnia, on 28 June 1914 by an as sassin, and his wife, the Duchess of Hohenberg, was shot to death in the same attack. This caused the break between Austria and Serbia which precipitated the great European War of 1914.
Francis Joseph lived in turmoil, a leading figure in the wars of three generations; he left the field when the world is in the throes of the greatest conflict of history. He was succeeded by his grand-nephew Charles Francis Joseph (q.v.), son of the Archduke Otto, the younger brother of the slain Francis Ferdinand. Con sult Emmar, J., 'Kaiser Franz Joseph' (2 vols., Vienna 1898) ; Gribble, F., 'Life of the Emperor of Austria' (New York 1913) ; Mahaffy, R. P., 'Francis Joseph, His Life and Times' (London 1908) ; Schnitzer, J., 'Franz Joseph I and Seine Zeit) (2 vols., Vienna 1899) ; Weindel, H. de, 'Francois Joseph and His Time' (Pans 1905).