Franz Joseph I (in Hungarian I. Ferenc József, in Croatian Franjo Josip I, in English Francis Joseph I) (August 18, 1830 – November 21, 1916) of the Habsburg Dynasty was Emperor of Austria, Apostolic King of Hungary, King of Bohemia from 1848 until 1916 and a German prince (Deutscher Fürst). His 68-year reign is the third-longest in the recorded history of Europe (after that of Louis XIV of France and Johannes II, Prince of Liechtenstein).

Imperial absolutism, 1848–1860
On February 18, 1853, the Emperor survived an assassination attempt by Hungarian nationalist János Libényi. The emperor was taking a stroll with one of his officers Maximilian Karl Lamoral Graf O'Donnell von Tyrconnell on a city-bastion, when Libényi approached him. He immediately struck the emperor from behind with a knife straight at the neck. Franz Joseph almost always wore a uniform, which had a high collar that almost completely enclosed the neck. It so happened that the collar of his uniform was made out of very sturdy material. Even though the Emperor was wounded and bleeding, this collar basically saved his life. Count O'Donnell (descendant of the Irish noble dynasty O'Donnell of Tyrconnell struck Libényi down with his sabre[1]. O'Donnell, hitherto only a Count by virtue of his Irish nobility, was thereafter made a Count of the Habsburg Empire, conferred with the Commander's Cross of the Royal Order of Leopold, and his customary O'Donnell arms were augmented by the initials and shield of the ducal House of Austria, with additionally the double-headed eagle of the Empire. These arms are emblazoned on the portico of no. 2 Mirabel Platz in Salzburg, where O'Donnell built his residence thereafter. Another witness who happened to be nearby, the butcher Joseph Ettenreich, quickly overwhelmed Libényi. For his deed he was later elevated to nobility by the Emperor and became Joseph von Ettenreich. Libényi was subsequently put on trial and condemned to death for attempted regicide. He was executed on the Simmeringer Haide. After the unsuccessful attack the Emperor's brother Ferdinand Maximilian Joseph, the later Emperor of Mexico, called upon Europe's Royal families for donations to a new church on the site of the attack. The church was to be a Votivgabe (a thank-you present to God) for the rescue of the Emperor. It is located on Ringstraße in the district of Alsergrund close to the University of Vienna, and is known as the Votivkirche

Assassination attempt in 1853
Although in public life the Emperor was the unquestioned director of affairs, in his private life his formidable mother still had a crucial influence. Believing it necessary that the Emperor should soon marry and produce heirs, she hoped to match Franz Joseph with her sister Ludovika's eldest daughter, Helene ("Nené"), four years the Emperor's junior. However, instead, the Emperor became besotted with Nené's younger sister, Elisabeth ("Sisi"), a girl of sixteen, and insisted on marrying her instead. Sophie, despite some misgivings about her niece's appropriateness as an imperial consort, acquiesced, and in 1854 the young couple were married. Their married life was not happy: not only could Sisi never really adapt herself to the court and always had disagreements with the Royal Family, but their first daughter Sophie died as an infant, while the only son, Crown Prince Rudolf died, allegedly by suicide in 1889, in the infamous Mayerling episode with his young mistress Baroness Mary Vetsera. The Empress herself was stabbed to death by an Italian anarchist in 1898; Franz Joseph never fully recovered from the loss. According to the future Empress-Consort Zita of Bourbon-Parma, he usually told his relatives "You'll never know how important she was for me" or, according to some sources, "She will never know how much I loved her" (although there is no definite proof he actually said this).
The 1850s witnessed several failures of Austrian external policy - the Crimean War and break-up with Russia, Austro-Sardinian War of 1859 against armies of the House of Savoy, and Napoleon III. The setbacks continued in the 1860s with Austro-Prussian War of 1866. It resulted in Austrian-Hungarian Dualism in 1867.
Franz Joseph built a villa named Villa Schratt in Bad Ischl for his mistress, Katharina Schratt, an actress with whom he had a long-standing relationship which was, to a certain degree, tolerated by Sissi.
In 1914 the heir to the throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, was assassinated in Sarajevo, leading to World War I.
Emperor Franz Joseph died in 1916, aged 86, in the middle of the war. After the defeat in World War I, the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy dissolved.

Later years

Archduchess Sophie of Austria (1855–1857)
Archduchess Gisela of Austria (1856–1932)
Crown Prince Rudolf (1858–1889)
Archduchess Marie-Valerie of Austria (1868–1924). Issue

Ancestors
The archipelago Franz Josef Land in the Russian high arctic was named in his honor in 1873. Franz Josef Glacier in New Zealand's South Island also bears his name.
Franz Joseph founded in 1872 the Franz Joseph University (Hungarian: Ferenc József Tudományegyetem, Romanian: Universitatea Francisc Iosif) in the city of Cluj-Napoca (at that time a part of Austria-Hungary under the name of Kolozsvár). The university was moved to Szeged after Cluj rebecame a part of Romania, becoming the University of Szeged.

Legacy
His Imperial and Royal Apostolic Majesty,
Franz Joseph I,
By the Grace of God, Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary and Bohemia,
King of Lombardy-Venetia, of Dalmatia, Croatia, Slavonia, Galicia, Lodomeria and Illyria; King of Jerusalem etc., Archduke of Austria; Grand Duke of Tuscany and Kraków, Duke of Lorraine, of Salzburg, Styria, Carinthia, Carniola and of the Bukovina; Grand Prince of Transylvania; Margrave of Moravia; Duke of Upper and Lower Silesia, of Modena, Parma, Piacenza and Guastalla, of Auschwitz (Oświęcim) and Zator, of Teschen, Friuli, Ragusa (Dubrovnik) and Zara (Zadar); Princely Count of Habsburg and Tyrol, of Kyburg, Gorizia and Gradisca; Prince of Trent (Trento) and Brixen; Margrave of Upper and Lower Lusatia and in Istria; Count of Hohenems, Feldkirch, Bregenz, Sonnenberg, etc.; Lord of Trieste, of Cattaro (Kotor), and in the Wendish Mark; Grand Voivode of the Voivodship of Serbia etc.

Official Grand Title
Viribus Unitis - "With united forces".

Personal motto
German: Franz Joseph; Czech: František Josef; Hungarian: Ferenc József; Polish: Franciszek Józef; Croatian: Franjo Josip; Slovenian: Franc Jožef; Slovak: František Jozef; Friulian: Francesc Josef; Italian: Francesco Giuseppe; Romanian: Francisc Iosif; Serbian: Фрањо Јосиф / Franjo Josif; Ukrainian: Франц Йосиф

Names in other languages
Italian: Ceccobeppe, Cecco Beppe or Cecco Peppe (various dialectal forms) from shortened forms of Francesco Giuseppe, used mockingly, especially by Italian troops who fought during the Great War (World War I). There is also a pacifist poem written by Italian poet Trilussa, "Ninna nanna de la guerra" ("War's lullaby"), where Franz Joseph is called Cecco Peppe.[2]
Czech: Starej Procházka (Old Prochazka or "Walker") or František Procházka (Francis Procházka/"Walker"). Procházka is a common Czech surname which approximates to the English "Walker". It was applied to Franz Joseph after his visit to Prague in 1901 when a picture of him crossing a bridge on foot was published in Czech newspapers with the caption: "Strolling on a bridge" (Czech: "Procházka na mostě")). This, however, may be an urban legend. According to some historians, Franz Joseph was called Starej Procházka much earlier than 1901, the reason being that his arrival was being announced by a cavalryman named Procházka.
Hungarian: Ferenc Jóska, in which Jóska means Joey, mocking his young age when he became the ruler and later his old aged image of an old uncle of the people.

Notes

Beller, Steven. Francis Joseph. Profiles in power. London: Longman, 1996.
Bled, Jean-Paul. Franz Joseph. Oxford: Blackwell, 1992.
Cunliffe-Owen, Marguerite. Keystone of Empire: Francis Joseph of Austria. New York: Harper, 1903.
Gerö, András. Emperor Francis Joseph: King of the Hungarians. Boulder, Colo.: Social Science Monographs, 2001.
Palmer, Alan. Twilight of the Habsburgs: The Life and Times of Emperor Francis Joseph. New York: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1995.
Redlich, Joseph. Emperor Francis Joseph Of Austria. New York: Macmillan, 1929.
Van der Kiste, John. Emperor Francis Joseph: Life, Death and the Fall of the Habsburg Empire. Stroud, England: Sutton, 2005.