FRANCESCO I of AUSTRIA (II as emperor of the Holy Roman Empire). — Born on 12 February 1768 in Florence, died on 2 March 1835 in Vienna. The firstborn son of Pietro Leopoldo, grand duke of Tuscany (who ascended the imperial throne in 1790 as Leopoldo II), and of Maria Luigia of Spain, he had been destined from 1769 (when Giuseppe II, upon the death of his second wife, declared his intention never to marry again) to govern the Austrian States. In 1774 the education of the young F. was entrusted to Count Colloredo. Slow of understanding, reserved and distrustful in character, apathetic and indifferent, lacking fantasy and imagination, he did not change these characteristics even through direct contact with Emperor Giuseppe II, who in 1784, as heir to the throne, had summoned him to the Hofburg in Vienna and took a keen interest in the education and conduct of his nephew. Much loved by his uncle, in 1790 F., after the brief imperial interlude of his father, which lasted no more than two years, obtained the government of the Austrian States.
The times were exceedingly difficult. The events in France had created considerable uncertainty in governmental circles concerning the political course to be followed toward Paris. Intervention was finally decided upon, but, after some initial successes, the imperial troops had to evacuate the Austrian Netherlands. The first coalition ended in 1797 with the Treaty of Campoformio, which cost F. the loss of the aforementioned Netherlands and of Lombardy, but procured for him the acquisition of the Republic of Venice. The provisions of the Peace of Lunéville (1801), which brought the second coalition to an end, virtually annulled Austria’s hegemonic position in Germany, and the Peace of Bratislava (1805), following the defeat at Austerlitz, cost F. not only the renunciation of territories acquired at Campoformio but also of certain Austrian lands. Having laid down the crown of the Holy Roman Empire on 6 August 1806, F. once again tried his fortune in arms in 1809, with no more favorable an outcome than before. In order to save what could be saved, the following year he gave his daughter Maria Luisa in marriage to Napoleon. At the same time, he entrusted the direction of foreign affairs to Metternich, who slowly raised Austria from the abyss into which it had fallen and contributed greatly to Bonaparte’s downfall. Through the Congress of Vienna, Emperor F. acquired hegemony in the Italian peninsula and regained the prestige lost in Germany. In his relations with the Catholic Church and the Holy See, F. was inclined to eliminate the points of dispute by common agreement through a concordat, but the strong resistance coming from Josephinist circles made it impossible to realize this desire. In any event, the conduct of the imperial cabinet was gravely reprehensible, for example, both with regard to the Conclave of Venice and in its treatment of the new pope Pius VII, who encountered every sort of obstacle in his legitimate desire to transfer to Rome.
BIBLI: C. Wolfgruber, Franz I., Kaiser von Österreich, Vienna 1899; J. A. Halfert, Kaiser Franz I. von Österreich und die Stiftung des lombardo-semitianischen Königreichs, Innsbruck 1901; V. BIBLICA, Kaiser Franz, der letzte römisch-deutsche Kaiser, Lipids 1937 (French trans., Paris 1936). For relations with the Church, cf. J. Schmiedlin, Papstgeschichte der venezien Zeit, I, Munich 1933, passim. Silvio Furlani