Francis II (Holy Roman Empire) (1768–1835; Ruled 1792–1806)

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FRANCIS II (HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE) (1768–1835; ruled 1792–1806)

FRANCIS II (HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE) (1768–1835; ruled 1792–1806). As Holy Roman emperor (1792–1806), emperor of Austria (1804–1835), and king of Hungary and king of Bohemia (1792–1835), Francis has a bad press among historians. He is mostly associated with the Metternichian system after the fall of Napoleon in 1815, when Klemens von Metternich (1773–1859), his chancellor, created an international system aimed at inhibiting governmental change and preserving the monarchical structure of European countries.

Francis's reign can be divided into two parts, from 1792 to 1815, when Austria (and many other countries) struggled against the French Revolution and Napoleon, and from 1815 to 1835 when Metternich held sway. In both halves Francis is usually overshadowed (in historical works) by the men around him. In the first half, attention focuses on his brother and one of the rare military talents of the Habsburg Monarchy, the Archduke Charles, and on various advisers like Baron Johann Maria Thugut or Count Philip Stadion. In the latter part of the first half and in the entire second half of his reign, the center of scholarly attention is Metternich. Hovering over both is the overwhelming personality of Napoleon. Francis himself comes across as a stolid, mediocre, prosaic man in the background, fearful of allowing too much freedom to anyone, whether peasant or minister.

In his pre-emperor days, Francis spent much time with his uncle, Emperor Joseph II (co-regent 1765–1780; ruled 1780–1790), the great reformer. Joseph was not satisfied with his tutee's stubborn streaks and apparent lack of imagination but did admire his basic sense of justice and fairness. When Joseph died in 1790, Francis's father Leopold, a ruler considerably admired by historians, came to the throne, but Leopold only lived until 1792 when, upon his death, his eldest son, Francis, succeeded him.

Without doubt the overwhelming problem facing Francis from 1792 to 1815 was the French Revolution and Napoleon I (1769–1821). The first war of the French Revolution began just after Francis became ruler and, like all but the last, ended in Austria's defeat and cession of territory and influence. In the campaigns in Italy fought between Austria and France, the young general Napoleon Bonaparte achieved remarkable victories and in 1797 forced the Austrians to agree to the Treaty of Campo Formio, by which Austria gave up Belgium and agreed to French domination of the left bank of the Rhine River.

Further wars with Napoleon followed rapidly. The second began in 1799 and ended in 1801 with another Austrian defeat. In 1803 Napoleon completely reorganized the Holy Roman Empire, that venerable institution that had existed since the tenth century, in a way that forecast its demise. In 1804 he proclaimed himself emperor of the French, an act that encouraged Francis to declare himself emperor of Austria, both to make certain he had a title equal to that of Napoleon and to anticipate the demise of the Holy Roman Empire. In 1805 Austria went to war again, this time suffering total defeat at the famous Battle of Austerlitz, ceding as a result all of its possessions in Italy and Germany, and accepting the destruction of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806.

In 1809 Austria took on Napoleon by itself, but this time with a different approach. Francis and his advisers had little fear of the ideas of the French Revolution because they firmly believed that a political consensus existed in Austria sufficient to hold the various parts of the monarchy together. But they observed that France not only possessed political consensus but had mobilized it, sending its vast armies under astounding leadership throughout Europe. In 1809, inspired by the anti-French outpouring in Spain, Austria undertook an admirable but ultimately feeble effort to mobilize its own political consensus, appealing particularly (and inconsistently) to German nationalism, the idea of a fatherland, and provincial pride and loyalty. It was a good effort, but it could not overcome Napoleon's battalions, and the war ended again in defeat. Subsequently Metternich assumed his role as foreign minister, practicing a more traditional statecraft to help end Napoleon's sway over the monarchy and Europe. Napoleon's disaster in Russia in 1812 led to the complicated coalition that ultimately defeated the French emperor twice, the first leading to his exile to the island of Elba and the second to his expulsion to St. Helena.

Francis's role in these turbulent times has often been downplayed, just like his role in the post-Napoleonic era. But Francis's reign was not without progress. In fact, his and Metternich's basic principles were not the crushing of free speech or the paranoid search for real and potential revolutionaries (as critics have claimed), but the idea that, if people had good government—meaning a well-educated, fair, efficient, and incorruptible bureaucracy—they would not seek personal participation in government or see the need to change it. In fact, the best illustration of the second half of his reign was not the hunt for subversives but life as reflected in the art and culture of the Biedermeier, a term that began as a description of furniture but which came to describe a comfortable, well-mannered, pleasant, successful (Francis never opposed economic improvements), even middle-class kind of life. It had a flavor of kitsch about it, but it was the kind of life Francis wanted his people to have. The problem was that there were forces at work within and without the monarchy that would overwhelm it after his death.