Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria-Hungary at age 35, 1865.
Franz Josef was an institution: millions of his subjects had never known any other monarch and he was an unchanging face on the European scene. His own way of living and working exemplified a notion of order and a commitment to the self-discipline and moral dedication on which he sought to base his rule.
Stained glass window of Emperor Franz Josef I
He rose every day before 4am, and after washing and shaving knelt to pray at his prie-dieu before a crucifix. Morning and night prayers were a fixed part of his routine which dated back to his earliest childhood and his mother’s teaching. He lived in two rooms in his vast palace, using others only for official occasions, keeping all his papers and personal items neat and tidy.
Emperor Franz Josef I with Count István Tisza a Hungarian politician.
After a light breakfast he worked hour after hour at his desk, reading and signing papers, silently pouring over documents relating to every aspect of the internal and external state of the nations he ruled. When the rest of Vienna rose to a new day he had already been laboring for several hours: if he were ever asked about this he would no doubt have simply said that such a state of affairs was natural and right for a monarch….
Franz Joseph I of Austria, emperor of Austria-Hungary, in 1885.
James and Joanna Bogle, A Heart for Europe: The Lives of Emperor Charles and Empress Zita of Austria-Hungary (Leominster, Herefordshire, U.K.: Gracewing, 1993), p. 24.
Short Stories on Honor, Chivalry, and the World of Nobility—no. 176
