Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VII.djvu/433

 FRANCIS JOSEPH (AUSTEIA) FRANCIS (Two SICILIES) 421 ter part of his reign was undisturbed. Of his four wives, princesses of Wtirtemberg, Sicily, Modena, and Bavaria, the second, Maria The- resa, was the mother of 13 children, among whom were Maria Louisa, wife of Napoleon I., Ferdinand, who succeeded to the throne, and Francis Charles, father of Francis Joseph. FRANCIS JOSEPH, emperor of Austria, grand- son of the preceding, eldest son of the arch- duke Francis Charles, and nephew of the em- peror Ferdinand I., born Aug. 18, 1830. He was educated under the care of Count Bom- belles, and was early inspired with ambition by his mother, the archduchess Sophia (died May 28, 1872), daughter of the king of Bava- ria and sister of the queens of Prussia and Saxony, who possessed more influence and en- terprise than either the emperor or her hus- band, the heir presumptive to the throne. Like his uncle Ferdinand, Francis Joseph was taught to speak the various languages of his polyglot empire, and also became a skilful rider, and fond of military displays. Sent to Pesth in 184T to install his cousin Stephen as palatine of Hungary, he spoke Hungarian to the assem- bled nobles, and gained some popularity. The revolutions of 1848 brought the Austrian em- pire to the brink of dissolution. It seemed that the accession of a prince who had no un- popular record was a necessity, and the arch- duchess, who was the leading spirit of the counter-revolutionists, contrived that Francis Joseph, though only 18 years old, should be de- clared of age, Dec. 1, 1848 ; and on the follow- ing day his father resigned his right to the suc- cession, and his uncle the emperor abdicated, in favor of the young prince. For the political and military events of the reign of Francis Jo- seph down to the close of 1872, see AUSTRIA (vol. ii., pp. 146-153). In November, 1869, Fran- cis Joseph assisted at the formal inauguration of the Suez canal. On April 3, 1873, the em- peror gave his sanction to a new electoral re- form bill for Cisleithan Austria, of which the leading features are: The members of the lower house henceforth to be elected by all persons entitled to the suffrage ; the number of members of the lower house to be increased to 120; each electoral district will elect one deputy ; every one entitled to vote for a mem- ber of a provincial diet will also be entitled to vote for a member of the Reichsrath ; the votes to be given in writing; an absolute majority will be necessary for the election of a candi- date ; those entitled to vote in any one province to be eligible in all the provinces ; the period for which a member is elected is six years. Francis Joseph was married, April 24, 1854, to a daughter of Maximilian, duke of Bavaria. The heir apparent of the Austro-Hungarian crown is his son, the archduke Rudolph Fran- cis Charles Joseph, born Aug. 21, 1858. III. TWO SICILIES. FRANCIS -I., king of the Two Sicilies, born in Naples, Aug. 19, 1777, died there, Nov. 8, 1830. He was the son of Ferdinand I. and Caroline Maria. The death of his elder broth- er in 1778 made him heir to the throne, and he married a daughter of the emperor Leopold II., who became the mother of the future duchess of Berry. After the death of his wife in 1801 he contracted a second marriage with the daughter of Charles IV. of Spain. His father appointed him regent of Naples in 1812, and on the advice of Lord Bentinck he pro- claimed a constitutional form of government ; but in November, 1813, Ferdinand dissolved the parliament and deposed his son. In 1815 Francis returned to Naples, and succeeded in making himself so popular that his father was obliged to appoint him governor of Sicily under the title of duke of Calabria ; and on the out- break of the revolution in 1820 he was obliged to reinstate him as regent at Naples. Francis, siding with the revolutionists, restored consti- tutional institutions; but subsequently, being informed of the projected Austrian interven- tion in favor of absolutism, he reconciled him- self with his father, on whose death, Jan. 4, 1825, he succeeded to the throne. Contrary to his antecedents, his short reign became no- torious for subserviency to Austria, mismanage- ment, corruption, and cruelty, and especially for the wholesale massacre of the revolted in- habitants of Bosco and the utter destruction of that little town. His second wife bore him seven daughters, one of whom, Maria Christina, became the wife of Ferdinand VII. of Spain and the mother of Queen Isabella, and five sons, the eldest of whom was his successor, Ferdinand II. FRANCIS II., son of Ferdinand II. and of the princess Christina of Savoy, born Jan. 16, 1836. His mother died two weeks after his birth, and his father, contracting a second marriage with the archduchess Maria Theresa, paid greater attention to his children by the latter wife than to Francis, whose education was conducted by Jesuits. Soon after his marriage with a Bavarian princess, sister of the present empress of Austria, he succeeded to the throne, May 22, 1859. Rejecting the request of Victor Emanuel to join him against Austria, he adhered to the system of his father, and marked his accession by arresting thou- sands of his subjects and banishing others. After the landing of Garibaldi at Marsala in May, 1860, and the capitulation of all Sicily excepting Messina, he endeavored in vain to obtain the intervention of foreign powers in his favor, especially of Napoleon III. He like- wise failed to conciliate his subjects by a resto- ration of constitutional government (June 25), and by granting an amnesty. He was obliged to leave Naples on the eve of Garibaldi's en- trance into the city, and retired to Capua, whence he sallied forth (Oct. 1) with a rather numerous army, but was routed by the Gari- baldians, and after the arrival of the Sardinian army Capua was compelled to surrender (Nov. 2) with about 11,000 troops. He next shut