Franz Joseph I of Austria
Franz Joseph I or Francis Joseph I (Franz Joseph Karl; 18 August 1830 – 21 November 1916) was Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary, and monarch of many other states of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, from 2 December 1848 to his death. From 1 May 1850 to 24 August 1866 he was also President of the German Confederation. He was the longest-reigning Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary, as well as the third-longest-reigning monarch of any country in European history, after Louis XIV of France and Johann II of Liechtenstein.
Emperor of Austria
In 1866, Austria lost the war with Prussia and Italy. Francis Joseph I was urged to solve the internal problems of his realm and was well-advised to provide a substantial rise to the Hungarian nobility, which had stayed in passive resistance to him after the crushed Hungarian revolution of 1848 and 1849. In the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 ("Ausgleich"), Hungary was recognized as a self-governing kingdom outside of the Austrian Empire. The Habsburg lands were restructured into a dual union which shared a monarch and a common army, navy and foreign policy. Transylvania and Croatia-Slavonia were acknowledged as lands of the Hungarian crown, which were called Transleithania by government officials to distinguish them from Cisleithania, the lands remaining in the Austrian Empire from 1867 onwards. These were officially known only as the "Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council" ("Die im Reichsrat vertretenen Königreiche und Länder"). Unofficially ever since, these territories officially were called "Austria" from 1915 to 1918 only, despite the fact that all the citizens held the common Austrian citizenship since 1867.