Rudolf I of Greater Austria

Rudolf I
King of Bohemia, Croatia, Slavonia and Dalmatia, Galicia and Lodomeria
Emperor of Greater Austria
Reign	11 August 1894 - 25 August 1934
Inauguration	20 August 1894
Predecessor	Monarchy established
Successor	Rudolf II
Emperor of Austria King of Hungary
Reign	20 February 1891 - 11 August 1894
Coronation	11 March 1891
Predecessor	Franz Joseph I
Successor	Himself as Emperor of Greater Austria
Born	(1858-08-21)21 August 1858 Schloss Laxenburg, Laxenburg, Lower Austria, Austrian Empire
Died	25 August 1934(1934-08-25) (aged 76) Schönbrunn Palace, Vienna, Greater Austria
Burial	Imperial Crypt, Vienna
Spouse	Princess Stéphanie of Belgium (m. 1881; div. 1891) Princess Hélène of Orléans (m. 1891)
Issue	Elisabeth Marie, Princess Otto of Windisch-Graetz Rudolf II Archduchess Hélène Archduchess Eugénie Archduchess Elisabeth
Full name German: Rudolf Franz Karl Josef English: Rudolph Francis Charles Joseph
House	Habsburg-Lorraine
Father	Franz Joseph I
Mother	Elisabeth in Bavaria
Religion	Roman Catholicism

Rudolf I (Rudolph Francis Charles Joseph; 21 August 1858 - 25 August 1934), better known as Rudolf the Unifier was the first Emperor of Greater Austria from 11 August 1894 to 25 August 1934 of the Federation of Greater Austria. He was previously Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary (as Rudolf II), and the other states of the Austro-Hungarian Empire from 20 February 1891 to 11 August 1894.

A liberal-minded and reformist monarch, he ascended to the throne on 20 February 1891, having successfully convinced his father, Emperor Franz Joseph I to abdicate the throne in what became known as the Schönbrunn Plot. Soon afterwards, he personally led efforts to effectively reform the rather fragile state of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which had been plagued by issues of nationalism coming from its various ethnic minorities. Under the influence of the Romanian-born lawyer and politician, Aurel Popovici, the delicate process of federalising the Empire ultimately concluded with success, thereby establishing the Federation of Greater Austria. However, major Hungarian opposition to such a concept led to the beginning of the First Balkan War, which Austria and its ally, Greece decisively won against Hungary and her allies, Serbia and Romania. Then, with support from moderate left-wing politicians in the Empire, more steps were taken to further solidify the new and refined imperial entity introduced by Rudolf himself. Around a decade later, he successfully kept Greater Austria out of the First World War, which involved its ally, Germany against the Triple Entente. With the defeat and subsequent dismemberment of the German Empire in 1919 and the collapse of the Tsarist regime in Russia, Greater Austria emerged largely unscathed from the war as the pre-eminent power in Central Europe.

Amidst the tense political atmosphere that followed the end of the First World War, Rudolf personally sought to suppress radical movements from both the left and right, which aroused some controversy. Nonetheless, the Empire remained relatively stable throughout the rest of his reign, with the economy experiencing modest growth prior to the onset of the Great Depression on August 1929. On August 1934, he passed away at the age of seventy six, and was succeeded by his son, Rudolf II.

Early Life

Rudolf was born on August 21st 1858 at Schloss Laxenburg, Vienna as the only son of Emperor Franz Joseph I and Empress Elisabeth of Austria. Upon his birth, he was given the name Rudolph Francis Charles Joseph (German: Rudolf Franz Karl Josef), with his given name being derived from the first Habsburg King of Germany, Rudolf I.

In his youth, he was raised alongside his sister, Gisela, whom he later proved to be mostly close with. However, at the age of six, a young Rudolf was separated from his sister, in order to make way for his education as the future Emperor of Austria. Nonetheless, the two's sibling dynamic remained relatively unaffected by this new arrangement.

Crown Prince

Throughout the following years, Rudolf began to develop an interest in natural sciences, under the influence of his tutor, Ferdinand von Hochstetter. As a result, at an early age, Rudolf started a rather promising mineral collection.

In 1877, the Count of Bembelles served as master of the young crown prince. Prior to this, the former had previously been the custodian of Rudolf's aunt, Empress Charlotte of Mexico. Meanwhile, in contrast to his deeply conservative father, the Emperor, he otherwise held liberal views which mirrored those of his mother's. Despite this, his relationship with the Empress was occasionally strained.

Military Career

At the age of eighteen, Crown Prince Rudolf, despite his own liberal convictions, opted to pursue an initial career in the military, with the hopes of eventually correcting the flaws in the Empire's military, which was soundly defeated by Prussia's in the Austro-Prussian War, when the crown prince was just eight years old at the time.

To that end, after gaining the reluctant approval of the Emperor, Rudolf promptly travelled abroad to the United Kingdom, where he then chose to enlist as an officer in the British Army at the Royal Military College in Sandhurst, Berkshire, a historic county in England. Upon successfully receiving his commission as a second lieutenant, he went on to participate in his first military campaign, namely the Ninth Xhosa Wars, which were a series of wars primarily between the British Empire and the Xhosa Kingdom in modern-day South Africa. According to his superiors, Rudolf was "a largely dutiful officer, whom despite his personal feelings on the matter, was nonetheless able to perform to the best of his ability". Just two years later, he returned once more to South Africa to participate in the Anglo-Zulu War, in which he once more displayed a promising performance as an officer, which earned him a promotion to the rank of Captain.

In 1882, Rudolf would participate in his final military campaign under the British Army, namely the Anglo-Egyptian War. As a result, he was part of the British troops sent to Egypt, in order to quell a nationalist uprising led by Ahmed ʻUrabi, a former military officer of the Egyptian army. He subsequently took part in all three of the major battles of the campaign, Kafr El Dawwar, Kassassin Lock, and Tell El Kebir. Once more, for his performance throughout the war, he received another promotion, this time to the rank of Lieutenant colonel.

Upon his return to Austria not long afterwards, he was met with some praise and celebrations by members of both the nobility and the public, whom were made aware of the crown prince's military exploits. Nonetheless, with the military experience he had gained abroad, Rudolf now sought to implement the ideas that he had personally learned while studying at the Royal Military College, so as to better the state of the Empire's military, which he judged to be in an "insufferably embarrassing state". However, his efforts were not without some opposition, as the more conservative-minded senior officers fundamentally resisted his ideas of military reforms, particularly his first cousin once removed, Archduke Albrecht, Duke of Teschen. However, the tense rivalry between the two Habsburg royals would eventually come to a rather dramatic end, when just a few days after ascending to the throne on February 1891, he soon had the Duke of Teschen removed from his position and replaced with a new officeholder whom Rudolf perceived would be supportive of his reforms. The same was also applied towards the War Minister, Feldzeugmeister Ferdinand Freiherr von Bauer, and the Chief of the General Staff, Feldzeugmeister Friedrich Graf Beck-Rzikowsky.

Reign

Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary

On March 20th 1890, with the removal of the longtime German statesman, Otto von Bismarck from his position of Chancellor of the German Empire by the new Kaiser Wilhelm II, Rudolf now feared that Germany, under the absolute leadership of its new Kaiser would soon undertake a radically different approach in regards to international affairs, an assumption that would promptly be proven right by Wilhelm's aggressive actions in the years that followed. At the same time, in accepting this new apparent reality, Rudolf would increasingly come to see his father, the elderly Emperor Franz Joseph I as supposedly unsuitable to deal with the new German Emperor. In his memoirs, he later wrote, "If Germany was going to put a young leader on the throne, then Austria shall do the same with myself on the throne".

Eventually, on the eve of February 20th 1891, Rudolf himself personally confronted the elderly Emperor in his bedchambers, urging him to resign for the "good of the empire". Initially, for about ten minutes or so, both father and son engaged in a considerably heated argument with one another. Ultimately, Franz Joseph himself agreed to abdicate the throne, thereby paving way for Rudolf to subsequently ascend to the throne, which he did so the following morning. Thus, at exactly 8:00 A.M, an official announcement was made by the outgoing Emperor from the imperial residence of Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna, in which he declared, "For reasons that I believe might hinder my capability to effectively rule as Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary, and so forth, I hereby declare my formal abdication from the throne, for the sake of preserving this united, but otherwise fragile empire, one that I hope would be preserved by my son and heir, the Crown Prince". Almost immediately, the announcement came as a shock to the majority of the Empire's population, but was otherwise met with much joy and relief by those closest to and supporters of Crown Prince Rudolf, whom was soon afterwards proclaimed "Emperor Rudolf I". Soon afterwards, while the majority of the public immediately came to accept the new emperor as their own, a minority of them, primarily those whom were closely aligned with the former Emperor Franz Joseph I otherwise came to strongly resent the new Emperor Rudolf, whose ascension to the throne was perceived and denounced by his father's closest allies and supporters as a "coup".

Among his first few acts as the new Emperor was to immediately dismiss certain military officials whom he believed would stand opposed to his planned reforms. As a result, his own Habsburg cousin, Archduke Albrecht, Duke of Teschen was notably removed from his position of Inspector General, paving the way for a more conciliatory and supportive replacement whom Rudolf personally favoured. Besides this, both the sitting minister-president of Austria and the prime minister of Hungary were also swiftly replaced along with their respective cabinets in favour of those that are otherwise favourable to the monarch.

On February 20th 1892, in marking his first year on the throne, Rudolf made an infamous declaration, in which he announced that "the Dual Monarchy shall exist no more", before subsequently revealing his plans for a "Greater Austria", which according to Rudolf himself, would "ensure total equality and representation for all". Soon enough, while this announcement was met with considerable joy and support from the Empire's many different ethnic minorities, it was otherwise met with fierce backlash from the Hungarian population and government, both of whom feared a reduction in their overall power should the Emperor's proposed project becomes a reality.

First Balkan War

After a series of back and forth meetings between the Austrian and Hungarian governments ultimately failed to reach a compromise, a war, that was later termed the First Balkan War subsequently broke out between the two states, with Austria receiving much support from the other ethnic minorities within the empire, while Hungary otherwise stood alone against the rest of the empire. Soon enough, Greece declared their participation in the conflict in support of Austria while neighbouring Romania and Serbia otherwise declared their entry in favour of the Kingdom of Hungary. Meanwhile, Emperor Rudolf himself was initially persuaded by his ministers and military officers to possibly seek the participation of Germany on their side aswell. However, this idea was promptly refused by the Emperor, whom, fearing that German participation would in turn lead to the entry of Russia's under its newly enthroned ruler, Tsar Nicholas II, otherwise sought to limit the scale of the conflict to its current state, thereby making the conflict a "Balkan war", the first of its kind, and which would later be followed by the Second and Third Balkan Wars respectively.

Ultimately, after a year or so, the conflict eventually ended triumphantly for Austria, with the end of the war being marked by the signing of the Treaty of Vienna, which notably led to the official dissolution of the longstanding Kingdom of Hungary, which in its place, was succeeded by a much smaller autonomous state (also named Hungary), bordered by a number of other neighbouring autonomous states within the new Federation of Greater Austria.

Emperor of Greater Austria

The end of the war soon provided the Emperor with the opportunity to truly shape and strengthen the new Federation of Greater Austria, with Rudolf himself seeking to emulate the leaders of the United States during the previous Reconstruction era, which followed the bloody conflict of the American Civil War, which lasted from 1861 to 1865. To that end, only a few of the Hungarian leaders, including Prime Minister Sándor Wekerle were ever formally persecuted for their leadership in the war, while the rest were otherwise pardoned and allowed to immediately return to their normal lives among the other members of society. At the same time, extreme care and attention were given in order to ensure the smoothness of the transition of the former Kingdom of Hungary into the newly created autonomous states, with radical dissidents being subjected to imprisonment, an act that was seen by the Emperor as a "necessary evil" in order to truly realise his ambitious project.

Meanwhile, having been officially proclaimed Emperor of Greater Austria in his own right, Rudolf subsequently sought to give off a more liberal outlook of the newly restyled Austrian monarchy. For instance, while a formal coronation ceremony has never been established for the titleholders of Emperor of Austria, Rudolf nonetheless proclaimed that a "simple, yet elegant" inauguration ceremony be formally instituted, so as to mark the ascension of himself and his future successors. Meanwhile, other major reforms included the abolition of the office of the prime minister of Hungary, while at the same time, the office of the minister-president of Austria was elevated to that of the Chancellor of Austria, a direct copy of the office of Chancellor of Germany in the neighbouring German Empire. Meanwhile, the Austro-Hungarian Army, which initially consisted of approximately three separate parts, was radically altered to consist of only a single, united land force named the Greater Austrian Army (the navy was also appropriately renamed to the Greater Austrian Navy). Most importantly, a single, unified national legislature, named the Imperial Parliament was also created, thereby effectively nullifying the existence of the Imperial Council for Austria and the Diet of Hungary for the now-defunct Kingdom of Hungary.

Marriage

Princess Stéphanie of Belgium

In 1886, at the age of twenty-eight, Rudolf was married to Princess Stéphanie of Belgium, one of the daughters of the reigning King Leopold II of Belgium, at the Augustinian Church in the capital city of Vienna. Initially, the couple's marriage proved to be a largely happy one. However, by the time of the birth of their only child together, Archduchess Elisabeth Marie, the couple had otherwise drifted apart. Then, an attempt to potentially nullify his marriage to Stéphanie failed, when his father, the Emperor Franz Joseph I forbade the Crown Prince from writing to Pope Leo XIII. A few years later, upon catching gonorrhea, Stéphanie herself was ultimately left sterile and unable to bear any more children.

As a result, the state of animosity and distrust between the couple continued to prevail for sometime afterwards, until in 1891, when not long after ascending to the throne, Rudolf, now with full authority over his own marital life, successfully had his marriage to his largely estranged wife formally nullified by the Catholic Church, thereby allowing him to seek a new wife for himself.

Search for a bride

In the weeks immediately following his marriage's nullification, Rudolf promptly made it known to the other European royal houses of the time that he was actively seeking a new wife for himself. Almost immediately, a number of proposals soon sprang up, with King Alfonso XII of Spain offering his eldest daughter, the eleven-year-old Princess of Asturias (whom was soon rejected due to her young age), and his own older sister, the long-widowed fourty one-year-old Infanta Isabel. Meanwhile, Austria's traditional rival, King Victor Emmanuel II of Italy instead offered his two conveniently widowed daughters, Princess Maria Clotilde of Savoy and Maria Pia of Savoy, the queen dowager of Portugal respectively. At the same time, Luitpold, the Prince Regent of Bavaria offered his only daughter, Princess Therese of Bavaria as a candidate for marriage.

Meanwhile, Rudolf was also surprisingly offered with candidates from all three of the competing French royal houses, namely the House of Bourbon, the House of Orléans, and the House of Bonaparte respectively. To that end, he first ventured overseas to Spain, where he met the Legitimist pretender to the throne, Infante Carlos, Duke of Madrid, whom offered his second oldest daughter, Infanta Elvira of Spain for marriage. Then, he journeyed to neighbouring Italy, where in this case, he met the Bonapartist pretender, Prince Napoléon Bonaparte, whom like wise offered his own daughter, the recently widowed Maria Letizia Bonaparte, Duchess of Aosta for marriage. However, despite openly acknowledging Maria Letizia's beauty, Rudolf opted to put the offer on hold for the time being, as he hoped to also see and consider the Orléanist faction's own offer.

Soon enough, upon arriving in England, Rudolf quickly made contact with the family of Prince Philippe, Count of Paris, the Orléanist pretender to the French throne and grandson of King Louis Philippe I. Then, upon establishing a cordial relationship with the exiled Orléanist family in England, Rudolf was soon introduced to the Count's eldest unmarried daughter, Princess Hélène of Orléans, whom, much like the Maria Letizia Bonaparte immediately charmed the Austrian emperor with her beauty. Ultimately, the fact that Princess Hélène herself has never been married before in her life, as opposed to the widowed Maria Letizia Bonaparte proved to be the ultimate deal breaker for Rudolf in choosing his new and second wife, as he soon opted to remain in England for the next few weeks, thereby allowing him to better connect with the bride of his choice. Eventually, after a month or so, and in the presence of Queen Victoria and members of the British royal family, Rudolf finally proposed to Princess Hélène, whom, as per the former's expectations, accepted the marriage proposal. Then, with a wedding ceremony in hand, the couple opted to further connect with one another in the following months, which they did so by together tagging along as a couple with Rudolf's mother, the famed Empress Elisabeth on her many travels abroad. At the same time, when news of the proposal became public knowledge among European society, Princess Hélène of Orléans's acclaimed beauty consequently made her a subject of comparison between herself and the equally beautiful Empress Elisabeth of Austria, Rudolf's own mother. Consequently, rumours in the years that followed later popularly spoke of a supposed tense rivalry between the two women, although this was never confirmed nor denied by any members of the Habsburg dynasty for decades afterwards until a descendant of Rudolf's, namely the reigning Emperor Felix I eventually addressed the rumours surrounding his ancestors himself, which he did so in an interview with the Austrian newspaper, Der Standard. In the aforementioned interview, the Emperor said, "As far as I'm aware of the rumours myself, I'd firmly say that they're nothing more than just baseless and sensationalist rumours made to satisfy the general population's desire for gossip and scandals".

On December 20th 1891, a formal wedding ceremony was held at the royal Habsburg residence of Schönbrunn Palace in the capital city of Vienna, where the couple was wed in the presence of various European monarchs, including the King of Italy, whom had previously been at war with Rudolf's father, the former Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria in the decades before. Following this, the couple went on to spend a month-long period together in private at the Austrian city of Innsbruck as part of their honeymoon, before promptly spending the rest of their honeymoon period at the French city of Marseille.

Titles & Honours

• 21 August 1858 - 20 February 1891 His Imperial and Royal Highness The Crown Prince of Austria, Hungary, Bohemia and Croatia
• 20 February 1891 - 11 August 1894 His Imperial and Royal Apostolic Majesty The Emperor of Austria, Apostolic King of Hungary
• 11 August 1894 - 25 August 1934 His Imperial Majesty The Emperor of Greater Austria

Ancestors

Ancestors of Rudolf I of Greater Austria

8. Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor 4. Archduke Franz Karl of Austria 9. Princess Maria Theresa of Naples and Sicily 2. Franz Joseph I of Austria 10.Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria 5. Princess Sophie of Bavaria 11. Princess Caroline of Baden 1. Rudolf I of Greater Austria 12. Duke Pius August in Bavaria 6. Duke Maximilian Joseph in Bavaria 13. Princess Amélie Louise of Arenberg 3. Duchess Elisabeth in Bavaria 14. Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria 7. Princess Ludovika of Bavaria 15. Princess Caroline of Baden