When the then 18-year-old Archduke Franz Joseph took his coronation oath in December 1848 and became the Emperor of Austria,

he reputedly remarked to himself just afterward, goodbye youth. If fate cheated this young man out of the opportunity to sow a few wild oats before taking

on the responsibilities of an empire, it more than made it up to him by giving him the opportunity

to rule over one of the world's great powers for a staggering reign of just short of 68 years.

But fate did the empire no favors by entrusting its rule to a conservative old man

during an age when the world was changing so very rapidly.

Welcome to the history of the 20th century.

Music to the history of the 20th century. Episode 51 Goodbye youth

In the previous two episodes, I've talked a lot about Austria-Hungary.

We're going to move the story of Austria-Hungary into the 20th century today, but first I want to circle back a little bit and talk more about the Emperor Franz Josef.

Although he gave his youth a reluctant farewell on the day he became emperor, the truth was that Franz Josef was an earnest and serious

young man even before then. On his 15th birthday, he wrote in his journal,

15 years old, only a little more time to get educated. I must miss there on stringen.

In modern colloquial English, you could read that last line as,

I really need to get my act together.

The emperor would grow up to be a humble man, humble by emperor standards anyway, cautious,

moody, even a little shy.

In fine Habsburg tradition, he married his first cousin, Elizabeth, in 1854, when she was 16.

It was not a happy marriage, and as you recall, it produced only one son, Rudolph, who married

Stephanie, the daughter of King Leopold II of Belgium,

and who died in an apparent suicide pact with his mistress in 1889.

The imperial marriage was never strong,

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