Ferdinand II (Franz Ferdinand Carl Ludwig Joseph von Habsburg-Lothringen) was Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary, Bohemia and Croatia (as Ferdinand VI) and the first Head of the Danubian Federation. The eldest son of Archduke Karl Ludwig of Austria, the younger brother of Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria, he became the heir presumptive to the Austro-Hungarian throne following the suicide of Crown Prince Rudolf in 1889 and the death of Karl Ludwig in 1896. He married morganatically Sophie Chotek in 1900, after he renounced his descendants’ rights to the throne after his courtship caused conflict within the Imperial Household.
Ferdinand succeeded his uncle to the thrones of the realm in November 1916. A believer in greater autonomy for the various ethnic groups of Austria-Hungary, especially the Slavic ones, he nevertheless considered Hungarians as too much of a threat for the Habsburg dynasty and announced his plans to reform the Empire, dismissing numerous hardliners, such as Minister-President of Austria Karl von Stürgkh or Chief of the General Staff Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf. As he came to the throne in the onset of the Great European War (1916-1921), Ferdinand II had to postpone his reforms until after the war, honoring his alliance with Germany while having to deal with ethnic strife, war economy planning and military setbacks until the Treaty of Kiev in 1921.
Ending the war with a ravaged country that hadn’t taken any advantage from the conflict, Ferdinand II moved on with his reformist program, repeatedly locking horns with the opposition, from the Austrian Social Democrats (who unsuccessfully tried to vote a motion of no-confidence in 1923) to nationalist revolts (Ukraine, 1921-1923 ; Bosnia, 1922), and became sworn enemy to long-time Minister-President of Hungary Istvan Tisza, who benefited of an absolute majority in his own Parliament and who was worried over Ferdinand’s plans for a lesser Hungary. On July, 18 1925, nevertheless, Ferdinand II & VI managed to open the Pressburg Conference, sitting along with various nationalists from the Austro-Hungarian Empire to discuss the future of his realm.
Ferdinand pushed repeatedly for Bohemia and Croatia to have the same degree of independence within the Empire, on the same level than Austria or Hungary, but Tisza only agreed to grant his wishes for Bohemia (that lost its German-speaking parts to Austria), not Croatia. The Conference lasted for more than a year, providing the mainframe for the establishment of the Danubian Federation on September, 14 1926, replacing the Dual Monarchy with a federalist Trial Monarchy and increasing autonomy and rights for all of its peoples, yet it was still unacceptable to Tisza, who refused to ratify the Treaty, fearing it would break eventually Hungary apart due to Slovak, Romanian and Serbian pressures. It resulted in Tisza being arrested and deposed on grounds of high treason, igniting the rage of Hungarian nationalists.
Having been the victim of numerous assassination attempts (Sarajevo 1914, Ragusa 1924), Ferdinand II was worried after the assassination of his cousin and ally in Hungary, Archduke Joseph August, but nevertheless headed to Prague to attend his coronation as King of Bohemia, that was to take place on January, 1 1927 in St. Vitus Cathedral. As he exited the New German Theatre on December, 31 1926, after attending a performance of the Merry Widow, his carriage was targeted by a hand grenade thrown by Bohemian ultranationalist Jan Rys-Rozsevac, a medical student who felt that the Pressburg Conference didn’t get far enough in granting Bohemia independence. He was succeeded by his nephew Charles I, III & IV as Head of the Danubian Federation and survived by his wife and three children. His assassination was among the leading causes of the Danubian War (1927-1933).
