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Home  »  Familiar Short Sayings of Great Men  »  Francis II.

S.A. Bent, comp. Familiar Short Sayings of Great Men. 1887.

Francis II.

  • [Emperor of Germany; born at Florence, February, 1768; began to reign over the hereditary Austrian dominions, 1792; chosen emperor of Germany the same year; resigned, 1806, when the conquests of Napoleon dissolved the Holy Roman Empire; assumed the title of Francis I., Emperor of Austria; died 1835, beloved by his subjects in spite of his reverses.]
  • If I am to live only with my equals, I must descend into the tomb of my ancestors, and dwell there forever.

  • The leaden coffins of the Austrian royal family stand in the crypt of the Capuchin Church in Vienna: it was to them that Francis said he must descend, when reproached with being too familiar with his subjects (in reality said by Joseph II.).