Birthday Greetings #4

Happy birthday to Ferdinand I, Emperor of Austria. He was born in 1793 and died eighty two years later thus proving that whatever else it may do inbreeding does not hamper longevity. The son of the deeply uninspiring Franz I, whose main claim to fame is being kicked over half of Europe by Napoleon, Ferdinand had only four great grandparents instead of the usual eight. The Habsburg penchant for marrying their cousins came to a head with Ferdinand who was widely regarded as being feeble minded. There is some doubt as to this diagnosis now, Ferdinand although very stupid nevertheless showed some indication that he at least knew what day it was. He kept a coherent diary and even showed the occasional flash of wit. Nevertheless a speech impediment, abnormally large head and severe epileptic seizures all combined with a natural slowness to make him unfit to rule. It was his misfortune that his barely more qualified (although somewhat healthier) father didn't make any sensible arrangements for the succession. It would have been wiser to pass over Ferdinand and select a less visibly decayed member of the Habsburg family to take the throne. Instead Franz picked the least able subordinates he could get his hands on to act as a regency council and enjoined Ferdinand to take their advice in all things. Ferdinand, dutiful if nothing else, obeyed and everything went to hell. To be fair Metternich probably seemed like a good choice as foreign minister, he had been doing the job for years but by the time Ferdinand ascended to the throne he was in decline. The other advisers had even less to recommend them.

Ferdinand stumbled along for about thirteen years or so but in 1848 revolution swept Europe and came within an ace of knocking him off his throne. On being told that the Viennese were revolting he is supposed to have said "Are they allowed to do that?" With the empire disintegrating around him he was persuaded by other members of the dynasty to abdicate in favour of his nephew Franz Josef and he went into retirement in Prague. He and his wife (apparently they were devoted to each other) lived there for the rest of their lives and Ferdinand was extremely popular in the Czech capital where the people looked on him as "their" emperor.

To be fair most of the revolutionaries didn't have anything against Ferdinand himself but everybody was agreed that a sharper set of wits was needed on the throne. The Habsburg family has always had an ambivalent attitude towards talent. They seem to have had a genius for excluding able members of the family from the throne and promoting mediocrities to the highest position. It might be worth noting however that Franz Josef's brother Maximilian, easily the smartest Habsburg of his generation, was suckered by Napoleon III into becoming Emperor of Mexico and finished his days facing a Mexican firing squad. Simple old Ferdinand on the other hand had written him a letter urging him not to take the title as it was the stupidest idea he had ever heard.