Editing Franz Joseph I of Austria (section)

===Bohemian question===
{{more citations needed|section|date=November 2019}}
[[File:Franz Joseph of Bohemia 1861.jpg|thumb|180px|Franz Joseph in the regalia of the [[Order of the Golden Fleece]], with the [[Bohemian Crown Jewels]] next to him. Painting by [[Eduard von Engerth]] for the Bohemian Diet, 1861.]]

Following the accession of Franz Joseph to the throne in 1848, the political representatives of the [[Kingdom of Bohemia]] hoped and insisted that account should be taken of their historical state rights in the upcoming constitution. They felt the position of [[Bohemia]] within the [[Habsburg monarchy]] should have been highlighted by a [[Coronation of the Bohemian monarch|coronation of the new ruler to the king of Bohemia]] in Prague (the last coronation took place in 1836). However, before the 19th century the Habsburgs had ruled Bohemia by hereditary right and a separate coronation was not deemed necessary.

His new government installed the system of [[neoabsolutism]] in Austrian internal affairs to make the Austrian Empire a unitary, centralised and bureaucratically administered state. When Franz Joseph returned to constitutional rule after the debacles in Italy at [[Battle of Magenta|Magenta]] and [[Battle of Solferino|Solferino]] and summoned the diets of his lands, the question of his coronation as king of Bohemia again returned to the agenda, as it had not since 1848. On 14 April 1861, Emperor Franz Joseph received a delegation from the Bohemian Diet with his words (in Czech):

{{blockquote|I will have myself crowned King of Bohemia in Prague, and I am convinced that a new, indissoluble bond of trust and loyalty between My throne and My Bohemian Kingdom will be strengthened by this holy rite.<ref name="lecaine">{{Cite book |last=Le Caine Agnew |first=Hugh |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l_SOie5SJQwC |title=The limits of loyalty: imperial symbolism, popular allegiances, and state patriotism in the late Habsburg monarchy |date=2007 |publisher=Berghahn Books |isbn=978-1-84545-202-5 |editor-last=Cole |editor-first=Laurence |location=New York |pages=86–112 |language=en |chapter=The Flyspecks on Palivec's Portrait: Franz Joseph, the Symbols of Monarchy, and Czech Popular Loyalty |access-date=17 November 2016 |editor-last2=Unowsky |editor-first2=Daniel L.}}</ref>}}

In contrast to his predecessor Emperor [[Ferdinand I of Austria|Ferdinand]] (who spent the rest of his life after his abdication in 1848 in Bohemia and especially in Prague), Franz Joseph was never crowned separately as king of Bohemia. In 1861, the negotiations failed because of unsolved constitutional problems. However, in 1866, a visit of the monarch to Prague following defeat at the [[Battle of Königgrätz]] was a huge success, testified by the considerable numbers of new photographs taken.

[[File:Portrait of Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria (by Philip Alexius de Laszlo) – Hungarian National Museum.jpg|thumb|left|180px|Portrait by [[Philip de László]], 1899]]

In 1867, the Austro-Hungarian compromise and the introduction of the dual monarchy left the Czechs and their aristocracy without the recognition of separate Bohemian state rights for which they had hoped. Bohemia remained part of the [[Cisleithania|Austrian Crown Lands]]. In Bohemia, opposition to dualism took the form of isolated street demonstrations, resolutions from district representations, and even open air mass protest meetings, confined to the biggest cities, such as Prague. The Czech newspaper ''[[Národní listy]]'' complained that the Czechs had not yet been compensated for their wartime losses and sufferings during the Austro-Prussian War, and had just seen their historic state rights tossed aside and their land subsumed into the "other" half of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, commonly called "Cisleithania".<ref name="lecaine" />

The Czech hopes were revived again in 1870–1871. In an Imperial [[Rescript]] of 26 September 1870, Franz Joseph referred again to the prestige and glory of the [[Lands of the Bohemian Crown|Bohemian Crown]] and to his intention to hold a coronation. Under Minister-President [[Karl Hohenwart]] in 1871, the government of Cisleithania negotiated a series of fundamental articles spelling out the relationship of the Bohemian Crown to the rest of the Habsburg Monarchy. On 12 September 1871, Franz Joseph announced:

{{blockquote|Having in mind the constitutional position of the Bohemian Crown and being conscious of the glory and power which that Crown has given us ''and our predecessors''… we gladly recognise the rights of the kingdom and are prepared to renew that recognition through our coronation oath.<ref name="lecaine" />}}

For the planned coronation, the composer [[Bedřich Smetana]] had written the opera ''[[Libuše (opera)|Libuše]]'', but the ceremony did not take place. The creation of the [[German Empire]], domestic opposition from German-speaking liberals (especially [[Sudeten Germans|German-Bohemians]]) and from Hungarians doomed the [[Fundamental Articles of 1871|Fundamental Articles]]. Hohenwart resigned and nothing changed.

Many Czech people were waiting for political changes in monarchy, including [[Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk]] and others. Masaryk served in the ''[[Imperial Council (Austria)|Reichsrat]]'' (Upper House) from 1891 to 1893 in the [[Young Czech Party]] and again from 1907 to 1914 in the [[Czech Realist Party|Realist Party]] (which he had founded in 1900), but he did not campaign for the independence of Czechs and Slovaks from Austria-Hungary. In Vienna in 1909 he helped [[Hinko Hinković]]'s defense in the fabricated trial against prominent Croats and Serbs members of the Serbo-Croatian Coalition (such as [[Frano Supilo]] and [[Svetozar Pribićević]]), and others, who were sentenced to more than 150 years and a number of death penalties. The Bohemian question would remain unresolved for the entirety of Franz Joseph's reign.