His life was blighted by personal tragedies: his first child, Sophie, died at the age of two; his wife Elizabeth was stabbed to death by an Italian anarchist; his son Crown Prince Rudolph committed suicide; his brother Maximilian, Emperor of Mexico, was executed by rebels; he lost a lot of territory through wars and saw the end of Austrian pre--eminence amongst the German states.

His great love was the army. He wore military uniform most of the time and did not care for civilian clothes. Music and literature did not interest him a great deal, but he did attend the theatre quite a bit and visited scores of art exhibitions. He was not quick to embrace the modern world, but did have a telephone and did open the Budapest underground railway in 1896, being its first passenger. He slept on a camp bed and led a modest life in the midst of the opulence of his palaces.