No ruler in modern times reigned in full sovereignty for as long as Francis Joseph, Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary, Bohemia, Dalmatia, Croatia, Slavonia - and many other lands, too. Titular master of central Europe from 1848 until 1916, he was centre stage throughout the dramatic era in which Italy and Germany emerged as united nation states. His personal decisions were vital both to the outcome of the Crimean War and to the onset of World War I, sixty years later.