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This historical essay describes Emperor Franz Joseph's visits to the Czech lands. Both the Monarch's image and the people's attitude to his stays in Bohemia and Moravia during his long reign (1848–1916) were prone to change. Following his coronation the young ruler dissolved the Constituent Assembly and returned Austria to Absolute Rule. His popularity declined sharply even though the Czechs supported the Habsburgs during the 1848/49 revolutionary uprising. He was welcomed in Bohemia after his wedding in 1854 but this was fuelled by the hope that the current harsh rule would grow more lenient. Once constitutional rule was reinstated, Czech politicians attempted to entice Franz Joseph to hold his coronation ceremony in Bohemia. In this they did not succeed. During the final decades of his rule the emperor acquired the benign image of an "Old Monarch" and this despite the fact that Czech attachment to the monarchy had weakened considerably over time. Nevertheless the Czech people sincerely liked their Emperor and his visits were always occasions for national celebration. During these visits the aged Monarch would address old war veterans and young children and these meticulously recorded conversations formed an integral part of his official cult.

Approximately 100 thousand men of Czech origin died during the wartime operations
in the years 1914 to 1918. The majority were aged between 23 and 35. The reproductive losses have
been estimated at another 610 thousand (550 thousand children that were never born due to the
absence of a man in the household and another 60 thousand civilian dead). In 1914 the population
in the Czech territories numbered 10 million 283 thousand, in 1919 this number decreased
to 9 million 921 thousand. The ratio of men to women decreased (in 1920 there were 92.5 men to
every 100 women). This imbalance in age frequency, a result of the low birth rate, had a long term
effect firstly on the number of marriages, then on the birth rate and eventually on the mortality
rate. These long term effects were evidently still present at the close of the 20th Century.