Emperor of Austria in 1875. As Ferdinand I had no sons, his brother Francis Charles would have become emperor, but was persuaded by his wife to pass over the right of succession to their son, Francis Joseph. He accepted the duty of the Emperor of Austria without having been Crown Prince or "Thronfolger" before. Francis Joseph's only son Rudolf committed suicide in 1889, Francis Joseph's brother Karl Ludwig died in 1896. Karl Ludwig's son Franz Ferdinand became heir presumptive to the throne. He was assassinated in Sarajevo, Bosnia in 1914; due to his morganatic marriage, his son had no rights to the throne.
Archduchess Elisabeth Amalie of Austria Saxony, he had no children. With his second wife Princess Maria Annunciata of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, Karl Ludwig fathered Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, who became heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, as well as three other siblings. Elisabeth and her older sister Archduchess Maria Annunziata of Austria (later Abbess of the Theresia Convent in the Hradschin, Prague) were the product of his third marriage to Infanta Maria Theresa of Portugal, a daughter of the deposed King Miguel I of Portugal. In addition, her father was a younger brother of Franz Joseph I of Austria, the reigning emperor at the time