At the time if you asked most Hungarians if they felt sorry for Franz Joseph and "his tragedies" I suspect the answer would be "no." He put down their revolution brutally with the help of foreign troops (Russian) and then wasn't very grateful to Russia for helping him do it. In fact his "tragedies" are supposedly the result of a curse put on him by a Hungarian noblewoman whose husband had been hanged by the emperor"s order.
And, he lost every war he was foolish enough to enter Austria into {with the French, Prussia, and World War I} because he allowed aristocrats to run his defense establishment and they were so hide-bound Austria's military were badly led, badly equiped, and totally incapable of playing in the big power game.
He let his brother Ferdinand Max go off to Mexico and "tragedy" when he could easily have put a stop to it had he really wanted to do so. His obtuse dealings with his son and his refusal to recognize that Rudolf needed help led to that "tragedy", he was totally unsympathetic to his nephews desire to marry the woman he loved (even though he himself had kicked over the traces to marry his love) and in choosing a wife, well, he should have listened to his mother.
He was a dull man. Even his long time friend, Katherine Schratt, found his dullness enervating. Being a crowned bureaucrat is not the same as being a good ruler. Spending hours and hours minuteing tedious documents from his ministers is not the same as being a good ruler.
As for his frugality. He slept on a military cot it is true but it had the finest mattress money could buy. And wearing his uniforms until they were shinny and worn is in most people simply being miserly and cheap, not attractive qualities. And his table manners were a horror. Guests went away from his table hungry because he didn't have the good manners to play with his food until all could be served and eat. And I understand the food was not very good either to begin with.
And he was vindictive. He made sure that the Vatican cardinal of state who had questioned allowing Rudolf to by buried in consecrated ground was never pope by using Austria's veto. And this cardinal was regard as the best man for the job of pope.
In the end he appointed a man as his foreign minister who lied to him and kept essential information from him and thus led Austria into the disaster of a war that ended it all. He seemed to simply shrug his shoulders and say, what will be will be, and millions of his subjects died from it.
His record is abysmal but nostalgia for the "old emperor" has clouded the judgement.
