Karl, Erzherzog von Österreich - Public domain portrait engraving

Karl was born in 1887, and he was the son of Emperor Franz Joseph I. He ascended to the throne after his brother, Emperor Franz Ferdinand, was assassinated in 1914. As Emperor, Karl faced a number of challenges, including the ongoing conflict of World War I and the rising tensions within the empire between the various ethnic and national groups. Karl I was the last Emperor of Austria and the last King of Hungary. He ruled the Austro-Hungarian Empire from 1916 until the empire's collapse at the end of World War I in 1918. Despite his efforts to address these issues, Karl was unable to prevent the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire at the end of the war. He abdicated in 1918 and died in 1922.