Ten historians contributed to the monograph, shedding light on the more and in particular less known episodes of the emperor's life and work.

According to one of the authors, Peter Vodopivec, this is only the second Slovenian history book ever about Emperor Franz Joseph, the first one being from 1898, the 50th anniversary of his coronation.

He said the prevailing sentiment among local historians is that Slovenians had considered Franz Joseph as their ruler and the Habsburg Empire as their homeland.

Austrian historians, on the other hand, argue that Franz Joseph had never had a clear position on Slovenians in the empire, according to him.

Although many see Franz Joseph as the last ruler of the old school, Vodopivec says he was torn between tradition and modernity throughout his reign.

With his death in 1916, Slovenes lost a figure they identified with and a sense of belonging to the multi-national empire.

He was succeeded by his great nephew Karl I, who only stayed on the throne for two years before the end of the Great war, which brought the dissolution of the empire.

Franz Joseph ascended to the throne in 1848 at age 18 at the time of national awakening movements spreading throughout the empire, died on 21 November 1916, two years into WWI.

In July 1883, he visited Carniola and Styria, the two regions covering most of present-day Slovenia, marking the 600th anniversary of Habsburg rule on the territory.

Carniola tried to use the occasion especially to bring the emperor's attention to the fact that the prevailing population is Slovenian and to their struggle for a more equal position of Slovenian language.

Compared to some of the other nations in the Hapsburg monarchy, Slovenes were in a somewhat inferior position, since they had no nobility nor strong cities, so there were few intellectuals to lead the national awakening since most of the population were farmers.