Emperor Wars with France thumb|left|Painting of Francis II at the age of 25, wearing the Order of the Golden Fleece, with the Imperial Crown of the Holy Roman Empire and Hungary's Crown of Saint Stephen in the background (1792) As the head of the Holy Roman Empire and the ruler of the vast multi-ethnic Habsburg hereditary lands, Francis felt threatened by the French revolutionaries and later Napoleon's expansionism as well as their social and political reforms which were being exported throughout Europe in the wake of the conquering French armies. Francis had a fraught relationship with France. His aunt Marie Antoinette, the wife of Louis XVI and Queen consort of France, was guillotined by the revolutionaries in 1793, at the beginning of his reign, although, on the whole, he was indifferent to her fate.thumb|left|Francis I as Austrian Emperor wearing the Order of the Golden Fleece, undatedLater, he led the Holy Roman Empire into the French Revolutionary Wars. He briefly commanded the Allied forces during the Flanders Campaign of 1794 before handing over command to his brother Archduke Charles. He was later defeated by Napoleon. By the Treaty of Campo Formio, he ceded the left bank of the Rhine to France in exchange for Venice and Dalmatia. He again fought against France during the War of the Second Coalition.
Emperor Wars with France thumb|left|Painting of Francis II at the age of 25, wearing the Order of the Golden Fleece with the Imperial Crown of the Holy Roman Empire and Hungary's Crown of Saint Stephen in the background (1792) As the head of the Holy Roman Empire and the ruler of the vast multi-ethnic Habsburg hereditary lands, Francis felt threatened by the French revolutionaries and later Napoleon's expansionism as well as their social and political reforms which were being exported throughout Europe in the wake of the conquering French armies. Francis had a fraught relationship with France. His aunt Marie Antoinette, the wife of Louis XVI and Queen consort of France, was guillotined by the revolutionaries in 1793, at the beginning of his reign, although, on the whole, he was indifferent to her fate.thumb|left|Francis I as Austrian Emperor wearing the Order of the Golden Fleece, undatedLater, he led the Holy Roman Empire into the French Revolutionary Wars. He briefly commanded the Allied forces during the Flanders Campaign of 1794 before handing over command to his brother Archduke Charles. He was later defeated by Napol,eon. By the Treaty of Campo Formio, he ceded the left bank of the Rhine to France in exchange for Venice and Dalmatia. He again fought against France during the War of the Second Coalition.