Liechtenstein’s Prince Franz Josef II, 83

Prince Franz Josef II of Liechtenstein, head of that tiny, bucolic principality during the half-century that saw it become one of the world’s richest nations, has died at age 83, the government said Tuesday.

He was the world’s longest-reigning monarch when he died late Monday after a long illness and less than a month after his wife, Princess Gina, died at age 67.

The prince had been so frail that he was unable to attend her funeral Oct. 24.

The government press office said Franz Josef, whose efforts to secure voting rights for women finally succeeded in 1984, died at a hospital in Grabs, just over the border in Switzerland.

He was the 12th ruler of the 270-year-old nation, last remnant of the Holy Roman Empire. The principality covers 61 square miles of rolling land and rugged mountains between Switzerland and Austria.

His 51 years as head of state spanned the rise of his tiny democratic state from an underdeveloped and rural country to a sophisticated industrialized nation with one of the world’s highest per-capita incomes.

Liechtenstein has come to be home to countless tax-avoiding addresses for foreign companies and individuals.

Franz Josef enjoyed great popularity among his 28,000 subjects, often mixing with them in the streets of Vaduz, the capital.

“I am ruling over a happy country,” the prince, defined by the constitution as “hallowed and sacrosanct,” once said in a rare interview. “It is a happy country because it is small.”

In 1984, he handed over his executive powers to his son, Hans Adam, the oldest of his five children. But he retained the ceremonial role of head of state.

The Liechtenstein constitution gave him the right to veto any piece of legislation. But throughout his reign he used the veto only once, to kill a law on hunting rights.

“It was a silly law. It would have turned every garden into a shooting ground,” he explained.

Born at Frauenthal Castle, Austria, he took office in 1938, succeeding his uncle, Prince Franz.

Franz Josef took over a country that was so poor that the government once tried in vain to mortgage its prison building, and his father once sold part of the family jewels to bail out the government.

The young prince, a nephew of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand, whose assassination in Sarajevo triggered World War I, faced his first challenge in 1938 after Austria became part of the Nazi Reich.

He made history when he used his powers to force the formation of a national coalition government after the anschluss and paid an official visit to Hitler in March, 1939.

The visit helped make the Nazis “leave us alone because it flattered Hitler’s ego,” he reminisced in a long-ago interview.

He added that Hitler, who was “visibly ill at ease . . . did not make any impression at all” on him during the 90 minutes of small talk in the Berlin Reich Chancellory. Like neighboring Switzerland, Liechtenstein stayed neutral during World War II.

After the war, Franz Josef led the country in resisting Soviet demands to extradite about 500 Russians, including Grand Duke Vladimir Cyrillovich, heir to the throne of All the Russias, who had sought shelter in Liechtenstein.

British historian Hugh Trevor-Roper said that Liechtenstein thus was the only country that refused to join in what he called one of the “great betrayals.” Franz Josef called it a “proud chapter” in his country’s history.

Franz Josef lost extensive property in Czechoslovakia when it was nationalized after the Communist takeover of the country.

But the family’s art collection of 1,400 Rubens, Van Dyck and other Old Master paintings with a current estimated value of $150 million was saved by being moved from Austria to Liechtenstein in 1944.

His holdings later extended throughout the world.