Francis Joseph[a] was born in Meran, Austria (now in Italy), the second son of the Miguelist pretender to the Portuguese throne Miguel Januário, Duke of Braganza and his first wife Princess Elisabeth of Thurn and Taxis.

[4] In order to get the consent of his father to marry Anita, his brother Dom Miguel had to renounce all claim to the throne of Portugal in favor of Prince Francis Joseph.

In October 1900, while a lieutenant in the Hussars he was disciplined by his godfather the Austrian Emperor Francis Joseph, after he issued a challenge to an old colonel who called him to account for a breach of Army regulations.

As a result, he was removed from the Hussars and transferred to a regiment of Dragoons and sent to carry out policing duties in the barren, poverty stricken villages along the Austrian-Russian frontier.

[6] In 1911–12 Francis Joseph participated in the monarchist uprisings in northern Portugal led by Henrique Mitchell de Paiva Couceiro, in an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow the First Portuguese Republic.

[9] In August 1902, Prince Francis Joseph was in London to attend the coronation of King Edward VII of the United Kingdom as a member of the Austro-Hungarian mission.

[20] As Prince Francis Joseph's affairs had been placed in the hands of a trustee and he was only given an allowance, he saw a friendship with supposed millionaire member of the Vanderbilt family as a good way to boost his finances.

[19] The two engineers made a good impression on the Prince,[19] so Joachim managed to get him to part with more money by acquiring shares in the mining company that he said he was the majority shareholder of.

[18] As the emeralds and shares turned out to be worthless Prince Francis Joseph decided to prosecute criminally through the Austrian embassy in London.