A weak leader, during his reign Ferdinand stood in the shadow of his state chancellor, Prince Metternich, and the so-called Privy State Conference that had been established to ‘relieve’ him. After his abdication in favour of his nephew Franz Joseph in 1848 he withdrew to Prague, where he devoted himself to his financial interests and gardening. Venerated by the Bohemians as the last crowned king, he died at Prague on 29 June 1875.