Who is archduke franz ferdinand of austria

The coterie who surrounded the emperor — his uncle, Franz Joseph — at one time assumed that Franz Ferdinand would not live to inherit the throne. Cohen says that this readiness to dismiss the vulnerable nephew as a viable heir planted in him a seed of resentment toward the Habsburg Imperial Court one that would grow.

His personal record was reportedly 2, kills in a day. Franz Ferdinand shot his first tiger on a six-week trip to India in Photo courtesy of Wikipedia Commons. Franz Ferdinand tallied his kills in a massive journal. Hunting trophies — an estimated , — cluttered his estate at Konopischt. You had to be careful walking down the halls to avoid getting impaled by antlers, said Cohen.

Countess Sophie Chotek of Bohemia — a lady-in-waiting when the two met — was just below the level of princess, and according to Habsburg rule, ineligible to marry the archduke. Franz Ferdinand and his wife, Sophie Chotek. However, Sophie could gain no royal rank and their children were stripped of all claims to the throne. Sophie could not appear at most major events by his side, nor could she be buried in Vienna where the Habsburgs were buried. Gloves, a symbol of a lady-in-waiting, decorated the bronze of her sarcophagus.

Franz Ferdinand was an ill-tempered, outspoken, headstrong man, said Cohen, and he pressed the emperor to modernize the archaic rules that were slowly killing the empire, as he saw it. The emperor, nearly years-old at the turn of the century, often spent 14 hours a day at his desk buried in bureaucratic matters.

But the greatest strain on their relationship? Franz Ferdinand never forgave his uncle for trying to stand in the way of their marriage. Thousands of rose beds stretched out in a maze-like pattern over the grounds of his estate at Konopischt. His daughter Sophie recalled that her father was always studying flowers and pressing them into his books.

Franz Ferdinand wrote in his notes that once he became emperor he would introduce universal suffrage, a. But not for the reasons you may assume; Franz Ferdinand was no friend to democracy, said Cohen. He was interested in weakening Hungarian power, said Cohen, which he hated and believed was the barrier to change. The couple was aware that it would be a dangerous undertaking.

When Austria annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina in , it stirred an unsettling reaction from the West, and many Serbians wanted a pan-Slav state directed by Serbia, a province that had better relations with Russia than with Austro-Hungary.

The six Bosnian Serbs assigned to assassinate Franz Ferdinand strove to liberate the south-Slav provinces from Habsburg rule in order to create a Greater Serbia or Yugoslavia. While it missed its target, bouncing off the folded back of the convertible cover and rolling into the street, the bomb did a lot of damage, injuring 20 people as it exploded under the fourth car in the procession.

As the five cars continued toward the Town Hall, year old Gavrilo Princip and two others did nothing when it was their turn to act because the car was moving too fast. It seemed as if the assassination attempt on Franz Ferdinand had been a failure. Then the Archduke and Duchess decided to change their plans and visit the injured at the hospital. Not informed that they were taking a different route, the driver of the third car took a wrong turn onto Franz Joseph Street and had to back up near the Latin Bridge.

That is when fate intervened. At am, only one and a half meters away, Princip fired his Belgian semi-automatic pistol. The Archduke was hit in the jugular vein while Princip shot Sophie in the abdomen. Franz Ferdinand begged Sophie not to die, telling her to live for their children. World War I would begin less than two months after their deaths. All the assassins were arrested and tried from October 12 to October 23, On the morning of June 28, , the royal couple arrived by train and a six-car motorcade drove them to city hall for an official reception.

The archduke and his wife were in the second car with the top rolled back in order to give the crowds a good view. At a. The driver accelerated when he saw the flying object, and the bomb exploded underneath the wheel of the next car, injuring two of its occupants along with a dozen spectators. Franz Ferdinand is reputed to have shouted in anger to local officials, "So, you welcome your guests with bombs?!

I come to Sarajevo on a visit, and I get bombs thrown at me. It is outrageous. On the route back to the palace, the archduke's driver took a wrong turn into a side street, where year-old nationalist Gavrilo Princip was waiting. As the car backed up, Princip approached and fired his gun, striking Sophie in the abdomen and the archduke in the neck.

Both died before reaching the hospital. The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand gave the hardliners in Austria-Hungary the opportunity to take action against Serbia and put an end to their fight for independence.

In July , the situation escalated. After demanding impossible reparations and failing to receive them, Austria-Hungary declared war against Serbia. As was expected, the complex web of alliances was activated as Russia declared war on Austria-Hungary, Germany declared war on Russia, and France and Britain declared war on Germany and Austria-Hungary.

World War I had begun. We strive for accuracy and fairness. If you see something that doesn't look right, contact us! Subscribe to the Biography newsletter to receive stories about the people who shaped our world and the stories that shaped their lives.

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