Francis Ferdinand

Francis Ferdinand 1863-1914, Austrian archduke, heir apparent (after 1889) of his uncle, Emperor Francis Joseph. In 1900 he married a Czech, Sophie Chotek. She was made duchess of Hohenberg, but because she was of minor nobility their children were barred from succession. Laboring to transform the dual Austro-Hungarian Monarchy into a triple monarchy including a Slavic kingdom under Croatian leadership, he won the enmity of both the Pan-Serbians and the Pan-Germans, and his support of the Christian Socialist campaign for universal suffrage brought the hostility of the Hungarian magnates. In 1913 he became inspector general of the armies. On June 28, 1914, while at Sarajevo on an inspection tour, he and his wife were assassinated by Gavrilo Princip , a Serbian nationalist. Francis Ferdinand's death was the occasion for the Austrian ultimatum, addressed to Serbia by Count Berchtold , that led directly to World War I.

Bibliography: See S. Nickels, Assassination at Sarajevo (1969).

Francis Ferdinand (1863–1914), Archduke of Austria and their presumptive to Emperor FRANCIS JOSEPH. He aimed to transform AUSTRIA-HUNGARY into a triple monarchy to include a Slavic kingdom. He was opposed by the Hungarians, who refused to make concessions to Slavs, and by extreme Slav nationalists (including Serbs), who saw no future for the emergent nations within the empire. On 28 June 1914, while on an inspection tour at Sarajevo, he and his wife were assassinated by Gavrilo Princip, a Serbian nationalist. The subsequent ultimatum by Austria to Serbia led directly to the outbreak of World War I.