Are There Any Family Members Alive of Archduke Franz Ferdinand
One hundred years agone, the heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian empire and his wife were assassinated past a gunman during a drive through Sarajevo.
One calendar month later, Austria-Republic of hungary declared war on Serbia. The killing of Archduke Franz Ferdinand would trigger i of the most vicious wars in modern history, eventually pulling in the Russian Empire, Germany, France, Italy, China, the U.S., Nippon and beyond into Earth War I.
So who was Franz Ferdinand? We asked three experts who have studied that era.
Gary B. Cohen is a history professor and director of the Middle for Austrian Studies at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities; Geoffrey Wawro is the author of "A Mad Catastrophe: The Outbreak of World State of war I and the Collapse of the Habsburg Empire"; and Richard Ned Lebow is the author of "Archduke Franz Ferdinand Lives! A Globe Without World War I." Nosotros likewise drew from the book "Archduke of Sarajevo: The Romance and Tragedy of Franz Ferdinand of Austria" by Gordon Brook-Shepherd.
ane. He had bad lungs
Franz Ferdinand suffered bouts of tuberculosis during his 20s and early on 30s. Many said this was due to his female parent, Princess Maria Annunciata, who died of the disease at historic period 28.
The upside of weak lungs? He was sent all over the world for treatment. A whirlwind bout of the Mediterranean, a voyage to Asia and a sightseeing cruise downwardly the Nile all helped to dampen the illness until his lungs healed for practiced in the late 1890s.
The coterie who surrounded the emperor — his uncle, Franz Joseph — at one fourth dimension causeless that Franz Ferdinand would non 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 Courtroom (i that would grow).
ii. He hunted nearly 300,000 animals
Franz Ferdinand was trigger-happy.
Tigers in India, kangaroos, emus and wallabies in Commonwealth of australia and stag and deer in the forests of Austria all met their demise at the cease of the archduke's rifle.
"Anything that moved, he was ready to shoot," said Lebow. His personal record was reportedly 2,140 kills in a twenty-four hours.
Franz Ferdinand shot his beginning tiger on a vi-calendar week trip to India in 1893. "I cannot describe my joy," he wrote of the kill. Photo courtesy of Wikipedia Commons
Franz Ferdinand tallied his kills in a massive periodical. The grand sum of pheasant, partridge and ground game that he shot was 272,511, according to calculations published in "Archduke of Sarajevo."
Emperor Franz Joseph described his nephew'due south hobby as mass murder, said Cohen, while others considered it a mania.
Hunting trophies — an estimated 100,000 — cluttered his estate at Konopischt. You had to be careful walking down the halls to avoid getting impaled by antlers, said Cohen.
At the manor, "(t)he foot of a behemothic elephant, shot by the Archduke in Kalawana in 1893, serves equally an ashtray; the human foot of another such colossus from Ceylon as a wastepaper basket," wrote a government official from Prague.
three. His wife was accounted totally unsuitable for the dynasty
Countess Sophie Chotek of Bohemia — a lady-in-waiting when the ii met — was just beneath the level of princess, and according to Habsburg rule, ineligible to ally the archduke. His uncle, Emperor Franz Joseph, deeply resented Franz Ferdinand's resolve to intermission this rule.
Franz Ferdinand and his wife, Sophie Chotek. Photo courtesy of Wikipedia Commons
Franz Ferdinand enlisted the support of the pope, the arbiter and the kaiser, said Lebow, to twist the emperor's arm until he agreed. Even so, Sophie could gain no purple rank and their children were stripped of all claims to the throne. Sophie could non announced at most major events by his side, nor could she exist buried in Vienna where the Habsburgs were buried.
The arrangement deeply insulted Ferdinand.
Even in death, Sophie didn't escape reminders of her ranking. Gloves, a symbol of a lady-in-waiting, busy the statuary of her sarcophagus.
four. He wanted to stone the boat, and the emperor didn't like it
Franz Ferdinand was an ill-tempered, outspoken, headstrong human, said Cohen, and he pressed the emperor to modernize the archaic rules that were slowly killing the empire, as he saw it.
"He was quite prepared to rock lots of boats," Cohen said.
Emperor Franz Joseph, on the other hand, preferred more tranquil weather.
"He was former and torpid," said Wawro. The emperor, well-nigh seventy-years-one-time at the turn of the century, often spent 14 hours a solar day at his desk buried in bureaucratic matters.
"The comfy ways of Franz Joseph were leading (the empire) to the grave," said Wawro. "Things had to exist shaken up."
The archduke's demands, like modernizing the navy, retiring long-time armed forces chiefs, and forming alliances with the Russian Empire — in addition to Franz Ferdinand'south pushy personality — irritated Franz Joseph.
But the greatest strain on their relationship? Sophie. Franz Ferdinand never forgave his uncle for trying to stand up in the way of their marriage.
v. He had a passion for roses
Thousands of rose beds stretched out in a maze-like blueprint over the grounds of his estate at Konopischt. Co-ordinate to "Archduke of Sarajevo," guests often lost their way in "the great floral mosaic" of roses.
His daughter Sophie recalled that her father was always studying flowers and pressing them into his books.
6. He advocated universal suffrage (just not for women)
Franz Ferdinand wrote in his notes that once he became emperor he would introduce universal suffrage, a.k.a. 1-human, i-vote. 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. Greater rights for south Slavs, Czechs and other subjugated ethnicities on the Hungarian side of the empire would undermine their political sway, and consolidate ability in the crown.
7. He was a family homo
Franz Ferdinand with his wife, Sophie Chotek, and their three children: Maximilian, born 1902; Ernst, built-in 1904; and Sophie; born 1901. Photo by the New-York Tribune
Franz Ferdinand showed very picayune warmth to anyone just his married woman and three children. In a letter, published in "Archduke of Sarajevo," to his stepmother, Archduchess Maria Theresa, after the birth of his second son in 1904, Franz Ferdinand writes:
By far the cleverest thing I ever did in my life was to ally my Sophie. She is everything for me: my wife, my doctor, my advisor — in a give-and-take my whole happiness. …And then our children! They are my whole pride and joy. I sit with them all day long in amazement that I can love them and so much. And and so the evenings at dwelling when I smoke my cigar and read my papers. Sophie knits and the children tumble well-nigh, knocking everything off the tables. It's all so cozy and precious…
In fact, when Sophie was shot alongside Franz Ferdinand in 1914, these were his last words to her, as published in "Archduke of Sarajevo": "Sopherl, Sopherl, don't dice. Stay live for the children!"
viii. He probably could have avoided his assassination
Franz Ferdinand ignored warnings that Serbian terrorist grouping the Black Hand — still reeling from Austrian annexation in 1908 — was plotting to assassinate him during his state visit to Sarajevo.
Plus, the twenty-four hour period of his tour was Serbia'south National Day. Sophie pleaded with him non to go.
And so why did he? Death was better than humiliation, said Lebow. It was a thing of honor.
Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie riding in an open up carriage at Sarajevo shortly before their assassination on June 28, 1914. Photo by Henry Guttmann/Getty Images
On June 28, 1914, Franz Ferdinand and Sophie were riding in the third of a seven-machine convoy when a bomb bounced off their hood, exploding as the fourth machine passed.
At this point, said Lebow, "any security particular worth its salt would have rushed these people out of boondocks immediately."
Only they didn't. Franz Ferdinand insisted that they pay a visit to an officer wounded in the bombing. On the mode, the commuter took a wrong turn, and happened to contrary correct in front end of one of the conspirators, Gavrilo Princip, who, said Lebow, was sipping a drink outside.
Pointing his pistol at the machine, Princip fired two shots.
And the rest, as they say, is history.
Read more:
'The shots heard circular the world' 100 years ago
Source: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/8-things-didnt-know-franz-ferdinand
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