The assassination of Franz Ferdinand took place on the anniversary of the Serbian defeat to the Turks at the Battle of Kosovo in 1389, a humiliating memory for all Serbs. Michael Freund, a German historian describes Franz Ferdinand as ‘a man of uninspired energy, dark in appearance and emotion, who radiated an aura of strangeness and cast a shadow of violence and recklessness … a true personality amidst the amiable inanity that characterised Austrian society at this time.’ Visiting the Balkans Credit: Austro-Hungarian Official Photographer / Commons. One of Franz Josef’s personal servants recalled in his memoirs that ‘thunder and lightning always raged when they had their discussions.’Īrchduke Ferdinand and his wife on an official visit to Sarajevo in June 1914, shortly before their assassination by Gavrilo Princip. He had a tense relationship with the Emperor Franz Josef. He wanted to address the grievances of different groups, especially the Czechs in Bohemia and the south Slavic peoples in Croatia and Bosnia, who had been left out of the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867. He was also an advocate for granting greater autonomy to ethnic groups within the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He was one of the most vocal opponents of war because he didn’t believe it was in the interests of the Empire. He was a deeply conservative figure, as well as piously catholic. This marriage meant his children could not inherit the Austrian throne, a cause of tension among the Austrian elite. He had married Sophie, a Bohemian countess of relatively low status. Politics and personalityįranz Ferdinand was not a popular man. Credit: Austrian National Library / Commons. Franz Ferdinand was Austrian Archduke heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary.
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