Franz ferdinand ww1 biography books
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I come to Sarajevo on a visit, and I get bombs thrown at me.
Gavrilo Princip
Focus is then directed towards the assassin, Gavrilo Princip, where his early background and education is considered, as well as his relationship with the Black Hand. One month later, Austria declared war on Serbia and World War I began.
Early Life and Marriage
Franz Ferdinand was born in Graz, Austria, on December 18, 1863, the oldest son of Archduke Karl Ludwig, who was the younger brother of Austro-Hungarian Emperor Franz Joseph.
After the suicide of the emperor's son, Crown Prince Rudolf, in 1889, and his own father's death from typhoid fever in 1896, Franz Ferdinand was groomed to inherit the throne.
In 1894, Franz Ferdinand met Countess Sophia Chotek and the couple quickly fell in love.
Interesting Did You Know? The two bullets fired in Sarajevo not only ended their love story, but also led to war and a century of conflict.
Set against a backdrop of glittering privilege, The Assassination of the Archduke combines royal history, touching romance, and political murder in a moving portrait of the end of an era.
The Most Immediate of World War 1 Causes
Finally, the concept of the assassination being the most immediate world war one cause is discussed and whether or not the war could have been avoided despite the assassination. Though he cared little for their nationalist ambitions, he advocated for a careful approach with the Serbs, warning his military leaders that harsh treatment toward them could cause an open conflict with Russia.
Assassination
In the summer of 1914, Franz Ferdinand and wife Sophie accepted an invitation to visit the capital of Bosnia, Sarajevo.
After demanding impossible reparations and failing to receive them, Austria-Hungary declared war against Serbia. As the car backed up, Princip approached and fired his gun, striking Sophie in the abdomen and the archduke in the neck. Princip's trial and sentencing are also discussed, as are his death and legacy. The only thing the divergent ethnic people hated more than each other was Hapsburgs.
In 1900, Ferdinand gave up his children's rights to the throne in order to marry a lady-in-waiting. He had been informed of terrorist activity conducted by the nationalist organization the "Black Hand," but ignored the warnings.
The couple married on July 1, 1900.
Archduke of Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary was a polyglot empire of different ethnic groups at odds with each other over religion and politics, and united to a flag that wasn't theirs. He began his military career at age 12 and was quickly promoted through the ranks becoming a major general at age 31.
With a Foreword from the Archduke’s great-granddaughter, Princess Sophie von Hohenberg, and drawing on a wide variety of unpublished sources and with unique access to previously restricted Hungarian and Czech archives, including Sophie’s diaries and family papers, King and Woolmans have written the most comprehensive account of this momentous event available in English.
Events in Sarajevo also doomed the couple's children to lives of loss, exile, and the horrors of Nazi concentration camps, their plight echoing the horrors unleashed by their parents' deaths. Archduke Franz Ferdinand's public persona was cold, sharped-tongued and short-tempered. As moving as the fabled romance of Nicholas and Alexandra, as dramatic as Mayerling, Sarajevo resonates with love and loss, triumph and tragedy in a vibrant and powerful narrative.
Franz Ferdinand
(1863-1914)
Who Was Franz Ferdinand?
Archduke Franz Ferdinand was born in 1863 in Austria.
Archduke Franz Ferdinand
The victim of the assassination is then looked at in more detail; covering Franz Ferdinand's relationship with his uncle, Emperor Franz Joseph, and his morganatic marriage to Sophie Chotek, the Duchess of Hohenberg, who was also murdered in the attack.
These pre WWI books are accessible and interesting enough for kids and teenagers to enjoy, but are detailed enough to satisfy older students and history buffs.
The Assassination of the Archduke: Sarajevo 1914 and the Murder that Changed the World
The tragic story behind ‘the shot that rang round the world’ – the assassination of Franz Ferdinand and his beloved wife in Sarajevo in June 1914 In The Assassination of the Archduke, Greg King and Sue Woolmans offer readers a vivid account of the lives – and cruel deaths – of Franz Ferdinand and his beloved Sophie.