Art, Sophie And Franz

 

HABSBURG DYNASTY
OR HAPSBURG DYNASTY

The Habsburg dynasty was a Royal German family and one of the chief dynasties of Europe from the 15th to the 20th century. There family produced crowned kings, dukes, archdukes, and emperors; they ruled Austria from 1282 until 1918. They also controlled Hungary and Bohemia (1526–1918) and ruled Spain and the Spanish empire for almost two centuries, from the early 1500’s to almost 1700). One of the earliest Habsburgs to have great power was Rudolf I; he became the German king in 1273. Frederick IV, the Habsburg king of Germany, was crowned Holy Roman Emperor as Frederick III in 1452, and the much coveted title of Holy Roman Emperor stayed within the Habsburg family until 1806. Frederick's son Maximilian I acquired the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Burgundy through marriage. The panicle of Habsburg power came in the 16th century under the emperor Charles V. The Holy Roman Emperor was one of the most powerful figures in Europe, often more powerful that crowned monarchs, and THE most powerful of them all was Charles V, a Habsburg.

Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie

Franz Ferdinand was born in 1863 and was the eldest son of Carl Ludwig, the brother of the Habsburg Emperor Franz Josef. In 1889, Crown Prince Rudolf, the son of Franz Josef, shot himself at his hunting lodge. The succession now passed to Franz Ferdinand's father, Carl Ludwig. When Carl Ludwig died in 1896, Franz Ferdinand became the new heir to the throne. It was a position he didn’t expect, he wasn’t directly in the line of succession, and but for the hunting lodge accident would have remained one of the ‘also rans’ within the dynasty. He is remembered mostly as the man who was assassinated and the trigger that directly started WW1. He was more than that, his story was also one of the greatest love stories. A real Romeo and Juliet type story, a much nicer way to remember someone than as the victim of assassination and the source of a world war.

Franz Ferdinand first met Sophie von Chotkovato at a dance in Prague in 1888. The myth is that this was a genuine ‘love at first sight’ meeting. Sophie came from a noble Bohemian family and had Franz remained an ‘also ran’ within his family, and not heir, she may, just may, have been considered good enough for him. However, a Bohemian noble woman was not considered a suitable partner for a royal Habsburg, to be an eligible partner for a member of the Austro-Hungarian Royal family; you had to be descended from the House of Hapsburg or from one of the ruling dynasties of Europe.  Franz Ferdinand, true romantic that he was, insisted he would not marry anyone else. The debate over whom he would and would not marry became quite heated and reverberated around the palaces and crowned heads of Europe. Emperor Wilhelm II of Germany, Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and Pope Leo XIII all made representations to Franz Josef on Franz Ferdinand's behalf arguing that the family disagreement over Ferdinand's marriage was undermining the stability of the monarchy. Stupidly, this family squabble probably was undermining the stability of Europe’s Monarchies.

In 1899 Emperor Franz Josef finally capitulated and agreed a deal with Franz Ferdinand. Franz would be allowed to marry his beloved Sophie but; her descendants would not be allowed to succeed to the throne, Sophie would not be allowed to accompany her husband in the royal carriage and she could not sit by his side in the royal box. Franz Josef didn’t actually agree with the wedding, he gave in and allowed it to happen under pressure from other crowned heads of Europe. He showed his continued disapproval by his conspicuous absence from the proceedings. He refused to attend the wedding and also forbade his brothers and their families from attending. The closest thing to family Franz had at his wedding was his stepmother, Maria Theresia, and her two daughters. After the controversy of the wedding life seemed settle down for the couple and they had three children. Sophie was born 1901, Maximilian in 1902 and Ernst was born in 1904. Then, in 1913, a chain of events which were to change the course of history, were set in motion.

In 1913 Franz Ferdinand was appointed Inspector General of the Austro-Hungarian Army. In the summer of 1914 General Oskar Potiorek, Governor of the Austrian provinces of Bosnia-Herzegovina, invited Franz Ferdinand, Inspector of the Armed Forces, to watch his troops on maneuvers. As soon as he learned that his wife the Duchess Sophie was officially invited to join him Franz Ferdinand agreed to make the visit. Franz Ferdinand did know that this particular journey could develop into a dangerous situation. There was well known political unrest amongst the people of Bosnia-Herzegovina, they had become increasingly unhappy with Austro-Hungarian rule and many of them favoured a union with Serbia. As recently as 1910 there had been an assassination attempt by a Serb, Bogdan Zerajic against General Varesanin, the Austrian governor of Bosnia-Herzegovina. This had happened at the official opening of the Parliament in Sarajevo. Despite the known risks Franz agreed to make this journey with his wife, probably because it was one of the very rare occasions when Sophie was given the respect and position Franz believed was rightly hers.
The assassin Zerajic was a member of a political movement known as the Black Hand  whose members wanted Bosnia-Herzegovina to leave the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Franz Ferdinand was perceived as a serious threat to a union between Bosnia-Herzegovina and Serbia because Franz was considering granting concessions to the Southern Slavs and this would make an independent Serbian state even more difficult to achieve. (full story of concessions and the implications too long to go into here)
Virtually as soon as Franz announced his plans to visit Bosnia in June 1914, plans to assassinate him during that visit were also made. Three members of the Black Hand group based in Belgrade, Gavrilo Princip, Nedjelko Cabrinovic and Trifko Grabez, were ordered by Dimitrijevic, (Black Hand Leader) to Sarajevo to carry out the assassination of the heir of the Austro-Hungarian throne (Franz). Not every one in the Black Hand group agreed with the proposed assassination and prior to the deed actually being carried out a senior member of the group leaked information to Nikola Pasic, the Prime Minister of Serbia. Those who were opposed to the assassination plot feared it would lead to a war with Austro-Hungary and they didn’t want to risk that as they believed it would jeopardise their aims of an independent Serbian state. Once alerted to the plot Pasic, Prime Minister of Serbia ordered the arrest of the suspected assassins, Gavrilo Princip, Nedjelko Cabrinovic and Trifko Grabez. They were supposed to be arrested while attempting to leave the country however, Pasic’s orders were not implemented and the three man arrived in Bosnia-Herzegovina where they joined by more co-conspirators. From this point onwards incompetence piled up on top of incompetence………….with inevitable consequence.
Just before 10 o'clock on Sunday, 28th June, 1914, Franz Ferdinand and Sophie von Chotkovato arrived in Sarajevo by train. They were greeted by General Oskar Potiorek, Governor of the Austrian provinces of Bosnia-Herzegovina and then set out in a motor convoy to the City Hall for the official reception. The Mayor of Sarajevo and the city's Commissioner of Police were both in the front car. Franz Ferdinand and Duchess Sophie were in the second car with two of the other officials, as was common practice at such events, all the cars had their tops rolled back to allow good views of the procession. At 10.10, as the six car possession was passing the police station, one of the assassins, Nedjelko Cabrinovic managed to get close enough to throw a hand grenade. This first attempt at Franz life was very nearly successful but his driver saw what was happening and accelerated out of the way of the grenade. Unfortunately it exploded directly under the wheel of the oncoming car seriously wounding the occupants and several spectators who had crowded to close to the cars. The loyalty and quick thinking of his driver prevented any further assassination attempt before Franz reached the official reception. His driver had driven at such speed that other members of the Black Hand group were unable to get close enough to open fire or throw their bombs.

After the reception Franz wanted to visit the wounded officials at the local hospital. He was told this was probably not a good idea and certainly dangerous but he insisted on being driven there. It was agreed that for her own safety, Sophie would not go with her husband but, she refused to leave with out Franz. In an attempt to lessen the obvious danger it was decided that the car should travel directly to the Sarajevo hospital avoiding the city center, unfortunately they forgot to tell the driver and the car took a right turn, directly into the path of one of the assassins. As soon as the mistake was realised the driver attempted to reverse, as the car was slowly backing out the assassin stepped out and fired his gun into the car from a distance of only 5 feet. Franz Ferdinand was hit in the neck and Sophie von Chotkovato was hit in the abdomen, it’s often been suggested that Sophie was hit as she tried to shield her husband. Franz knew immediately that he was fatally wounded, before losing consciousness; Franz was heard to plead with his wife "Sophie dear! Sophie dear! Don't die! Stay alive for our children!" The couple were driven to the governor’s residence but both died from their wounds soon afterwards. The exact details of this last journey are subject to debate as the various eye witness accounts do not always agree.

This is the event widely blamed for starting the chain of events that led to the outbreak of World War I. The Kaiser and the Czar initially tried to contain the crisis, but once it became clear military action was inevitable, the Kaiser's position hardened. France and Germany mobilized simultaneously. Within a week all major powers had declared war and fighting began on 4 August when German troops crossed the Belgian frontier. Most historians now acknowledge that the assassination was the trigger but the many actual causes were complicated,deep rooted and long term.

Below, Sophie and her sister Octavia

edit delete reply forgetmenot525 wrote on Feb 10, '09 veryfrank said I find this most interesting. I am familiar with the Mayerling Incident and the theories surrounding those events. I really did not have a clear understanding of who was who, so many similar names and all of those titles! I seems to me that the Habsburg reign was destined to come to an end no matter who was on the throne or in the line of succession. I enjoyed the read, thank you. Thanks for the comments Frank, sorry but it takes me a while to get back to people these days, don't seem to have any where near as much time here as I used to have. Glad you enjoyed the read, like you I knew the story pretty well but I had to look up the names and dates. I found it pretty interesting finding out more about this period in history. My own opinion is that the Habsburgs had just about come to the end of the line and if this incident had not have happened to bring about their demise, something else would have done. Same goes for WW1...........if Franz had not managed to get himself assassinated there would have been another trigger...............it was a war waiting to happen. BTW...........do hope your health is holding up, I know you have had quite a few problems recently and have experienced pain, just hope you are feeling a bit better now.

delete reply veryfrank wrote on Feb 8, '09 I find this most interesting. I am familiar with the Mayerling Incident and the theories surrounding those events. I really did not have a clear understanding of who was who, so many similar names and all of those titles! I seems to me that the Habsburg reign was destined to come to an end no matter who was on the throne or in the line of succession. I enjoyed the read, thank you.