Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria Biography
Archduke Franz Ferdinand Carl Ludwig Joseph Maria was born on 20 November, 1875 in Graz, Austria. It is his assassination that is credited with triggering World War I, though this was really just the tipping point in a complex geo-political web that led to the greatest loss of life in human history.
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Franz Ferdinand is now buried in Austria at Artstetten Castle along with his beloved wife Sophie, but he began his life with much promise.
He was the eldest son of Austrian Archduke Karl Ludwig, who ascended to the throne due to a tragic suicide. Crown Prince Rudolf had taken his own life and that left the throne to the elder Archduke, but Archduke Ludwig died just a few years later of typhoid fever. Ferdinand thus ascended to the throne himself as a result. His cousin, Duke Francis V of Modena, had left him with a sizable sum of money at the tender age of 11, making Ferdinand one of the richest people in all of Austria as well as the new leader of the country.
Although he held a great responsibility to run one of the most powerful countries in Europe, Ferdinand found time for his passions including travel to India, Australia, and Japan. He was excessively fond of hunting and would record each kill. During his lifetime he tagged an estimated total of 300,000. He earned hundreds of thousands of trophies for hunting as well as bolstering his collection of antiques, another great passion.
Franz Ferdinand, like many ruling males in his line, joined the Austro-Hungarian Army when he was young. Quickly promoted, he went from being a lieutenant at age fourteen to earning the rank of major general at age thirty-one. Still unmarried, Franz Ferdinand met the Countess Sophie Chotek in Prague in 1894. Although Sophie was not eligible to marry the archduke, Ferdinand was so in love with her that they maintained a secret relationship through writing letters, Ferdinand refusing to marry anyone else.
In 1899 they received permission to marry on the understanding that it would be a morganatic marriage, meaning Sophie would not have any rights one would normally have as wife of an archduke. Any children they had as well would not be able to succeed the throne. Although this was the case, they had four children together: Princess Sophie of Hohenberg, Maximillian Duke of Hohenberg, Prince Ernst of Hohenberg, and another son who was unfortunately stillborn.
As an individual, Franz Ferdinand has had some interesting historical perspectives written about him. He has been described by historian Michael Freund 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 characterized Austrian society at that time.” His interest in hunting was considered excessive even compared to European nobility standards. This may be the way in which he expressed his emotions from the difficulty of losing his father and cousins at a young age. Religiously, Franz Ferdinand was Roman Catholic which may have been more of a family heritage than a personal decision.
Politically, there has been disagreement among the historical community regarding Franz Ferdinand’s political views. Depending on who you read, you will find some who say he was quite liberal, while others believe the Catholicism he ascribed to made him a conservative. As if that was not confusing enough, still others believe he was a dynastic centrist. He endorsed the idea that would give more autonomy to some ethnic groups within the Austrian Empire and considered their grievances, particularly for the Czechs in Bohemia and the southern Slavic peoples in Bosnia and Croatia.
However, Franz did not feel as magnanimous towards the Hungarians, describing them as, “all rabble,
