Franz Joseph I of Austria of his only son and heir, Crown Prince Rudolf, in 1889, and the assassination of his wife, Empress Elisabeth, in 1898. After the Austro-Prussian War, Austria-Hungary turned its attention to the Balkans, which was a hotspot of international tension because of conflicting interests with the Russian Empire. The Bosnian Crisis was a result of Franz Joseph's annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1908, which had been occupied by his troops since the Congress of Berlin (1878). On 28 June 1914, the assassination of his nephew, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, in Sarajevo resulted in Austria-Hungary's declaration of war against the Kingdom of
Archduchess Elisabeth Amalie of Austria Saxony, he had no children. With his second wife Princess Maria Annunciata of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, Karl Ludwig fathered Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, who became heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, as well as three other siblings. Elisabeth and her older sister Archduchess Maria Annunziata of Austria (later Abbess of the Theresia Convent in the Hradschin, Prague) were the product of his third marriage to Infanta Maria Theresa of Portugal, a daughter of the deposed King Miguel I of Portugal. In addition, her father was a younger brother of Franz Joseph I of Austria, the reigning emperor at the time