Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir presumptive to the Austro-Hungarian throne, and his wife Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg, occurred on 28 June 1914 in Sarajevo when they were mortally wounded by Gavrilo Princip. Princip was one of a group of six assassins (five Serbs and one Bosniak) coordinated by Danilo Ilić, a Bosnian Serb and a member of the Black Hand secret society. The political objective of the assassination was to break off Austria-Hungary's South Slav provinces so they could be combined into a Yugoslavia. The assassins' motives were consistent with the
Archduke Karl Ludwig of Austria Archduke Karl Ludwig of Austria Archduke Karl Ludwig Joseph Maria of Austria (30 July 1833 – 19 May 1896) was the younger brother of Franz Joseph I of Austria (1830–1916), the father of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria (1863–1914), whose assassination ignited World War I, and grandfather of the last emperor, Charles I. He was born at Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna, the son of Archduke Franz Karl of Austria (1802–1878) and his wife Princess Sophie of Bavaria (1805–1872). His mother ensured he was raised a devout Roman Catholic by the Vienna Prince-archbishop Joseph Othmar Rauscher, a conviction that evolved into