Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria themselves after him. Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria Archduke Franz Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria-Este (Franz Ferdinand Carl Ludwig Joseph Maria; 18 December 1863 – 28 June 1914) was a member of the imperial Habsburg dynasty, and from 1896 until his death the heir presumptive ("Thronfolger") to the Austro-Hungarian throne. His assassination in Sarajevo precipitated Austria-Hungary's declaration of war against Serbia, which in turn triggered a series of events that resulted in Austria-Hungary's allies and Serbia's declaring war on each other, starting World War I. Franz Ferdinand was born in Graz, Austria, the eldest son of Archduke Karl Ludwig of Austria
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