To my peoples was made plural. After the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, and his wife Sophie in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914, diplomatic relations between Austria-Hungary and Serbia became strained. After weeks of discussions, government and army leaders of the Empire decided to risk war with Serbia, hoping for a short and victorious campaign. Emperor Franz Joseph signed the declaration of war in his Imperial Villa in Bad Ischl on July 28. The document was distributed all over the empire and was widely published on the morning of the next day. At this time, several
Archduke Ferdinand Karl of Austria the emperor's knowledge or consent, having eloped two years before the marriage was revealed publicly. On 6 August 1911 he renounced his rights and titles as a dynast of the House of Habsburg and assumed the name of "Ferdinand Burg", at the demand of Emperor Franz Joseph. Henceforth he absented himself from the Viennese court and lived in Tyrol. By then Ferdinand Karl was suffering from tuberculosis, of which he died in 1915. He and his wife had no children. Archduke Ferdinand Karl of Austria Archduke Ferdinand Karl of Austria, later known as Ferdinand Burg (Ferdinand Carl Ludwig Joseph Johann