Causes of World War I corrective." British Diplomat Arthur Nicolson wrote in May 1914, “Since I have been at the Foreign Office I have not seen such calm waters.” On 28 June 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir presumptive to the Austro-Hungarian throne, and his wife, Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg, were shot dead, by two gun shots in Sarajevo by Gavrilo Princip, 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 assassination is significant because it was perceived by Austria-Hungary as an existential challenge
Archduke Otto of Austria (1865–1906) to repair their relationship with the Saxon royal family, after both Crown Prince Rudolf and Otto's brother Franz Ferdinand had snubbed the Saxons by rejecting Maria's elder sister Mathilde. Otto and Maria had two sons: Their marriage was unhappy, however, since the Archduke was often unfaithful. He had two children by his mistress, Marie Schleinzer: The mountain lodge on the Rax plateau in Lower Austria, is named after him. Archduke Otto of Austria (1865–1906) Otto Franz Joseph Karl Ludwig Maria, Prince Imperial and Archduke of Austria, Prince Royal of Hungary and Bohemia (21 April 1865 – 1 November 1906) was