Franz Joseph I of Austria the Empire on 6 October 1908. However a diplomatic crisis erupted, as both the Serbs and the Italians demanded compensation for the annexation, which the Austro-Hungarian government refused to entertain. The incident was not resolved until the revision of the Treaty of Berlin in April 1909, exacerbating tensions between Austria-Hungary and the Serbs. On 28 June 1914 Franz Joseph's nephew and heir Archduke Franz Ferdinand, and his morganatic wife Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg, were assassinated by Gavrilo Princip, a Yugoslav nationalist of Serbian ethnicity, during a visit to Sarajevo. When he heard the news of the assassination, Franz Joseph said
SMS Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand of these dreadnoughts, the navy shifted "Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand" and her sisters to the 2nd Division of the 1st Battle Squadron. The ship was named after Archduke Franz Ferdinand, whose assassination on 28 June 1914 triggered World War I. At that time, the battleships in the Austro-Hungarian Navy consisted of the "Radetzky" class, the "Tegetthoff" class, and the older and es. Along with the remainder of the Austro-Hungarian Navy, "Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand" was mobilized in late July 1914 to support the flight of and . The two German ships broke out of Messina, which was surrounded by the British navy,