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
Prince Ernst of Hohenberg 49. He is buried in the crypt of the Hohenberg family's Artstetten Castle in Lower Austria. His wife's remains are in a sarcophagus to the right of his. Prince Ernst of Hohenberg Prince Ernst of Hohenberg ("Ernst Alfons Franz Ignaz Joseph Maria Anton von Hohenberg"; 27 May 1904 – 5 March 1954) was the second son of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his morganatic wife Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg, who were assassinated at Sarajevo in 1914. Prince Ernst was born at his parents' estate at Konopiště in Bohemia. Following his parents' assassination, which precipitated World War I, Ernst and