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
Archduchess Marie Anne of Austria of Parma, Ferdinand I of Austria, Archduchess Marie Caroline, Archduchess Caroline Ludovika of Austria, Archduke Johann Nepomuk of Austria, Archduchess Amalie Theresa of Austria, and Archduke Franz Karl of Austria. Her parents, Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor and Maria Theresa of Naples and Sicily, and her great-grandmother, Maria Theresa of Austria, are also buried there. Archduchess Marie Anne of Austria Marie Anne of Austria ("Maria Anna Franziska Theresia Josepha Medarde"; 8 June 1804 – 28 December 1858) was an Archduchess of Austria and the daughter of Franz II, Holy Roman Emperor and his second wife, Maria Theresa of Naples and