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 Leopold Ludwig of Austria Archduke Leopold Ludwig of Austria Archduke Leopold Ludwig of Austria (German: Leopold Ludwig Maria Franz Julius Estorgius Gerhard Erzherzog von Ósterreich) (b. Milan 6 June 1823 – d. Hórnstein 24 May 1898) was an Austrian general and admiral. He was the eldest son of Archduke Rainer Joseph of Austria (1783–1853) and Princess Elisabeth of Savoy (1800–1856) and a grandson of Emperor Leopold II. Leopold Ludwig was born in 1823 in Milan, where his father served as Viceroy of Lombardy-Venetia from 1818 to 1848. A younger brother, Archduke Rainer Ferdinand (1827–1913), served as Austrian Minister President from 1859 to 1861. Leopold