Franz Ferdinand Carl Ludwig Joseph Maria of Austria (December 18, 1863 – June 28, 1914) was heir-apparent to the throne of the Austrian-Hungarian empire, through a series of incredibly unfortunate circumstances.
The original heir was the only son of then emperor Franz Joseph, his cousin Rudolf. A royal lineage cut short when a severely depressed Rudolf entered a suicide pact with his mistress, Baroness Mary Vetsera. With no male heir, the heir-apparent went to Franz's brother, archduke Karl Ludwig. But his death in 1896 from Typhoid left the position to Ferdinand.
Franz would never ascend all the way to the throne however. On the morning of 28 June, 1914 in Sarajevo (today the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina), a group of Serbian nationalists plotted to assassinate the Archduke on a visit to the city. As he drove towards the Town Hall for a reception, an assassin threw a bomb at the car, but it missed and detonated on a different vehicle in the convoy. After the reception, Ferdinand decided to deviate from his itinerary and visit the victims of the bomb blast at the hospital, but this fact was not properly communicated to his driver. When the driver made a wrong turn due to him following the previously-assumed path, he stopped the vehicle to get his bearings, as fate would have it right in front of assassin Gavrilo Princip, who took the opportunity to shoot both the Archduke and his wife, Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg. Sophie died instantly, while Franz hung on long enough to espouse "It's nothing. It's nothing." before he too succumbed to his wounds.
An assassination that led to the event most associated with Franz, even though he obviously didn't live to see it. His murder was the match thrown on the pile of TNT that was 1910s Europe. The very next month would see the entire continent involved in World War I, the bloodiest conflict ever seen carried out by any nation. This war would mark the end of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire, as by its conclusion in 1918, entire nationalities deserted from the increasingly inept command of Vienna until nothing was left.
Far less attention is paid, except in Alternate History, to what Franz Ferdinand intended to do if he had become emperor. He supported a plan that would've also ended the empire, but not by disintegration. Instead, he wanted to transform it into the United States of Greater Austria, in which not just Austria and Hungary but also Croatia, Bohemia, Slovakia, Transylvania, and 8 other states would be equal partners. The hope was that this would defuse the ethno-nationalist tensions in the empire by giving every nationality a state of their own.
This is actually a large part of why Serbian nationalists targeted the man who would've been the Habsburg dynasty's most Serb-friendly ruler ever. They feared that the Serb-majority portions of the empire would've been satisfied with his federal plan, and thus would lose interest in Serbian unification.
In media
Film
- In The King's Man, Gavrilo Princip tries to kill him with a bomb first. The attempt is thwarted by protagonist Conrad, but Princip manages to shoot him dead the second time.
Live-Action TV
- The Legends of Tomorrow episode "The Fixed Point" involves his assassination. Apparently, his assassination is a very popular stop for time travelers, as evidenced by the time traveler pub where they gather to watch other visitors try and prevent it.
Music
- Contrary to popular belief, the band Franz Ferdinand is only indirectly named after him. They were actually named after a racehorse, Archduke Ferdinand, which was named after the Austrian Archduke. Their song "Bang Bang (All For You Sophia)" is directly about the Archduke's assassination, on the other hand.
Western Animation
- The episode "Hassle in the Castle" of The Fairly OddParents! reveals that one of protagonist Timmy's fairy godparents Cosmo and Wanda's former godkids, Maryann, was responsible for abusing their magic to cause his assassination and thus plunging the world into World War I.
