Franz Ferdinand Trivia Quiz

Answer: False

Franz Ferdinand Carl Ludwig Joseph Maria was born on December 18, 1863 in Graz, Austrian Empire. He was the son of Archduke Karl Ludwig of Austria and Princess Maria Annunciata of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, Ludwig's second wife. Following the death of his cousin Francis V, Duke of Modena in 1875, Ferdinand also inherited a further name - "Este" providing him with an additional title and a substantial fortune. With these deaths, the inheritance left to him would make him one of the richest men in Austria at the time.

Answer: Suicide pact

Crown Prince Rudolf died under mysterious circumstances in what has historically become known as the "Mayerling incident". Rudolf had been unhappily married to Princess Stéphanie of Belgium and began having an affair with Baroness Mary Vetsera of Austria. After his wife found out about the affair, Rudolf arranged to go hunting at the Mayerling hunting lodge. Both he and the baroness were discovered by Rudolf's valet (a man named Loschek) and Count Joseph Hoyos bleeding from the mouth. It was initially theorized that both he and Mary Vetsera had died by drinking poison from a glass (most likely strychnine). Upon his death, Austrian Prime Minister declared his death as a result of an aneurysm of the heart.

The deaths of both Rudolf and Vetsera have been controversial. Various theories about their deaths have arisen over the years. Some theories have suggested that it was a murder-suicide. In 1959, an exhumation specifically of Vetsera's body was used to try and determine whether she was killed of a gunshot wound. This came back inconclusive and a suggestion was put forth that she had committed an abortion and died as a result while Rudolf had shot himself thereafter.

In 2015, the Austrian National Library provided and issued the farewell letters that Vetsera had written and they were subsequently given to her family. Initially believed to have been destroyed, the letters clearly stated that she was going to commit suicide alongside her lover Rudolf. The Business Insider report "Bankers found this 'sensational' love note in a vault that's been untouched since 1926" provided this text to verify the suicide idea:

"Dear Mother/ Please forgive me for what I've done/ I could not resist love/ In accordance with Him, I want to be buried next to Him in the Cemetery of Alland/ I am happier in death than life".

As Rudolf's father had no other sons, this left Archduke Karl Ludwig (Ferdinand's father) as the first heir to the throne. Ludwig would die from typhoid in 1896 and therefore Franz Ferdinand became the new Archduke.

Answer: Africa

Despite the pressure of knowing he might become an heir to the throne, he organized a journey to circumnavigate the globe. After visiting India in 1892, he would then travel to a number of locations in 1893 including Australia where he hunted emu and kangaroo, Sarawak, Hong Kong and Japan.

He embarked from Japan aboard the RMS Empress of China and sailed to Vancouver, Canada. He then headed south to the United States and across the Atlantic to Europe. In 1913, just prior to the First World War, Ferdinand visited the United Kingdom where he and his wife spent time with King George V and the Duke of Portland.

Answer: Trophy hunting

At the time, many in the nobility world even thought Ferdinand's hunting was excessive. Based on journal entries discovered after his death, it was written that he had successfully completed over 300,000 kills and had over 100,000 trophies on display at the Bohemian castle in Konopiste.

Answer: Major general

Franz Ferdinand quickly moved up the ranks in the military as a youth earning the title of lieutenant by the time he was fourteen. He rapidly climbed the ranks achieving captain at age twenty-two and colonel at twenty-seven. By the time he was thirty-one, he had been promoted to major general.

In 1898, although not of a high enough rank to do so, was given special permission to make "inquiries" regarding the military, its services and its agencies. In 1913, a year prior to his death, he had been appointed as the inspector general of the armed forces of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Answer: She was not a member of a reigning dynasty of Europe

In 1894, Franz Ferdinand met Sophie Chotek, a lady-in-waiting to the Archduchess Isabella. Although deeply in love with one another, they knew it would be difficult to maintain their relationship and they attempted to keep it a secret. Archduchess Isabella, infuriated that he did not court one of her eight daughters, made a personal mission to break up the relationship of Ferdinand and Chotek. Noting that the stability of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy could be in jeopardy, many members of royalty as well as Pope Leo XIII pushed to allow their marriage. Franz Joseph (Ferdinand's uncle), eventually agreed to the marriage on the condition that any children born could not become successors to the throne.

They married on July 1, 1900 but none of the archdukes, including Ferdinand's brothers ever attended the wedding.

Answer: Cold and short-tempered

In general, it has been recorded that Franz Ferdinand was a difficult person both with royalty as well as non-royalty. Noted German historian Michael Freund once described Ferdinand as "a man of uninspired energy, dark in appearance and emotion, who radiated an aura of strangeness and cast a shadow of violence and recklessness".

In particular, his relationship with his uncle Franz Joseph was extremely volatile to the point where Austrian write Karl Klaus once wrote "thunder and lightning always raged when they had their discussions."

Answer: Gavrilo Princip

Gavrilo Princip was born to poor farming parents and was a sickly youth. His family was often oppressed by societal members, specifically their Muslim landlords. He was brought up fairly strictly and alcohol and cursing were discouraged. Although he was successful with his education at a young age, he became confrontational and was eventually expelled from school in 1912 for his involvement in political demonstrations against the Austro-Hungarian authorities. Ferdinand was given the task of overseeing military training in Bosnia by Emperor Franz Joseph. Ferdinand knew that this mission would be dangerous as there had been an assassination attempt on his uncle in 1911.

At roughly 10:45 am, Ferdinand and his wife Sophia were both shot and died before they could be brought to hospital.

Answer: Black Hand

"Unification or Death" or "Black Hand" were a secret military society formed in 1901 whose primary goal was to unify "all of the territories with a South Slavic majority not ruled by either Serbia or Montenegro". In 1901, they were successful in launching an assassination on royal couple Alexander I and Queen Draga of Serbia. Gavrilo Princip, a member of the Black Hand would later go on record to state that his main reasoning behind the assassination of Franz Ferdinand was related to national unity:

"As future Sovereign [Franz Ferdinand] he would have prevented our union by carrying through certain reforms".

Answer: World War I

In its simplest sense, the First World War was caused due to a series of interrelated factors that are often characterized using the acronym MANIA (militarism, allied system/arms race, nationalism, imperialism and assassination). Ferdinand's assassination is considered the "immediate" cause of the war which officially began a month later when the Austro-Hungarian Empire declared war on Serbia.