May 24, 2022 • 43 mins
The day began with an explosion, and it ended in death, and it changed the course of history forever.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of I Heart Radio
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(00:24):
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(00:46):
so much. The morning of June nine teen, fourteen, began
with golden light spilling over Sarajevo. It was a perfect
day in a summer full of perfect days. In later years,
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reflecting on the bloodshed that was to come, observers would
remark on how beautiful the summer had been, the way
the world had seemed to hum in harmony, the way
the sun had shown on Europe. No one in the
crowds gathered along the appel Qua, a broad street running
along the mill Jack River in central Sarajevo. Knew quite
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how precious this day would be, the beginnings and endings
that it would mark for both the Archduke Franz Ferdinand
and for his assassin. June held special significance. For Franz Ferdinand,
Archduke of Austria est and heir to the throne of
Austria Hungary. It was the anniversary of the day he
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had taken the oath of Renunciation, the bitter compromise that
had allowed out him to marry his beloved wife, but
at the cost of renouncing the rights of his children
to inherit his titles. Fourteen years on from that day,
it was still a painful reminder of the strictures of
tradition that bound Franz Ferdinand to a dying system of governance.
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For his assassin, Gavrilo princip it was St. Vitus's Day,
a day of remembrance and resistance. On June thirteen eighty nine,
the Serbs had been defeated by the Ottomans at the
Battle of Kosovo Polier, an event that dashed their dreams
of an independent Serbia. And ushered in five centuries of
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Ottoman rule. But Kosovo Polier was also the site of
an important victory, the killing of the Ottoman Sultan Murad
the First by the Serbian night Milos or Blick. Five
hundred years later, Serbs celebrated Obelik's feet on the feast
day of St. Vitus, honoring the sacrifices of general rations
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of forebearers in the quest for an independent Serbia. This June,
the two men had arrived in the same city, each
for a reason that echoed the meaning of the day
in his own mind. Franz Ferdinand was there an official
royal business, making a royal progress through the capital of
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the recently annexed territory of Bosnia Herzegovina. He hadn't wanted
to make the trip, he had opposed the annexation, but
he felt duty bound to Gavrillo. Princep a passionate, poetry
mad young student, was there in the spirit of Milash Obelik,
determined to win freedom for his people at any cost.
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This June, the forces of monarchy and modernism, of tradition
and terrorism were on a deadly collision course. The study
of history is often a study of themes, the rise
and fall of movements, ideas, and passions. And here now
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the grand forces of history were coalescing, rippling, unseen through
the crowds, gathering power and refracting through the bodies of
two men, one mustachioed, middle aged archduke and a fervent,
tubercular teenager. But on that sunny Sarah gave O afternoon,
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they were ultimately just two people, drawn inexorably towards one
another by virtue of fulfilling what they felt to be
their duties. They couldn't have known that at the moment
of their meeting, the forces that had shaped their lives
and become embodied in them would slip their mortal forms
and transcend them, eventually drawing the world into the bloodiest
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conflict it had ever known. I'm Danish Schwartz, and this
is noble blood the Great European War. The German Chancellor
Otto von Bismarck is alleged to have said in eighteen eight,
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will quote come out of some damned foolish thing in
the Balkans. Though the quote is apocryphal, it does neatly
capture the precariousness of the political situation in Southeastern Europe
in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It would
be nearly impossible to do justice to the nuances and
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intricacies of the political evolution of the Balkans in an
entire season of a podcast, let alone one episode. But
to understand why Givrilla princip went to Sarajevo in June
fourteen to kill Archduke Franz Ferdinand, here's what you need
to know. The Balkans is the name given to the
mountainous swath of land that stretches north from present day
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Greece up until it butts into the southern borders of
present day Austria, Hungary, and Ukraine. First formally incorporated as
Roman provinces in the first century b C. The region
was eventually controlled by Slavic invaders from the north, who
organized the land into a series of kingdoms whose names
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still remain Bosnia, Herzegovina, Serbia, Bulgaria, and so on. A
quick note here. Over time, the Slavic people inhabiting the
Balkans became known as Southern Slavs, and further ethnic subgrouping developed,
with these ethnic subgroups sharing the names of the kingdoms
they occupied with Bosniaks in Bosnia and Croats in Croatia,
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for example. In the Modern Age, as new land borders
were established, these groups mingled, becoming citizens of countries that
might not share the same name as their ethnic subgroups.
For example, Gavrilo princip was a Bosnian Serb, which meant
that he was an ethnic Serb but living in the
country of Bosnia. Back to the Middle Ages, over the
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fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the Balkan kingdoms were conquered by
the Ottoman Empire in a series of battles, including the
defeat of the Serbs at the Battle of Kosovopolier in
thirteen eighty nine, a defeat but with one victory, the
slaying of the Ottoman Sultan Maraud, the first by the
Serb milash Obilich, events commemorated on Saint Vitus's Day. For
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the next five centuries, various resistance groups would revolt against
the Ottomans, mainly along ethnic or religious lines. By the
nineteenth century, the most powerful social movement was a pan
Slavic one, which aimed to win the right to self
determination for Southern Slavs. In eighteen seventy eight, it looked
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like they might finally have a chance. The year before,
the Russian Empire had come to the aid of Orthodox
rebels in the region, creating a powerful coalition that eventually,
after a bloody conflict, defeat the Ottomans. The Treaty of
San Stefano, signed by the Russians and the Ottomans in
the spring of eighteen seventy eight, granted increased independence or
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autonomy to a number of new nation states, But the
other imperial powers Great Britain, France, Austria, Hungary, Italy, and
Germany had different ideas. Worried that the newly unoccupied region
would lead to an imbalance in the power structure that
they had so carefully curated in their favor, those great
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powers met with Russia in July eight seventy eight to
determine a future for those who had just fought for
the right to determine the future for themselves. The resulting
Treaty of Berlin granted Austria Hungary protectorate powers over the
territory of Bosnia Herzegovina, neighboring Serbia, which had gained nearly
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full autonomy from the Ottomans earlier in the century. Struggled
internally over whether to ally with the Russians or with
Austria Hungary. Meanwhile, some ethnic Serbs in Bosnia Herzegovina dreamed
of uniting with Serbia to create a Slavic nation. Tensions
only rose when Austria Hungary formally annexed Bosnia in eight
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ostensibly to prevent the Ottomans from trying to reclaim it,
but really to curb the expansion of Serbia. Nearly everyone
was frustrated by the situation, with the Slavs feeling that
they had driven out the Ottoman occupiers only to find
themselves subjugated to a new order. It was into this
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situation that Maria and Peter Princip welcomed a son, Gavrilo,
on July eighteen ninety four. The Princips lived in Oblaje,
a small village in northern Bosnia. Peter, a farmer who
had served as the village postman, had fought in the
Bosnia War for independence, and was known for his religious piety. Maria,
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known as Nana, had a beautiful singing voice and bright
blue eyes, and she would carry a small bag of
sugar at her waist to give to village children. Their
life was a difficult one, racked by poverty and illness.
Of the nine children Nana gave birth to, only three
would survive childhood. Gavrillo grew up to be a slight
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but scrappy child. A surviving relative would later tell the
story of a young Gavrillo throwing his pencil case at
the head of a teacher who was caning another student.
He might have been small, said the relative, but the
village boys all knew he was ferocious if you tried
to wrestle him. Gavrillo had a reputation for taking on bullies,
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and also for bookishness. When he wasn't caring for his
family's chickens or working in the fields with his father,
Gavrillo could be found with his nose in a book,
a precious resource in his remote village. He particularly loved
the myths of patriotic serbs past, whose legends, including that
of the sultan slayer milash Obilich, were passed on through
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the generations via epic poetry. In nineteen o seven, Gavrillo
left his tiny village of Oblage to continue his education
in Sarajevo. Unable to afford the train ticket, he traveled
the one hundred and forty seven miles to the city
on foot alongside his father. It was on this journey
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that the young Gavrillo began to fully realize the deprivations
his people were suffering under the Habsburg's rule. At his
trial seven years later, he would recount his impressions of
the villagers he saw quote, they are completely impoverished. They
are treated like cattle. Once in Sarajevo, Gavrillo was met
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by his older brother Yovan, who planned to send him
to an Austro Hungarian military school. However, Yovan was dissuayed
did from this course of action by a friend who
begged him not to make young Gavrilo into quote an
executioner of his own people, or so the story goes.
Whatever the cause, Yovan ultimately sent Gavrilo to Merchant School,
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where he studied for three years. It was at this
school that Gavrillo was first exposed to the political movement
for Slavic Unification, a movement whose aim was to see
the Slavic people, particularly the Serbs, a Slavic subgroup who
mainly lived in Serbia and Bosnia, rule their own nation.
Over time, as Gavrillo discussed politics with classmates, read theory,
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and traveled the country witnessing oppression his people faced, he
became more and more convinced that the Austro Hungarian Empire
was just another bully, the kind he had long felt
compelled to fight. By nineteen twelve, teenaged Gavrillo had been
expelled from school for participating in student protests against Austro
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Hungarian rule. Determined to aid the Slavic movement, Gavrillo traveled
to the Serbian capital of Belgrade. It was an opportune
time for Gavrillo to commit himself to the revolutionary cause.
In October nineteen twelve, Bulgaria, Greece, Montenegro, and Serbia had
declared war against the Ottoman Empire, which had maintained a
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minor foothold in the region. Only eight months later, the
group known as the Balkan League had defeated the Ottomans,
who ultimately seeded all of their lands west of Istanbul.
It was a striking show of strength by the Balkan League,
and it was especially galvanizing for nationalist Serbs, who were
further empowered by the Second Balkan War of nineteen thirteen,
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in which Serbia gained more territory. Gavrillo had tried to
enlist in the Serbian army for both conflicts, but suffering
from tuberculosis, he was deemed too weak. Not dissuaded, he
turned his attention to more unofficial channels and underwent military
training conducted by one anti Austrian organization and then by
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its more radical spinoff, commonly known as the Black Hand.
In the spring of nine fourteen, Prince Sip decided to
take his radicalism one step further. After reading about Franz
Ferdinand's upcoming visit in a paper, Princip approached two young men,
Trifico Grabz and Nidelko Cabrinovic, with an idea. Like Prince Sip,
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Grabez and Cabernovic were in their teens and they were
faithful members of Young Bosnia, the Pan Slavist radical group.
All three had been born in Bosnia to Serb families,
and all were deeply committed to the anti Austrian cause.
It did not take much for Princip to sell Grabes
and Cabernovic on his plan, a plan to assassinate the Archduke.
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It was they thought their chance to make a difference,
to strike back on behalf of their people. Why target
Franz Ferdinand. We focused last episode on the softer side
of Franz Ferdinand, his shyness, his devotion to Sophie. But
as is so often the case with royalty, who they
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are is less important to the story than what they represent,
and Franz Ferdinand represented the Habsburgs, a conservative, often oppressive,
enormously powerful imperial dynasty. In some ways, the public characterization
was fair, as the historian Vladimir Detegier rights, Franz Ferdinand
was quote above all a true Hapsburg, brought up strictly
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in the spirit of some of their most renowned representatives.
His energies were directed primarily to restoring the Earth's house
the prestige and dignity it had enjoyed over the past
centuries end quote. Franz Ferdinand's role was a political one,
and it required him to take stances that were not
always popular. He was a deeply religious Catholic, too, which
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many in the Balkans saw as a threat to the
Eastern Orthodox Church. This fear, it seems, was overstated. Though pious,
Franz Ferdinand supported the right of all to practice their religion,
although I will note here, like many Europeans at the time,
France Ferinand did believe in some incredibly harmful, very anti
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Semitic myths. Still, the Archduke may have been more open
minded and forward facing than his uncle the Emperor, given
his belief in greater autonomy for many of the empires
diverse ethnic and religious groups. But he was still ultimately
a believer in the supremacy of the Austrian Empire, and
he wished to see it thrive. For those reasons and
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for what Franz Ferinand represented, the young men thought he
had to die. In order to get the weapons they
would use. Princip reached out to the Black Hand network,
who agreed to help facilitate the assassination. Whether or not
the three students formerly became members of the Black Hand
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is still debated, but historians do agree that the Black
Hand facilitated their work, providing them with weapons and transport,
and connecting them with another group of would be assassins
who joined their band, Mohammed Mehmed bask Danilo Ilivic, Vasso Kuberlovik,
and Svetko Popovic. The last two were high school students.
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After a complicated series of train and boat trips punctuated
by border crossings, all seven men made it to Sarajevo,
and by the morning of June twenty eighth had received
their weapons. They were all prepared to kill or be
killed while the men who were planning on killing them assembled.
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Franz Ferdinand, Sophie his wife were praying in the makeshift
chapel at the Hotel Bosna. It was the fourteenth anniversary
of the day Franz Ferdinand had sworn his oath of renunciation,
which allowed him to marry Sophie. The couple had written
a telegram to their children that morning saying that quote
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Papa and Mama looked forward to seeing them soon. The
couple were both dressed for a public appearance. Sophie wore
a white silk summer dress and a matching white hat
resplendent with ostrich feathers and an ermine stole. Franz Ferdinand
was dressed in the uniform of an Austrian cavalry general,
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his black pants tucked into black leather boots and his
blue tunic ornamented by gold epaulets. His hat in the
style of the day was draped in peacock feathers. The
white lace parasol that he held at his side might
have looked incongruous with his military outfit, but he was
holding it for his wife. A train took them from
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their hotel outside of the city into Sarajevo, where they
were met by Governor General Potioric and the Sarajevo Mayor.
The entourage continued on to the Philippovic Barracks, and then
they all proceeded to the motorcade waiting for them. It
was then that an error occurred, the first in a
fatal series of errors that would define the day. The
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Archduke and Archduchess had traveled to the city with a
small group of special security officers who were meant to
ride in the first car of the motorcade, But when
they tried to enter the car outside the barracks, four
local police officers insisted that the car had been reserved
for local use only, and they filled the car. The
elite team of guards brought to Sarajevo specifically to protect
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the couple were left behind at the barracks. The motorcade
progressed along the Appell Quay, The sun beat down on
the heads of friends Fernand and Sophie, who sat in
an open topped convertible from a fortress above the city.
A twenty four cannon salute sounded, the booms echoing across
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the hills and mixing with the noise of the crowd,
who called out Zivio, long may he live as the
Archduke came into view. Unbeknownst to those in the motorcade,
they had already escaped. Too would be assassins Vasso Kuberlovik
and Mohammed mement Basic, both of whom had lost their
nerve and failed to shoot when the motorcade passed. They
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would not get so lucky a third time. As the
cars drew near the Kumerjah Bridge, Nedelko Kabrinovich drew a
grenade from his pocket, banged it sharply against the lamp
post to dislodge the cap, and hurled it at the Archduke.
Leopold Loochka, the driver of the Archduke's car, was the
first to spot the black shape flying through the air,
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and he acted on reflex, accelerating sharply. Franz Ferdinand threw
up his arms to shield Sophy. The bomb arched closer,
but because reaction proved crucial, the bomb missed most of
the car, hitting the lower top of the convertible and
rolling to the ground, detonating beneath the next car, sending
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shrapnel flying and leaving a hole in the road half
a foot deep. Miraculously, no one died. Two officers suffered
superficial wounds, as had one of Sophie's ladies in waiting.
Sophie had been grazed on the shoulder blade by a
piece of shrapnel. Twenty or so members of the crowd
had also been injured. Determined to martyr himself, Cabernovic ran
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towards the river and leapt off the twenty six foot
high bank. All this got him, though, was a painful
landing in the nearly dry river bed. On his way down,
he had swallowed a cyanide pill, but the poison seemed
to have lost its potency, and Cabernovic, still alive, was
quickly seized by the crowd. Maintaining his composure, Franz Ferdinand,
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after being assured that no one was critically injured, ordered
that the motor kid proceed onto the town hall. Come on,
he calmly said to his entourage. The fellow is insane,
but by the time they reached the town hall, his
fear and anger had grown. As the Mayor began his
prepared welcome remarks, the Archduke loudly interrupted him, saying, I
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come to Sarajevo and I'm greeted with bombs. It is outrageous.
Sophie took his arm and whispered in his ear, calming him.
After an awkward moment, Franz Ferdinand gestured for the Mayor
to continue, saying, now you may speak. When the Mayor,
thrown off stride, finally completed his faltering speech, Franz Ferdinand
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turned to reply, only to find that the draft of
his own speech had been soaked by the blood of
one of his injured men. Undaunted, he spoke a few lines,
even add living a reference to recent events, thanking the
mayor for the quote expressions of pleasure made by the
sara Avans, quote over the failure of the assassination attempts,
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concluding with a passage and Serbo Croatian, an impressive feat
for the Archduke was almost comically bad at languages. Franz
Ferdinand said, quote, I ask you to give my heartiest
greetings to the population of this beautiful capital city, and
I assure you of my unchangeable grace and kindness. The
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second he was out of the public eye, though all
traces of grace evaporated. After learning of Kabranovitch's capture, Franz
Ferdinand spat, just watch instead of rendering the fellow harmless,
they will be truly Austrian about it all and give
him a medal. Pulling poteoric aside, he angrily inquired, do
you think any more attempts are going to be made
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against me today? Go at ease, Potriarch said, I accept
all responsibility, but of course things were not that simple.
Debate broke out over how best to proceed. Franz Ferdinand
wished to visit those injured in the bombing at the
local hospital, and it was decided that the motorcaide would
return to the appeal Quay, which would allow them to
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travel at high speeds on a straight path to the hospital.
Sophie was not scheduled for any further official business, and
various members of the party discouraged her from continuing on
as long as the Archduke shows himself in public today,
she said, to an aid, I will not leave him.
Even Franz Ferdinand could not persuade her. No, Franzie, she
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said to have told him, I'm going with you. The
original itinerary for the visit had had Franz Ferdinand going
from the town hall to the museum, traveling down the
Appell Quay before taking a right onto Franz Joseph Strauss.
Under the new plan, the motorcade would pass Franz Joseph
Strauss and speed further along the quay before turning onto
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a leader street, which would lead directly to the hospital.
The remaining assassins knew that the archduke excitinerary was likely
to change following the failed attempt earlier in the day,
but they could only guess at how, and so they
took up a variety of positions along the quay and
its side streets, ready to strike if the now very
unlikely chance presented itself. At ten am, the royal party
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returned to their cars. After helping Franz Ferdinand and Sophie
into their car. Count Franz von Harrick, a close friend
and military adjunct of the Archdukes, took up a position
on the running board. If anyone was going to make
another attempt from the quay, Herrick recounted, thinking I can
shield him with my body. The motorcide roared off at
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high speed, passing one assassin triff go grabs before he
even had time to react. In the first car was
the Chief Detective, in the second, the Chief of Police
and Mayor. In the third Franz Ferdinand, Sophie and Potiorek,
with Herrick on the running board. It was at the
corner of Franz Joseph Strauss that the second error was made.
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It's unclear whether the driver of the first car had
not been informed of the change in plans or had
forgotten about them. Either way, instead of continuing straight down
the Apple, the first car turned right. The second car followed,
passing under a twelve foot sign shaped like a bottle
of wine marking morn Schiller's Delicatessen, and though no one
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knew it yet, coming within feet of a young man
who had nearly given up on his plans for terror.
Gavrilo Princip, the driver of the second car, had instinctively
followed the first, heading down Franz Joseph Strauss. The cars
were moving at such a high speed that it's unlikely
that Prince Sip or any other would be assassin could
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have successfully aimed a gun or a bomb. But that
didn't matter, because it was then that the third error occurred.
Seeing the first two cars erroneously turned, Poteoric in the
third car loudly shouted, what is this Stop, You're going
the wrong way. We ought to go viap al Quai,
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instead of joining his companions and speeding down. Franz Joseph Strass,
the driver of the third car, Leopold Lochka, who's quick
thinking earlier in the morning had saved his passengers from bomb,
breaked hard in front of the delicatessen. It took several
seconds for him to shift the car into reverse, and
in those few seconds Gavrillo Princip looked up and saw,
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as if in a vision, the man he had come
to kill, sitting only a few feet from him. The
night before, Princip had laid flowers on the grave of
a man named Bogdan Zerjik, a Serb who in n
had attempted to kill the current Governor General's predecessor. His
attempt having failed, Zerjik committed suicide, becoming a martyr in
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death for the cause of Serb independence. Princip found himself
drawn back again and again to the grave site in
the days before the assassination, soaking up the revolutionary ardor
of Zarazak, who, like Princip's childhood hero the medieval night
milosh Obelik, had been willing to fight and die for
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his cause. Now it was Prince Sip's turn, summoning his courage,
stoking his anger. Feeling his ancestors beside him, he drew
his pistol and fired once and then again at Archduke
Franz Ferdinand. No one quite knew what had happened By
the delicatessen. The crowd swarmed Princip and attacked him. Prince
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SIPs swallowed a cyanide pill, but as with Kebernovis, it
had no effect. The driver lookya frantically, turned the car
around and sped back down the quay. It was only
then that those in the car could pause and take stock.
Only then that Count von Herrick saw the thin trickle
of blood leaking from Franz Ferdinand's mouth. Sophie turned to
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look at her husband, screaming, for God's sake, what has happened?
To you. She fainted onto his lap in what the
others thought was shocked. Franz Ferdinand, looking down at his
beloved wife, cried out, so frall, so frall, don't die,
stay alive for our children. Hart grabbed the Archduke's coat
collar and shook him. Blood sprayed from the Archduke's mouth
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onto the count's cheek. Is your highness in great pain?
He asked? It is nothing, friends, Ferdinand said, repeating at
six or seven times, his face growing paler and his
words growing fainter with each utterance. It is nothing, It
is nothing, And then he too fell into unconsciousness. Neither
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Franz Ferdinand nor Sophie would wake again. A bullet had
hit Sophie's right side, running through her body, and she
died in the car. Before they could reach the Governor's residence,
Franz Ferdinand was carried to a bed at the resident end.
After struggling to unclasp his collar, they cut open the
Archduke's tunic with a saber. The Archduke's bare chest revealed
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a gold chain that he had hung with seven good
luck charms, and it revealed a bullet hole in his
neck just above his right collar bone. When they tried
to lift him, blood spurted from his mouth on to
the men around him and the walls of the chamber.
By eleven thirty am, he too was gone. Days later,
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when she said goodbye to her parents for the last time,
little Sophie, their daughter only thirteen, said quote, God wanted
Mommy and Poppy to join him at the same time.
It's best that they died together, because Poppy couldn't live
without Mommy, and Mommy could not have gone on without Poppy.
Sophie and friends Ferdinand had died as they had lived.
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Their final thoughts, even as they faced death, were for
each other. They did not speak of war or of peace,
as the rest of the continent soon would, of ultimatums,
of negotiations, of threats, or of treaties. Though they represented
an empire, though they wore its uniforms and symbolized its
feats and its follies, in the end, they were simply
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a man and a woman who had lived for one another,
but who would be remembered for their deaths and how
those deaths would change the world. What happens next is complicated,
and we will get to the political maneuvering that leads
to the outbreak of World War One later in that summer.
But for now, I think it's worth taking just another
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moment to focus on the Archduke, Sophie and the assassin.
Even in death, Franz Ferdinand and Sophie were not treated
as equals. Faced with mounting and violent evidence that the
world was becoming hostile to their way of life, the
Hapsburg chose to respond to the assassination by doubling down
on everything that made the hapsburgs. Hapsburgs. Emperor Franz Joseph
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led the funeral planning along with his Lord High Chamberlain
Alfred de Montinovo, architect of so many of Sophy's humiliations
in life. The two men retained their stubborn, snobby insistence
on protocol. The resulting funeral quote so startlingly simple, so
insulting to the feelings of a grieving people. As the
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Vienna Reich's post put it was the first time that
an heir to the Austrian throne had been denied a
state funeral. No foreign dignitaries were invited to attend, nor
were any members of the military. The Emperor and Montenuovo
even banned the couple's three children from attending the funeral service, because,
in the chilly logic of the Habsburgs, the descendants of
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a Morganatic marriage were not worthy of mourning alongside the
full blooded members of the imperial family. The slapdash, insulting
nature of the funeral arrangements were not lost even on
the stray and nobility and resentment toward the Emperor and
Montenuovo began to grow. At the final procession of the
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couple's coffins to the train station, the anger bubbled over
and led to revolt, albeit revolt in the more muted
style of the aristocracy. Monte Nuovo had requested that no
members of the nobility joined this final procession, but fed
up a hundred aristocrats, counting among their number members of
the most prominent families in the Empire, spontaneously joined on foot,
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marching behind the coffins. After an additional service at the
Habsburg's home in Austria, where the family had spent so
many summers, Franz Ferdinand and Sophie were finally laid to
rest in a pair of identical white marble tombs, each
bearing the same inscription in Latin. Joined in marriage. They
(33:53):
were joined by the same fate, and what of Gavrilo
Princip and his fellow co conspirators. Of the seven men
who had waited along the main street to kill the archduke,
only one would escape. Mohammed memed Basic fled into Montenegro,
whose government refused to extradite him to Austria for trial.
(34:15):
He would live until nineteen forty three, when members of
a Croatian fascist group killed him during World War Two.
Princip and Cabernovic had both been arrested on the day
of the assassination, and both were interrogated by the authorities
for days about the plot. Both denied the involvement of
the Black Hand, hoping to protect their network. However, after
(34:38):
their remaining co conspirators were rounded up and arrested, more
of the story began to emerge. In October nineteen fourteen,
six men went to trial. Under the Bosnian constitution, only
those over the age of twenty could receive the death penalty,
and four of the six defendants were still teenagers. For
(34:59):
some of the men, who had dreamed of martyrdom for
the cause, this was disappointing, but they made the best
of it. Defiantly declaring the righteousness of their actions in courts.
I do not feel like a criminal, Prince Ship said,
because I put away the one who was doing evil.
Graves called the assassination quote one of the greatest works
(35:19):
in history. Only Keebernovic, who had thrown the bomb that
had nearly killed Franz Ferdinand, first expressed remorse. All of us,
he said on the stand, nevertheless feel very sorry because
we did not know the late Franz Ferdinand was the
father of a family. We were greatly touched by the
last words, he uttered to his wife. I humbly submit
(35:41):
my apologies to the children of the heir apparent and
asked them to forgive us. Amidst all the political talk,
it was a shocking reminder of the personal aspect of
it all. Princip was not pleased and stood up, shouting
that Kebernovic did not speak for him. On October to twenty,
sentences were handed down. Popovic received thirteen years in prison, Princip,
(36:06):
Kebernovic and Grabs twenty, and Ilik and Kuberlovic were sentenced
to death by hanging. Nearly all of the men had
been suffering from tuberculosis even before the assassination and the
conditions in prison did not help. One by one, over
the next several years, they began to die. Kabernovich was
the first to go, but before he died, he was
(36:27):
the recipient of a profound act of forgiveness too of France.
Ferdinand and Sophie's children. Little Sophie and Max, having heard
about his statements of remorse and his apology in court,
wrote him a letter telling him that his conscience could
be at peace, for they forgave him for his part
in the death of their parents. Princip himself died in
(36:50):
April nine eighteen. His tuberculosis had become so grave that
at the time of his death, aged twenty three, he
weighed only nine indep pounds. He had lived to see
his actions spark a deadly World war, far beyond what
he had expected, but he would not live to see
it end. He died eight months before Armistice. How exactly
(37:17):
did the assassination of Franz Ferdinand spark World War One?
Join me on a journey back to your high school
history class to review the falling dominoes. After the assassination
on June, those in the Austrian government who wanted war
with Serbia, including Franz Ferdinand's old nemesis, Conrad, saw an opportunity.
(37:40):
He organized a meeting with the German ambassador to ensure
that Germans would support the Austrians should war be declared.
The German ambassador was reluctant, but he sent a telegram
to Kaiser Wilhelm the Second informing him of the conversation.
The Kaiser was profoundly affected by the assassination, furious and
(38:00):
grief stricken, and sent back a reply containing, among other things,
one fateful line, the Serbs must be sorted and that
right soon. The Austrians had the encouragement they needed, which
was only solidified by the so called blank Check, a
guarantee delivered by a German count on behalf of the
(38:22):
Kaiser that Germany would support Austria unconditionally. A month of
secret discussions between the two governments ensued as they decided
to pursue war. They realized that any threat against Serbia
would probably be seen as a threat against Serbia's ally Russia,
but this was not necessarily seen as a bad thing.
(38:44):
It might be the chance Germany and Austria Hungary needed
to weaken Russia and her allies, and Wilhelm was all
too happy to challenge his first cousin, the Czar of Russia.
At six pm on July, the Austrian minister in Serbia
(39:04):
delivered an ultimatum to Serbia with a forty eight hour deadline.
The ultimatum contained ten demands. Two days later, Serves released
a statement agreeing to nearly all of the demands, a
response that was seen by most as diplomatic and conciliatory.
What the Serbian government did not know, though, was that
(39:24):
the minister had been instructed quote. However, the Serbs react
to the ultimatum, you must break off relations and it
must come to war. Over the next five days, the
great powers of Europe scrambled both to avoid war and
to decide, should war come, whose side they would take.
On July, Austria declared war against Serbia and bombed Belgrade.
(39:49):
Two days later, on August one, Germany declared war on Russia,
then on France on August three, topping it all off
by invading neutral Belgium. Britain sent Germany an ultimatum withdraw
from neutral Belgium or we will enter the war. The
ultimatum rejected Britain declared war on Germany August four. It
(40:12):
was yet another family entanglement. King George the Fifth of
England was also a first cousin of the Czar and Kaiser.
By August twelfth, all of the major European powers had
configured into two alliances, the Allied Powers, which include France, Russia,
and Great Britain, among others, and the Central Powers, which
(40:34):
included Germany, Austria, Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire among others.
In the next four years, countries from around the world
would join, including Japan, China, and the United States. The
fighting would be unlike any scene before. More than eight
point five million soldiers would die, and it is estimated
(40:55):
thirteen million civilians. Franz Ferdinand and Sophie could not have
foreseen this, as they returned resolutely to their car, in
which they had already survived one assassination attempt that day.
Gavrillo princip could not have possibly known as the Archduke's
motor car breaked in front of him. What would happen
(41:15):
once he raised his pistol and fired. No one could
have seen it coming, could have glimpsed the monstrous specter
of death and destruction that lurched towards them that had
been summoned to Sarajevo by the chance meeting of the
Archduke and his assassin. That's the story of the assassination
(41:40):
of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. But keep listening after a brief
sponsor break to hear a little bit more about one
more tiny consequence. World War One was a glowable conflict,
(42:00):
inflamed by the close family relationships of the countries involved,
and some of those close family relations were slightly too
close for comfort. King George the fifth of England was
first cousins with both Czar Alexander the Second of Russia
and Kaiser Wilhelm. All three were grandchildren of Queen Victoria,
and they all shared a strong family resemblance. After the
(42:24):
outbreak of World War One, anti German sentiment was running
rampant in England. But go back a few generations and
recall that the British royal family was actually pretty German themselves.
It was because of that anti German sentiment that the
king decreed in June nineteen seventeen that their family name
(42:46):
would no longer be the incredibly German sounding Saxe cober
Gotha and would instead be the much more familiar and
much more English sounding windsor m M. Noble Blood is
(43:10):
a production of I Heart Radio and Grimm and Mild
from Aaron Mankey. Noble Blood is hosted by me Danish Wartz.
Additional writing and researching done by Hannah Johnston, hannah's Wick,
Mura Hayward, Courtney Sender, and Laurie Goodman. The show is
produced by Rema L. Kali, with supervising producer Josh Thain
(43:30):
and executive producers Aaron Mankey, Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick.
For more podcasts from I heart Radio, visit the I
heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
your favorite shows.
Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of I Heart Radio
and Grim and Mild from Aaron Mankey listener discretion advised.
One quick note before we begin. If you want to
support Noble Blood, we are on Patreon at patreon dot
com slash Noble Blood Tales, and I upload episode scripts
and some bonus episodes where I talk about television shows
(00:24):
involving period pieces. I do rain on the c W
which is on Netflix and the Tutors. Sometimes. You can
also get Noble Blood merch at df t b A
dot com. All of this is in the episode description,
and you can pick up a copy of my book Anatomy,
A Love Story. But as always, just the best possible
support for the show is you listening, so thank you
(00:46):
so much. The morning of June nine teen, fourteen, began
with golden light spilling over Sarajevo. It was a perfect
day in a summer full of perfect days. In later years,
(01:10):
reflecting on the bloodshed that was to come, observers would
remark on how beautiful the summer had been, the way
the world had seemed to hum in harmony, the way
the sun had shown on Europe. No one in the
crowds gathered along the appel Qua, a broad street running
along the mill Jack River in central Sarajevo. Knew quite
(01:33):
how precious this day would be, the beginnings and endings
that it would mark for both the Archduke Franz Ferdinand
and for his assassin. June held special significance. For Franz Ferdinand,
Archduke of Austria est and heir to the throne of
Austria Hungary. It was the anniversary of the day he
(01:55):
had taken the oath of Renunciation, the bitter compromise that
had allowed out him to marry his beloved wife, but
at the cost of renouncing the rights of his children
to inherit his titles. Fourteen years on from that day,
it was still a painful reminder of the strictures of
tradition that bound Franz Ferdinand to a dying system of governance.
(02:19):
For his assassin, Gavrilo princip it was St. Vitus's Day,
a day of remembrance and resistance. On June thirteen eighty nine,
the Serbs had been defeated by the Ottomans at the
Battle of Kosovo Polier, an event that dashed their dreams
of an independent Serbia. And ushered in five centuries of
(02:40):
Ottoman rule. But Kosovo Polier was also the site of
an important victory, the killing of the Ottoman Sultan Murad
the First by the Serbian night Milos or Blick. Five
hundred years later, Serbs celebrated Obelik's feet on the feast
day of St. Vitus, honoring the sacrifices of general rations
(03:00):
of forebearers in the quest for an independent Serbia. This June,
the two men had arrived in the same city, each
for a reason that echoed the meaning of the day
in his own mind. Franz Ferdinand was there an official
royal business, making a royal progress through the capital of
(03:21):
the recently annexed territory of Bosnia Herzegovina. He hadn't wanted
to make the trip, he had opposed the annexation, but
he felt duty bound to Gavrillo. Princep a passionate, poetry
mad young student, was there in the spirit of Milash Obelik,
determined to win freedom for his people at any cost.
(03:43):
This June, the forces of monarchy and modernism, of tradition
and terrorism were on a deadly collision course. The study
of history is often a study of themes, the rise
and fall of movements, ideas, and passions. And here now
(04:03):
the grand forces of history were coalescing, rippling, unseen through
the crowds, gathering power and refracting through the bodies of
two men, one mustachioed, middle aged archduke and a fervent,
tubercular teenager. But on that sunny Sarah gave O afternoon,
(04:23):
they were ultimately just two people, drawn inexorably towards one
another by virtue of fulfilling what they felt to be
their duties. They couldn't have known that at the moment
of their meeting, the forces that had shaped their lives
and become embodied in them would slip their mortal forms
and transcend them, eventually drawing the world into the bloodiest
(04:48):
conflict it had ever known. I'm Danish Schwartz, and this
is noble blood the Great European War. The German Chancellor
Otto von Bismarck is alleged to have said in eighteen eight,
(05:10):
will quote come out of some damned foolish thing in
the Balkans. Though the quote is apocryphal, it does neatly
capture the precariousness of the political situation in Southeastern Europe
in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It would
be nearly impossible to do justice to the nuances and
(05:32):
intricacies of the political evolution of the Balkans in an
entire season of a podcast, let alone one episode. But
to understand why Givrilla princip went to Sarajevo in June
fourteen to kill Archduke Franz Ferdinand, here's what you need
to know. The Balkans is the name given to the
mountainous swath of land that stretches north from present day
(05:55):
Greece up until it butts into the southern borders of
present day Austria, Hungary, and Ukraine. First formally incorporated as
Roman provinces in the first century b C. The region
was eventually controlled by Slavic invaders from the north, who
organized the land into a series of kingdoms whose names
(06:15):
still remain Bosnia, Herzegovina, Serbia, Bulgaria, and so on. A
quick note here. Over time, the Slavic people inhabiting the
Balkans became known as Southern Slavs, and further ethnic subgrouping developed,
with these ethnic subgroups sharing the names of the kingdoms
they occupied with Bosniaks in Bosnia and Croats in Croatia,
(06:39):
for example. In the Modern Age, as new land borders
were established, these groups mingled, becoming citizens of countries that
might not share the same name as their ethnic subgroups.
For example, Gavrilo princip was a Bosnian Serb, which meant
that he was an ethnic Serb but living in the
country of Bosnia. Back to the Middle Ages, over the
(07:02):
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the Balkan kingdoms were conquered by
the Ottoman Empire in a series of battles, including the
defeat of the Serbs at the Battle of Kosovopolier in
thirteen eighty nine, a defeat but with one victory, the
slaying of the Ottoman Sultan Maraud, the first by the
Serb milash Obilich, events commemorated on Saint Vitus's Day. For
(07:27):
the next five centuries, various resistance groups would revolt against
the Ottomans, mainly along ethnic or religious lines. By the
nineteenth century, the most powerful social movement was a pan
Slavic one, which aimed to win the right to self
determination for Southern Slavs. In eighteen seventy eight, it looked
(07:49):
like they might finally have a chance. The year before,
the Russian Empire had come to the aid of Orthodox
rebels in the region, creating a powerful coalition that eventually,
after a bloody conflict, defeat the Ottomans. The Treaty of
San Stefano, signed by the Russians and the Ottomans in
the spring of eighteen seventy eight, granted increased independence or
(08:13):
autonomy to a number of new nation states, But the
other imperial powers Great Britain, France, Austria, Hungary, Italy, and
Germany had different ideas. Worried that the newly unoccupied region
would lead to an imbalance in the power structure that
they had so carefully curated in their favor, those great
(08:35):
powers met with Russia in July eight seventy eight to
determine a future for those who had just fought for
the right to determine the future for themselves. The resulting
Treaty of Berlin granted Austria Hungary protectorate powers over the
territory of Bosnia Herzegovina, neighboring Serbia, which had gained nearly
(08:56):
full autonomy from the Ottomans earlier in the century. Struggled
internally over whether to ally with the Russians or with
Austria Hungary. Meanwhile, some ethnic Serbs in Bosnia Herzegovina dreamed
of uniting with Serbia to create a Slavic nation. Tensions
only rose when Austria Hungary formally annexed Bosnia in eight
(09:20):
ostensibly to prevent the Ottomans from trying to reclaim it,
but really to curb the expansion of Serbia. Nearly everyone
was frustrated by the situation, with the Slavs feeling that
they had driven out the Ottoman occupiers only to find
themselves subjugated to a new order. It was into this
(09:41):
situation that Maria and Peter Princip welcomed a son, Gavrilo,
on July eighteen ninety four. The Princips lived in Oblaje,
a small village in northern Bosnia. Peter, a farmer who
had served as the village postman, had fought in the
Bosnia War for independence, and was known for his religious piety. Maria,
(10:04):
known as Nana, had a beautiful singing voice and bright
blue eyes, and she would carry a small bag of
sugar at her waist to give to village children. Their
life was a difficult one, racked by poverty and illness.
Of the nine children Nana gave birth to, only three
would survive childhood. Gavrillo grew up to be a slight
(10:26):
but scrappy child. A surviving relative would later tell the
story of a young Gavrillo throwing his pencil case at
the head of a teacher who was caning another student.
He might have been small, said the relative, but the
village boys all knew he was ferocious if you tried
to wrestle him. Gavrillo had a reputation for taking on bullies,
(10:47):
and also for bookishness. When he wasn't caring for his
family's chickens or working in the fields with his father,
Gavrillo could be found with his nose in a book,
a precious resource in his remote village. He particularly loved
the myths of patriotic serbs past, whose legends, including that
of the sultan slayer milash Obilich, were passed on through
(11:10):
the generations via epic poetry. In nineteen o seven, Gavrillo
left his tiny village of Oblage to continue his education
in Sarajevo. Unable to afford the train ticket, he traveled
the one hundred and forty seven miles to the city
on foot alongside his father. It was on this journey
(11:31):
that the young Gavrillo began to fully realize the deprivations
his people were suffering under the Habsburg's rule. At his
trial seven years later, he would recount his impressions of
the villagers he saw quote, they are completely impoverished. They
are treated like cattle. Once in Sarajevo, Gavrillo was met
(11:52):
by his older brother Yovan, who planned to send him
to an Austro Hungarian military school. However, Yovan was dissuayed
did from this course of action by a friend who
begged him not to make young Gavrilo into quote an
executioner of his own people, or so the story goes.
Whatever the cause, Yovan ultimately sent Gavrilo to Merchant School,
(12:14):
where he studied for three years. It was at this
school that Gavrillo was first exposed to the political movement
for Slavic Unification, a movement whose aim was to see
the Slavic people, particularly the Serbs, a Slavic subgroup who
mainly lived in Serbia and Bosnia, rule their own nation.
Over time, as Gavrillo discussed politics with classmates, read theory,
(12:39):
and traveled the country witnessing oppression his people faced, he
became more and more convinced that the Austro Hungarian Empire
was just another bully, the kind he had long felt
compelled to fight. By nineteen twelve, teenaged Gavrillo had been
expelled from school for participating in student protests against Austro
(13:01):
Hungarian rule. Determined to aid the Slavic movement, Gavrillo traveled
to the Serbian capital of Belgrade. It was an opportune
time for Gavrillo to commit himself to the revolutionary cause.
In October nineteen twelve, Bulgaria, Greece, Montenegro, and Serbia had
declared war against the Ottoman Empire, which had maintained a
(13:22):
minor foothold in the region. Only eight months later, the
group known as the Balkan League had defeated the Ottomans,
who ultimately seeded all of their lands west of Istanbul.
It was a striking show of strength by the Balkan League,
and it was especially galvanizing for nationalist Serbs, who were
further empowered by the Second Balkan War of nineteen thirteen,
(13:46):
in which Serbia gained more territory. Gavrillo had tried to
enlist in the Serbian army for both conflicts, but suffering
from tuberculosis, he was deemed too weak. Not dissuaded, he
turned his attention to more unofficial channels and underwent military
training conducted by one anti Austrian organization and then by
(14:09):
its more radical spinoff, commonly known as the Black Hand.
In the spring of nine fourteen, Prince Sip decided to
take his radicalism one step further. After reading about Franz
Ferdinand's upcoming visit in a paper, Princip approached two young men,
Trifico Grabz and Nidelko Cabrinovic, with an idea. Like Prince Sip,
(14:34):
Grabez and Cabernovic were in their teens and they were
faithful members of Young Bosnia, the Pan Slavist radical group.
All three had been born in Bosnia to Serb families,
and all were deeply committed to the anti Austrian cause.
It did not take much for Princip to sell Grabes
and Cabernovic on his plan, a plan to assassinate the Archduke.
(14:59):
It was they thought their chance to make a difference,
to strike back on behalf of their people. Why target
Franz Ferdinand. We focused last episode on the softer side
of Franz Ferdinand, his shyness, his devotion to Sophie. But
as is so often the case with royalty, who they
(15:20):
are is less important to the story than what they represent,
and Franz Ferdinand represented the Habsburgs, a conservative, often oppressive,
enormously powerful imperial dynasty. In some ways, the public characterization
was fair, as the historian Vladimir Detegier rights, Franz Ferdinand
was quote above all a true Hapsburg, brought up strictly
(15:44):
in the spirit of some of their most renowned representatives.
His energies were directed primarily to restoring the Earth's house
the prestige and dignity it had enjoyed over the past
centuries end quote. Franz Ferdinand's role was a political one,
and it required him to take stances that were not
always popular. He was a deeply religious Catholic, too, which
(16:08):
many in the Balkans saw as a threat to the
Eastern Orthodox Church. This fear, it seems, was overstated. Though pious,
Franz Ferdinand supported the right of all to practice their religion,
although I will note here, like many Europeans at the time,
France Ferinand did believe in some incredibly harmful, very anti
(16:30):
Semitic myths. Still, the Archduke may have been more open
minded and forward facing than his uncle the Emperor, given
his belief in greater autonomy for many of the empires
diverse ethnic and religious groups. But he was still ultimately
a believer in the supremacy of the Austrian Empire, and
he wished to see it thrive. For those reasons and
(16:52):
for what Franz Ferinand represented, the young men thought he
had to die. In order to get the weapons they
would use. Princip reached out to the Black Hand network,
who agreed to help facilitate the assassination. Whether or not
the three students formerly became members of the Black Hand
(17:13):
is still debated, but historians do agree that the Black
Hand facilitated their work, providing them with weapons and transport,
and connecting them with another group of would be assassins
who joined their band, Mohammed Mehmed bask Danilo Ilivic, Vasso Kuberlovik,
and Svetko Popovic. The last two were high school students.
(17:35):
After a complicated series of train and boat trips punctuated
by border crossings, all seven men made it to Sarajevo,
and by the morning of June twenty eighth had received
their weapons. They were all prepared to kill or be
killed while the men who were planning on killing them assembled.
(17:58):
Franz Ferdinand, Sophie his wife were praying in the makeshift
chapel at the Hotel Bosna. It was the fourteenth anniversary
of the day Franz Ferdinand had sworn his oath of renunciation,
which allowed him to marry Sophie. The couple had written
a telegram to their children that morning saying that quote
(18:19):
Papa and Mama looked forward to seeing them soon. The
couple were both dressed for a public appearance. Sophie wore
a white silk summer dress and a matching white hat
resplendent with ostrich feathers and an ermine stole. Franz Ferdinand
was dressed in the uniform of an Austrian cavalry general,
(18:40):
his black pants tucked into black leather boots and his
blue tunic ornamented by gold epaulets. His hat in the
style of the day was draped in peacock feathers. The
white lace parasol that he held at his side might
have looked incongruous with his military outfit, but he was
holding it for his wife. A train took them from
(19:00):
their hotel outside of the city into Sarajevo, where they
were met by Governor General Potioric and the Sarajevo Mayor.
The entourage continued on to the Philippovic Barracks, and then
they all proceeded to the motorcade waiting for them. It
was then that an error occurred, the first in a
fatal series of errors that would define the day. The
(19:22):
Archduke and Archduchess had traveled to the city with a
small group of special security officers who were meant to
ride in the first car of the motorcade, But when
they tried to enter the car outside the barracks, four
local police officers insisted that the car had been reserved
for local use only, and they filled the car. The
elite team of guards brought to Sarajevo specifically to protect
(19:46):
the couple were left behind at the barracks. The motorcade
progressed along the Appell Quay, The sun beat down on
the heads of friends Fernand and Sophie, who sat in
an open topped convertible from a fortress above the city.
A twenty four cannon salute sounded, the booms echoing across
(20:06):
the hills and mixing with the noise of the crowd,
who called out Zivio, long may he live as the
Archduke came into view. Unbeknownst to those in the motorcade,
they had already escaped. Too would be assassins Vasso Kuberlovik
and Mohammed mement Basic, both of whom had lost their
nerve and failed to shoot when the motorcade passed. They
(20:28):
would not get so lucky a third time. As the
cars drew near the Kumerjah Bridge, Nedelko Kabrinovich drew a
grenade from his pocket, banged it sharply against the lamp
post to dislodge the cap, and hurled it at the Archduke.
Leopold Loochka, the driver of the Archduke's car, was the
first to spot the black shape flying through the air,
(20:50):
and he acted on reflex, accelerating sharply. Franz Ferdinand threw
up his arms to shield Sophy. The bomb arched closer,
but because reaction proved crucial, the bomb missed most of
the car, hitting the lower top of the convertible and
rolling to the ground, detonating beneath the next car, sending
(21:11):
shrapnel flying and leaving a hole in the road half
a foot deep. Miraculously, no one died. Two officers suffered
superficial wounds, as had one of Sophie's ladies in waiting.
Sophie had been grazed on the shoulder blade by a
piece of shrapnel. Twenty or so members of the crowd
had also been injured. Determined to martyr himself, Cabernovic ran
(21:34):
towards the river and leapt off the twenty six foot
high bank. All this got him, though, was a painful
landing in the nearly dry river bed. On his way down,
he had swallowed a cyanide pill, but the poison seemed
to have lost its potency, and Cabernovic, still alive, was
quickly seized by the crowd. Maintaining his composure, Franz Ferdinand,
(21:59):
after being assured that no one was critically injured, ordered
that the motor kid proceed onto the town hall. Come on,
he calmly said to his entourage. The fellow is insane,
but by the time they reached the town hall, his
fear and anger had grown. As the Mayor began his
prepared welcome remarks, the Archduke loudly interrupted him, saying, I
(22:22):
come to Sarajevo and I'm greeted with bombs. It is outrageous.
Sophie took his arm and whispered in his ear, calming him.
After an awkward moment, Franz Ferdinand gestured for the Mayor
to continue, saying, now you may speak. When the Mayor,
thrown off stride, finally completed his faltering speech, Franz Ferdinand
(22:44):
turned to reply, only to find that the draft of
his own speech had been soaked by the blood of
one of his injured men. Undaunted, he spoke a few lines,
even add living a reference to recent events, thanking the
mayor for the quote expressions of pleasure made by the
sara Avans, quote over the failure of the assassination attempts,
(23:05):
concluding with a passage and Serbo Croatian, an impressive feat
for the Archduke was almost comically bad at languages. Franz
Ferdinand said, quote, I ask you to give my heartiest
greetings to the population of this beautiful capital city, and
I assure you of my unchangeable grace and kindness. The
(23:26):
second he was out of the public eye, though all
traces of grace evaporated. After learning of Kabranovitch's capture, Franz
Ferdinand spat, just watch instead of rendering the fellow harmless,
they will be truly Austrian about it all and give
him a medal. Pulling poteoric aside, he angrily inquired, do
you think any more attempts are going to be made
(23:47):
against me today? Go at ease, Potriarch said, I accept
all responsibility, but of course things were not that simple.
Debate broke out over how best to proceed. Franz Ferdinand
wished to visit those injured in the bombing at the
local hospital, and it was decided that the motorcaide would
return to the appeal Quay, which would allow them to
(24:10):
travel at high speeds on a straight path to the hospital.
Sophie was not scheduled for any further official business, and
various members of the party discouraged her from continuing on
as long as the Archduke shows himself in public today,
she said, to an aid, I will not leave him.
Even Franz Ferdinand could not persuade her. No, Franzie, she
(24:32):
said to have told him, I'm going with you. The
original itinerary for the visit had had Franz Ferdinand going
from the town hall to the museum, traveling down the
Appell Quay before taking a right onto Franz Joseph Strauss.
Under the new plan, the motorcade would pass Franz Joseph
Strauss and speed further along the quay before turning onto
(24:53):
a leader street, which would lead directly to the hospital.
The remaining assassins knew that the archduke excitinerary was likely
to change following the failed attempt earlier in the day,
but they could only guess at how, and so they
took up a variety of positions along the quay and
its side streets, ready to strike if the now very
unlikely chance presented itself. At ten am, the royal party
(25:20):
returned to their cars. After helping Franz Ferdinand and Sophie
into their car. Count Franz von Harrick, a close friend
and military adjunct of the Archdukes, took up a position
on the running board. If anyone was going to make
another attempt from the quay, Herrick recounted, thinking I can
shield him with my body. The motorcide roared off at
(25:40):
high speed, passing one assassin triff go grabs before he
even had time to react. In the first car was
the Chief Detective, in the second, the Chief of Police
and Mayor. In the third Franz Ferdinand, Sophie and Potiorek,
with Herrick on the running board. It was at the
corner of Franz Joseph Strauss that the second error was made.
(26:03):
It's unclear whether the driver of the first car had
not been informed of the change in plans or had
forgotten about them. Either way, instead of continuing straight down
the Apple, the first car turned right. The second car followed,
passing under a twelve foot sign shaped like a bottle
of wine marking morn Schiller's Delicatessen, and though no one
(26:25):
knew it yet, coming within feet of a young man
who had nearly given up on his plans for terror.
Gavrilo Princip, the driver of the second car, had instinctively
followed the first, heading down Franz Joseph Strauss. The cars
were moving at such a high speed that it's unlikely
that Prince Sip or any other would be assassin could
(26:46):
have successfully aimed a gun or a bomb. But that
didn't matter, because it was then that the third error occurred.
Seeing the first two cars erroneously turned, Poteoric in the
third car loudly shouted, what is this Stop, You're going
the wrong way. We ought to go viap al Quai,
(27:07):
instead of joining his companions and speeding down. Franz Joseph Strass,
the driver of the third car, Leopold Lochka, who's quick
thinking earlier in the morning had saved his passengers from bomb,
breaked hard in front of the delicatessen. It took several
seconds for him to shift the car into reverse, and
in those few seconds Gavrillo Princip looked up and saw,
(27:30):
as if in a vision, the man he had come
to kill, sitting only a few feet from him. The
night before, Princip had laid flowers on the grave of
a man named Bogdan Zerjik, a Serb who in n
had attempted to kill the current Governor General's predecessor. His
attempt having failed, Zerjik committed suicide, becoming a martyr in
(27:54):
death for the cause of Serb independence. Princip found himself
drawn back again and again to the grave site in
the days before the assassination, soaking up the revolutionary ardor
of Zarazak, who, like Princip's childhood hero the medieval night
milosh Obelik, had been willing to fight and die for
(28:14):
his cause. Now it was Prince Sip's turn, summoning his courage,
stoking his anger. Feeling his ancestors beside him, he drew
his pistol and fired once and then again at Archduke
Franz Ferdinand. No one quite knew what had happened By
the delicatessen. The crowd swarmed Princip and attacked him. Prince
(28:36):
SIPs swallowed a cyanide pill, but as with Kebernovis, it
had no effect. The driver lookya frantically, turned the car
around and sped back down the quay. It was only
then that those in the car could pause and take stock.
Only then that Count von Herrick saw the thin trickle
of blood leaking from Franz Ferdinand's mouth. Sophie turned to
(28:59):
look at her husband, screaming, for God's sake, what has happened?
To you. She fainted onto his lap in what the
others thought was shocked. Franz Ferdinand, looking down at his
beloved wife, cried out, so frall, so frall, don't die,
stay alive for our children. Hart grabbed the Archduke's coat
collar and shook him. Blood sprayed from the Archduke's mouth
(29:23):
onto the count's cheek. Is your highness in great pain?
He asked? It is nothing, friends, Ferdinand said, repeating at
six or seven times, his face growing paler and his
words growing fainter with each utterance. It is nothing, It
is nothing, And then he too fell into unconsciousness. Neither
(29:45):
Franz Ferdinand nor Sophie would wake again. A bullet had
hit Sophie's right side, running through her body, and she
died in the car. Before they could reach the Governor's residence,
Franz Ferdinand was carried to a bed at the resident end.
After struggling to unclasp his collar, they cut open the
Archduke's tunic with a saber. The Archduke's bare chest revealed
(30:09):
a gold chain that he had hung with seven good
luck charms, and it revealed a bullet hole in his
neck just above his right collar bone. When they tried
to lift him, blood spurted from his mouth on to
the men around him and the walls of the chamber.
By eleven thirty am, he too was gone. Days later,
(30:30):
when she said goodbye to her parents for the last time,
little Sophie, their daughter only thirteen, said quote, God wanted
Mommy and Poppy to join him at the same time.
It's best that they died together, because Poppy couldn't live
without Mommy, and Mommy could not have gone on without Poppy.
Sophie and friends Ferdinand had died as they had lived.
(30:52):
Their final thoughts, even as they faced death, were for
each other. They did not speak of war or of peace,
as the rest of the continent soon would, of ultimatums,
of negotiations, of threats, or of treaties. Though they represented
an empire, though they wore its uniforms and symbolized its
feats and its follies, in the end, they were simply
(31:15):
a man and a woman who had lived for one another,
but who would be remembered for their deaths and how
those deaths would change the world. What happens next is complicated,
and we will get to the political maneuvering that leads
to the outbreak of World War One later in that summer.
But for now, I think it's worth taking just another
(31:37):
moment to focus on the Archduke, Sophie and the assassin.
Even in death, Franz Ferdinand and Sophie were not treated
as equals. Faced with mounting and violent evidence that the
world was becoming hostile to their way of life, the
Hapsburg chose to respond to the assassination by doubling down
on everything that made the hapsburgs. Hapsburgs. Emperor Franz Joseph
(32:01):
led the funeral planning along with his Lord High Chamberlain
Alfred de Montinovo, architect of so many of Sophy's humiliations
in life. The two men retained their stubborn, snobby insistence
on protocol. The resulting funeral quote so startlingly simple, so
insulting to the feelings of a grieving people. As the
(32:23):
Vienna Reich's post put it was the first time that
an heir to the Austrian throne had been denied a
state funeral. No foreign dignitaries were invited to attend, nor
were any members of the military. The Emperor and Montenuovo
even banned the couple's three children from attending the funeral service, because,
in the chilly logic of the Habsburgs, the descendants of
(32:46):
a Morganatic marriage were not worthy of mourning alongside the
full blooded members of the imperial family. The slapdash, insulting
nature of the funeral arrangements were not lost even on
the stray and nobility and resentment toward the Emperor and
Montenuovo began to grow. At the final procession of the
(33:07):
couple's coffins to the train station, the anger bubbled over
and led to revolt, albeit revolt in the more muted
style of the aristocracy. Monte Nuovo had requested that no
members of the nobility joined this final procession, but fed
up a hundred aristocrats, counting among their number members of
the most prominent families in the Empire, spontaneously joined on foot,
(33:32):
marching behind the coffins. After an additional service at the
Habsburg's home in Austria, where the family had spent so
many summers, Franz Ferdinand and Sophie were finally laid to
rest in a pair of identical white marble tombs, each
bearing the same inscription in Latin. Joined in marriage. They
(33:53):
were joined by the same fate, and what of Gavrilo
Princip and his fellow co conspirators. Of the seven men
who had waited along the main street to kill the archduke,
only one would escape. Mohammed memed Basic fled into Montenegro,
whose government refused to extradite him to Austria for trial.
(34:15):
He would live until nineteen forty three, when members of
a Croatian fascist group killed him during World War Two.
Princip and Cabernovic had both been arrested on the day
of the assassination, and both were interrogated by the authorities
for days about the plot. Both denied the involvement of
the Black Hand, hoping to protect their network. However, after
(34:38):
their remaining co conspirators were rounded up and arrested, more
of the story began to emerge. In October nineteen fourteen,
six men went to trial. Under the Bosnian constitution, only
those over the age of twenty could receive the death penalty,
and four of the six defendants were still teenagers. For
(34:59):
some of the men, who had dreamed of martyrdom for
the cause, this was disappointing, but they made the best
of it. Defiantly declaring the righteousness of their actions in courts.
I do not feel like a criminal, Prince Ship said,
because I put away the one who was doing evil.
Graves called the assassination quote one of the greatest works
(35:19):
in history. Only Keebernovic, who had thrown the bomb that
had nearly killed Franz Ferdinand, first expressed remorse. All of us,
he said on the stand, nevertheless feel very sorry because
we did not know the late Franz Ferdinand was the
father of a family. We were greatly touched by the
last words, he uttered to his wife. I humbly submit
(35:41):
my apologies to the children of the heir apparent and
asked them to forgive us. Amidst all the political talk,
it was a shocking reminder of the personal aspect of
it all. Princip was not pleased and stood up, shouting
that Kebernovic did not speak for him. On October to twenty,
sentences were handed down. Popovic received thirteen years in prison, Princip,
(36:06):
Kebernovic and Grabs twenty, and Ilik and Kuberlovic were sentenced
to death by hanging. Nearly all of the men had
been suffering from tuberculosis even before the assassination and the
conditions in prison did not help. One by one, over
the next several years, they began to die. Kabernovich was
the first to go, but before he died, he was
(36:27):
the recipient of a profound act of forgiveness too of France.
Ferdinand and Sophie's children. Little Sophie and Max, having heard
about his statements of remorse and his apology in court,
wrote him a letter telling him that his conscience could
be at peace, for they forgave him for his part
in the death of their parents. Princip himself died in
(36:50):
April nine eighteen. His tuberculosis had become so grave that
at the time of his death, aged twenty three, he
weighed only nine indep pounds. He had lived to see
his actions spark a deadly World war, far beyond what
he had expected, but he would not live to see
it end. He died eight months before Armistice. How exactly
(37:17):
did the assassination of Franz Ferdinand spark World War One?
Join me on a journey back to your high school
history class to review the falling dominoes. After the assassination
on June, those in the Austrian government who wanted war
with Serbia, including Franz Ferdinand's old nemesis, Conrad, saw an opportunity.
(37:40):
He organized a meeting with the German ambassador to ensure
that Germans would support the Austrians should war be declared.
The German ambassador was reluctant, but he sent a telegram
to Kaiser Wilhelm the Second informing him of the conversation.
The Kaiser was profoundly affected by the assassination, furious and
(38:00):
grief stricken, and sent back a reply containing, among other things,
one fateful line, the Serbs must be sorted and that
right soon. The Austrians had the encouragement they needed, which
was only solidified by the so called blank Check, a
guarantee delivered by a German count on behalf of the
(38:22):
Kaiser that Germany would support Austria unconditionally. A month of
secret discussions between the two governments ensued as they decided
to pursue war. They realized that any threat against Serbia
would probably be seen as a threat against Serbia's ally Russia,
but this was not necessarily seen as a bad thing.
(38:44):
It might be the chance Germany and Austria Hungary needed
to weaken Russia and her allies, and Wilhelm was all
too happy to challenge his first cousin, the Czar of Russia.
At six pm on July, the Austrian minister in Serbia
(39:04):
delivered an ultimatum to Serbia with a forty eight hour deadline.
The ultimatum contained ten demands. Two days later, Serves released
a statement agreeing to nearly all of the demands, a
response that was seen by most as diplomatic and conciliatory.
What the Serbian government did not know, though, was that
(39:24):
the minister had been instructed quote. However, the Serbs react
to the ultimatum, you must break off relations and it
must come to war. Over the next five days, the
great powers of Europe scrambled both to avoid war and
to decide, should war come, whose side they would take.
On July, Austria declared war against Serbia and bombed Belgrade.
(39:49):
Two days later, on August one, Germany declared war on Russia,
then on France on August three, topping it all off
by invading neutral Belgium. Britain sent Germany an ultimatum withdraw
from neutral Belgium or we will enter the war. The
ultimatum rejected Britain declared war on Germany August four. It
(40:12):
was yet another family entanglement. King George the Fifth of
England was also a first cousin of the Czar and Kaiser.
By August twelfth, all of the major European powers had
configured into two alliances, the Allied Powers, which include France, Russia,
and Great Britain, among others, and the Central Powers, which
(40:34):
included Germany, Austria, Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire among others.
In the next four years, countries from around the world
would join, including Japan, China, and the United States. The
fighting would be unlike any scene before. More than eight
point five million soldiers would die, and it is estimated
(40:55):
thirteen million civilians. Franz Ferdinand and Sophie could not have
foreseen this, as they returned resolutely to their car, in
which they had already survived one assassination attempt that day.
Gavrillo princip could not have possibly known as the Archduke's
motor car breaked in front of him. What would happen
(41:15):
once he raised his pistol and fired. No one could
have seen it coming, could have glimpsed the monstrous specter
of death and destruction that lurched towards them that had
been summoned to Sarajevo by the chance meeting of the
Archduke and his assassin. That's the story of the assassination
(41:40):
of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. But keep listening after a brief
sponsor break to hear a little bit more about one
more tiny consequence. World War One was a glowable conflict,
(42:00):
inflamed by the close family relationships of the countries involved,
and some of those close family relations were slightly too
close for comfort. King George the fifth of England was
first cousins with both Czar Alexander the Second of Russia
and Kaiser Wilhelm. All three were grandchildren of Queen Victoria,
and they all shared a strong family resemblance. After the
(42:24):
outbreak of World War One, anti German sentiment was running
rampant in England. But go back a few generations and
recall that the British royal family was actually pretty German themselves.
It was because of that anti German sentiment that the
king decreed in June nineteen seventeen that their family name
(42:46):
would no longer be the incredibly German sounding Saxe cober
Gotha and would instead be the much more familiar and
much more English sounding windsor m M. Noble Blood is
(43:10):
a production of I Heart Radio and Grimm and Mild
from Aaron Mankey. Noble Blood is hosted by me Danish Wartz.
Additional writing and researching done by Hannah Johnston, hannah's Wick,
Mura Hayward, Courtney Sender, and Laurie Goodman. The show is
produced by Rema L. Kali, with supervising producer Josh Thain
(43:30):
and executive producers Aaron Mankey, Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick.
For more podcasts from I heart Radio, visit the I
heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
your favorite shows.
Host
Dana Schwartz
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