The Assassination of the Archduke

Drawing on unpublished letters and rare primary sources, King andWoolmans tell the true story behind the tragic romance and brutal assassinationthat sparked World War I.

In the summer of 1914, three great empires dominated Europe: Germany,Russia, and Austria-Hungary. Four years later all had vanished in the chaos ofWorld War I. One event precipitated the conflict, and at its heart was a tragiclove story. When Austrian heir Archduke Franz Ferdinand married for loveagainst… (more)

Drawing on unpublished letters and rare primary sources, King andWoolmans tell the true story behind the tragic romance and brutal assassinationthat sparked World War I.

In the summer of 1914, three great empires dominated Europe: Germany,Russia, and Austria-Hungary. Four years later all had vanished in the chaos ofWorld War I. One event precipitated the conflict, and at its heart was a tragiclove story. When Austrian heir Archduke Franz Ferdinand married for loveagainst the wishes of the emperor, he and his wife, Sophie, were humiliated andshunned; yet they remained devoted to each other and to their children. The twobullets fired in Sarajevo not only ended their love story but also led to warand a century of conflict.

Set against a backdrop of glittering privilege, The Assassination ofthe Archduke combines royal history, touching romance, and political murderin a moving portrait of the end of an era. One hundred years after the event,it offers the startling truth behind the Sarajevo assassinations, includingSerbian complicity, and examines rumors of conspiracy and official negligence.Events in Sarajevo also doomed the couple's children to lives of loss, exile,and the horrors of Nazi concentration camps, their plight echoing the horrorsunleashed by their parents' deaths. Challenging a century of myth, TheAssassination of the Archduke resonates as a very human story of lovedestroyed by murder, revolution, and war.