Sophia Chotek

Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg (; cs, Žofie Marie Josefína Albína hraběnka Chotková z Chotkova a Vojnína 1 March 1868 – 28 June 1914) was the wife of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne. Their assassination in Sarajevo sparked a series of events that led, four weeks later, to World War I.

Early life

Sophie was born in Stuttgart as the fourth daughter of Count Bohuslav Chotek von Chotkow und Wognin, a Bohemian aristocrat, Ambassador and a member of the House of Chotek, and his wife Countess Wilhelmine Kinsky von Wchinitz und Tettau (1838–1886).Montgomery-Massingberd, Hugh (editor). ''Burke's Guide to the Royal Family'', Burke's Peerage, London, 1973, p. 238. Willis, Daniel A., ''The Descendants of King George I of Great Britain'', Clearfield Company, 2002, pp. 153, 613Enache, Nicolas. ''La Descendance de Marie-Therese de Habsburg''. ICC, Paris, 1996. pp. 54, 58. French.''Genealogisches Handbuch des Adels, Fürstliche Häuser'' XV. "Hohenberg". C.A. Starke Verlag, 1997, pp.600–601.

As a young woman, Sophie became a lady-in-waiting to Archduchess Isabella, the wife of Archduke Friedrich, Duke of Teschen, head of the Bohemian cadet branch of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine.

Courtship with Franz Ferdinand

It is unknown where Sophie first met Archduke Franz Ferdinand, although it may have been at a ball in Prague in 1894. Franz Ferdinand, who was stationed at a military garrison in Prague, paid frequent visits to Halbturn, Halbturn Castle, the home of Archduke Friedrich, Duke of Teschen, Archduke Friedrich, and it was assumed that he had fallen in love with Friedrich's eldest daughter, Archduchess Maria Christina of Austria (1879–1962), Archduchess Marie Christine. The liaison was discovered by Archduchess Isabella, herself only born into a German mediatisation, mediatised family (the House of Croÿ). When Isabella discovered Franz Ferdinand's locket lying on the tennis court, she opened it, expecting a photo of her daughter. Instead, the locket contained a photo of Sophie. From this, a scandal ensued.

Franz Ferdinand had become heir presumptive to the throne, after the suicide of his cousin Rudolf, Crown Prince of Austria, Crown Prince Rudolf in 1889 and the death of his father Archduke Karl Ludwig of Austria, Karl Ludwig of typhoid in 1896. As such his uncle, the Franz Joseph I of Austria, Emperor Franz Joseph, informed him that he could not marry Sophie, who could not become an queen consort, empress consort. To be an eligible :wikt:consort, consort for any member of the Imperial House of Habsburg-House of Lorraine, Lorraine, one needed to belong to one of the Monarchies in Europe, reigning or Mediatised houses, formerly reigning dynasties of Europe. Although the Chotek family were Bohemian nobility, noble since at least the 14th century and had been made Graf#Reichsgraf, counts of the Holy Roman Empire in 1745, they were not of Dynasty#Dynasts, dynastic rank (although ironically Sophie was of royal blood by also being a descendant of Habsburgs, from Elisabeth, sister of King Rudolph I of Germany, Franz Ferdinand's ancestor).

Franz Ferdinand refused to renounce Sophie to marry equally and beget an heir to the throne, compounding Mayerling incident, the scandal surrounding the death and Baroness Mary Vetsera, illicit affair of the emperor's previous heir.

Marriage with Franz Ferdinand

In 1899, under pressure from family members (especially the Infanta_Maria_Theresa_of_Portugal, Archduchess Maria Theresa, the emperor's formidable sister-in-law and Franz Ferdinand's stepmother) the couple were granted permission to wed. Franz Ferdinand was allowed to retain his place in the order of succession and a suitable title was promised for his future wife. However, to prevent Franz Ferdinand from attempting to proclaim his wife empress-queen or declaring their future children dynasts and thus eligible to inherit the crown (especially that of Hungary, where morganatic marriages were unknown to law) once he ascended the throne, he was compelled to appear at the Hofburg Imperial Palace before the gathered archdukes, ministers, and dignitaries of the court, the Cardinal-Archbishop of Vienna and the Primate of Hungary on 28 June 1900 to execute by signature an official instrument in which he publicly declared that Sophie would be his morganatic wife, never to bear the titles of empress, queen or archduchess, and acknowledging that their descendants would neither inherit nor be granted dynastic rights or privileges in any of the Habsburg realms.

Sophie and Franz Ferdinand were married on 1 July 1900 at Reichstadt (now Zákupy) in Bohemia. The Emperor did not attend the nuptials, nor did any of the archdukes, including Franz Ferdinand's brothers. The only members of the Imperial family who were present were Franz Ferdinand's stepmother, Archduchess Maria Theresa, and her two daughters, Archduchess Maria Annunciata of Austria, Maria Annunciata and Archduchess Elisabeth Amalie of Austria, Elisabeth Amalie.

Upon her marriage, Sophie was given the title ''Fürstin von Hohenberg'' ("Princess of Hohenberg") with the style of ''Durchlaucht'' ("Serene Highness"). In 1909, she was elevated to ''Herzogin'' (Duchess) and accorded the higher style of ''Hoheit'' ("Highness").

Nonetheless, all of the archduchesses, German Mediatisation, mediatized princesses and countesses of Austria and Hungary took precedence before her. For the fourteen years of their marriage, Sophie never shared her husband's rank, title, or precedence. Her position at the Imperial court was humiliating, aggravated by the Imperial ''Hofmeister (office), Obersthofmeister'', Alfred, 2nd Prince of Montenuovo, whose insecurity about his own morganatic background is said to have prompted him to rigorously enforce court Etiquette, protocol at Sophie's expense. Problems of protocol prevented many royal courts from hosting the couple despite Franz Ferdinand's position as heir to the throne. Nonetheless, some did so, including George V of the United Kingdom, King George V and Mary of Teck, Queen Mary of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom, who warmly welcomed the couple to Windsor Castle from 17–21 November 1913. Queen Mary's father, Francis, Duke of Teck, was the offspring of a morganatic marriage and was shunned by royal families in Europe.

The couple had four children:
* Princess Sophie of Hohenberg (1901–1990), married Count Friedrich von Nostitz family, Nostitz-Rieneck (1891–1973)
* Maximilian, Duke of Hohenberg (1902–1962), married Countess Elisabeth von Waldburg-Waldsee, Waldburg zu Wolfegg und Waldsee (1904–1993). Ironically his descendants married descendants of the Royal Houses of France and Portugal and Austria (Archduke Joseph Arpad).
* Prince Ernst of Hohenberg (1904–1954), married Marie-Therese Wood (1910–1985)
* stillbirth, stillborn son (1908)

Assassination

In 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand was invited by General Oskar Potiorek, Governor of the Austro-Hungarian province of Bosnia and Herzegovina, to watch troops on Military exercise, maneuvers for three days in Sarajevo, the provincial capital. Sophie was not usually allowed to accompany her husband on ceremonial visits because of her lower status, but on this occasion, Franz Ferdinand was invited as a military commander rather than a royal personage. The archduke therefore arranged for Sophie to join him on 28 June, the third and final day, for a troop review followed by a visit to the city to dedicate a new museum before returning to Vienna. The date coincided with the 14th anniversary of their Oath of Renunciation and was a rare opportunity to celebrate in public together, although he knew that the visit would be dangerous.

At 10:10 am of Sunday, 28 June 1914, when the procession passed the Sarajevo central police station, Nedeljko Čabrinović hurled a hand grenade at the archduke's car. The driver accelerated when he saw the object flying towards the car and the grenade exploded under the wheel of the next car. Two of the occupants, Eric von Merizzi and Count Boos-Waldeck, were seriously wounded. Fourteen spectators were hit by bomb splinters.

After attending the official reception at the City Hall, Franz Ferdinand asked about the members of his party that had been wounded by the bomb. When the archduke was told they were badly injured in hospital, he insisted on being taken to see them. A member of the archduke's staff, :de:Andreas von Morsey, Andreas, Freiherr von Morsey, suggested this might be dangerous, but General Oskar Potiorek, who was responsible for the safety of the Imperial party, replied, "Do you think Sarajevo is full of assassins?" However, Potiorek did accept it would be better if Sophie remained behind in the city hall. When Freiherr Morsey told Sophie about the revised plans, she refused to stay, arguing: "As long as the Archduke shows himself in public today I will not leave him."

In order to avoid the city centre, Potiorek decided that the Imperial car should travel straight along the European route E761, Appel Quay to the Sarajevo Hospital. However, Potiorek forgot to tell the driver, Leopold Loyka, about this decision. On the way to the hospital, by the Latin Bridge in Sarajevo, Latin Bridge, the driver took a right turn into Franz Joseph Street. One of the conspirators, Gavrilo Princip, was standing on the corner at the time. Oskar Potiorek immediately realized the driver had taken the wrong route and shouted "What is this? This is the wrong way! We're supposed to take the Appel Quay!"

The driver put his foot on the brake, and began to back up. In doing so he moved slowly past the waiting Gavrilo Princip. The assassination, assassin stepped forward, drew his pistol, and at a distance of about five feet, fired twice into the car. Franz Ferdinand was hit in the neck and Sophie in the abdomen. Sophie said to her husband, "For God's sake, what has happened to you?!" She then fell bleeding. Before losing consciousness he pleaded, "Sopherl! Sopherl! Don't die! Stay alive for our children!", using his pet name for the duchess. They were both dead within an hour.

The assassination triggered the July Crisis which led to the First World War.

Funeral and burial

The bodies were transported to Trieste by the battleship and then to Vienna by special train for a joint Requiem, funeral mass in a short ceremony at the Hofburg Palace attended by the immediate imperial family. The Archduke and Duchess were then taken to be entombed side by side as he had requested in the crypt of Artstetten Castle, the Habsburgs' summer home, because burial in the Imperial Crypt was forbidden to Sophie. Today the castle houses a museum in their memory.

Commemorative coin

Duchess Sophie's castle of Artstetten Castle, Artstetten was selected as a main motif for the 10-euro Euro gold and silver commemorative coins (Austria)#2004 coinage, Castle of Artstetten commemorative coin minted on 13 October 2004. The reverse of the coin shows the entrance to the House of Hohenberg, Hohenberg family crypt, with left-set overlay profile portraits of Sophie and Archduke Franz Ferdinand.

Titles, styles, honours and arms

Titles and styles

* 1 March 1868 – 1 July 1900: Countess Sophie Chotek von Chotkow und Wognin
* 1 July 1900 – 4 October 1909: ''Her Serene Highness'' The Princess of Hohenberg
* 4 October 1909 – 28 June 1914: ''Her Highness'' The Duchess of Hohenberg

Honours

* Austria-Hungary:
Hof- und Staatshandbuch der Österreichisch-Ungarischen Monarchie (1915)
', Genealogy p. 2
** Dame of the Order of the Starry Cross, ''1889''
** Grand Cross of the Order of Elizabeth, Imperial Austrian Order of Elizabeth, ''1913''
* : Dame of Honour of the Order of Saint Elizabeth
* Holy See: Grand Cross of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem
* : Dame of Honour and DevotionJustus Perthes, ''Almanach de Gotha'' (1913
page 6
/ref>

Ancestry

References

External links

Schloss Artstetten

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Sophie, Duchess Of Hohenberg
1868 births, Hohenberg
1914 deaths, Hohenberg
1914 murders in Europe, Hohenberg
Austro-Hungarian people of World War I, Hohenberg
Deaths by firearm in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Hohenberg
Murdered royalty, Hohenberg
Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria
People murdered in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Hohenberg
Austrian ladies-in-waiting, Hohenberg
Austrian Roman Catholics, Hohenberg
Morganatic spouses, Hohenberg
Chotek family, Hohenberg
Hohenberg family
Bohemian nobility, Hohenberg
Austrian nobility, Hohenberg
Austrian people of Czech descent, Hohenberg
Austrian people of German descent, Hohenberg
Nobility from Stuttgart, Hohenberg
People killed in intelligence operations
Female murder victims
Dames of Malta