The Assassination of the Archduke

Sarajevo 1914 and the Romance That Changed the World

By: Greg King, Sue Woolmans

Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner

Length: 11 hrs and 27 mins

Publisher's summary

Drawing on unpublished letters and rare primary sources, King and Woolmans tell the true story behind the tragic romance and brutal assassination that sparked World War I.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 of World War I. One event precipitated the conflict, and at its heart was a tragic love story.

When Austrian heir Archduke Franz Ferdinand married for love against the wishes of the emperor, he and his wife, Sophie, were humiliated and shunned. Yet they remained devoted to each other and to their children. The two bullets fired in Sarajevo not only ended their love story but also led to war and a century of conflict.

Set against a backdrop of glittering privilege, The Assassination ofthe Archduke combines royal history, touching romance, and political murder in a moving portrait of the end of an era. One hundred years after the event, it offers the startling truth behind the Sarajevo assassinations, including Serbian 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 horrors unleashed by their parents' deaths. Challenging a century of myth, The Assassination of the Archduke resonates as a very human story of love destroyed by murder, revolution, and war.

©2013 Blackstone Audio, Inc. (P)2013 Greg King and Sue Woolmans

A marvelous but sad lesson on world history

This story portrays what can happen to the innocent when evil forces take hold. The book was an eye opener in not only looking at what the powerful have done in the past, but also makes one realize how we still have the same lust for power and control in the world today! An extremely well written book.

Franz Ferdinand and Sophie

This was a well organized and researched book. Telling the story of this couples love for each other and their children and the times in which they lived and died. I enjoyed it and learned from this audio presentation. I also like how the authors followed the lives of the children and gave a fascinating perspective of the history of the events of this time.

Amazing Book

I loved this book. The story of The Archduke was compelling. I couldn’t recommend this book more. It was educational but even more entertaining.

pretty good book over all

I really enjoyed the book. the narrator is a little stiff . Not much emotion in the story telling.

The Love Story that Changed a World

This is a wonderful book with a wonderful story that most people will not know even if they are ardent, readers of world war, one history.

At the heart of it is a story of two people who wouldn't let anything stand in their way to be together.

The book weaves a story and gives the history of the family that had much, lost much, and suffered much.

In my opinion, well worth the read, as it brings to light the circumstances that resulted in the world we have today.

Great Audiobook

Thank you for providing such an informative, entertaining, and unique look into this fascinating event.

Very interesting read

This is one of the best historical biographies I listen to in a long time.

A tragic family

June 28, 1914 will mark the 100th anniversary of that fateful day in Sarajevo. Well–known royalty historians King and Woolman bring us a detailed account of the life, times, and tragic deaths of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his Czech Countess Sophia Chotek, that helped touch off WWI, which still shapes the world. The early chapters concentrate on Franz Ferdinand’s family, birth, childhood, education and military career. The reader obtains a look at the complexities of the stifling regime of the Hapsburg court in the reign of traditional bound ultra-conservative Emperor Franz Joseph 1 of Austria-Hungry. The romance, marriage, and family life of Ferdinand, Sophie and the children Sophie, Max and Ernst consumes about half the book. The author explains the morganatic marriage in detail. The authors reveal the petty snubs, deliberate insults from the court and how it affected the family. The event in Sarajevo takes up about a third of the book. The final chapter looks at the later history of the children and their offspring. How they had their home, money, personal items all taken from them by the Czech government. The Nazi arrested them and imprisoned them in Dachau concentration camp. The author’s tell the story in the camp and then living under the Soviets after being released from Dachau. Today their great grand daughter who wrote the foreword to the book is in a decades old legal battle with the Czech government attempting to obtain their family home Konipiste returned to them. The author’s did an enormous amount of research, assisted by the descendants who shared personal recollections and access to family archives and other archives. The wealth of resources makes the book of value to scholars of the outbreak of WWI. I found it most helpful that the author’s pointed out the rumors and theories then stated the proven fact in various situations throughout the book. This book brought to life the Archduke and his family as well as the time they lived. The book is well written and makes for an easy read for both the academic and the layman alike. Malcohm Hillgartner did an excellent job narrating the book.

I loved this book!

I felt like WW 1 was somewhat neglected in high school history. This book covers so much about Europe in the early 1900s from the politics of the Austria Hungarian Empire to social conventions to the lives of the royalty to the day to day lives of the archduke and his family. I appreciated the author’s attention to detail as well as the thorough epilogue. Well narrated as well.

The first victims of World War I ...

I always knew that the Archduke's assassination was the catalyst that caused The Great War and the death, violence and destruction that followed. Shockingly I didn't know that his wife was also assassinated...??? Real life star-crossed lovers that's for sure. The cruelty they endured to be together is truly incalculable, even in death, downright disgusting! For shame on so many people, especially on Emperor Franz Josef and Prince Alfred de Montenuovo, the cruelest of the imperial court ringleaders. How it all ended for their children and extended family is heartbreaking but I have great hope in the end justice will be done for their remaining heirs and descendants!

This blurb from the book says it all:

"......but one constant remained: the devotion shared by Franz Ferdinand and Sophie to each other and to their children.
Beneath the cool exteriors the couple were "Franz" and "Soph," two people brought together by forbidden love. Their marriage became a refuge against the cruel court, they lived quietly, this pair of imperial outcasts, finding pleasure in their family. Surrounding their children with love and attention, they tried to atone for the difficulties they faced as morganatic desendants. To the Imperial House of Habsburg, the trio did not exist; to Franz Ferdinand and Sophie, the children became the centre of their increasingly isolated world."

This was a very engaging story made even more so because it truly is a fascinating and tragic but important bit of history that reshaped our world. The narration was stellar! Absolutely credit worthy!