
Supplying and aiding the assassination plot was the Black Hand, an extensive and well-orchestrated organisation with connections to the top ranks of the Serbian military. Just teenagers on the day of the attack, Princip and Cabrinovic were members of Young Bosnia, a loosely coordinated group of Serb nationalists made up mainly of high school students. Princip died on 28 April 1918, also of tuberculosis. Cabrinovic died in prison from tuberculosis in January 1916, 13 days before his 21st birthday. Just before 10 oclock on Sunday, 28th June, 1914, Franz Ferdinand and Sophie von Chotkovato arrived in Sarajevo by train. They would not see the end of the war their actions triggered. Read the essential details about the assassination at Sarajevo. Princip and Cabrinovic were too young to face death under Austro-Hungarian law and received the maximum term possible of 20 years imprisonment. Nineteen-year-old Bosnian Serb Gavrilo Princip fired the shots that killed the heir to the Austro-Hungarian empire, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, and his wife, Sophie, during a visit to Sarajevo on. Tried for treason and murder, eight were found guilty (one remianing conspirator escaped to Serbia before the trial) and three of the men were executed. Both were immediately arrested and, under questioning, eventually gave up the names of their co-conspirators. Only two made an attempt on his life, Nedjelko Cabrinovic and Gavrilo Princip. Nine men had set out to kill the archduke that day. "His face began to twist somewhat but he went on repeating, six or seven times, ever more faintly as he gradually lost consciousness, 'It's nothing!' Then, after a short pause, there was a violent choking sound caused by the bleeding. He answered me quite distinctly, 'It's nothing!'


Lt Col Harrach added "I seized the Archduke by the collar, to stop his head dropping forward, and asked him if he was in great pain. Then I heard His Imperial Highness say, 'Sopherl, Sopherl, don't die. Archduke Franz Ferdinand (1863 1914) and his wife, Sophie (1868 1914) had just arrived in Sarajevo after a visit with German Emperor William II (1859 1941).

"I had no idea that she was hit and thought she had simply fainted with fright. As Harrach went to the archduke's assistance, the duchess appears to have cried out, "What has happened to you?" before sinking down in her seat with her face between her knees. He has revealed details of the archduke and Sophie's final moments.Īfter the shots were fired, Harrach describes seeing "a thin stream of blood spurt from His Highness's mouth onto my right cheek". We have just heard from the Archduke's aide, Count Frank Harrach, who was standing beside the archduke when the attack took place.
