Legends of legends.
In ancient Europe, there is a fairy tale about a prince falling in love with Cinderella. This story is very romantic, perhaps because it is romantic enough in itself, or perhaps because it became romantic in that turbulent era.
Franz Ferdinand Karl Ludwig Joseph Maria was not a crown prince.
He was the eldest son of Archduke Karl Ludwig of Austria, the younger brother of Franz Joseph I.
However, in 1889, Ferdinand's life changed dramatically. His cousin Prince-Dohrn committed suicide in a hunting lodge in Mayerling because he fell in love with a 17-year-old baroness.
As the only son of Franz Joseph I and Princess Sissi, the death of Crown Prince Rudolf made Ferdinand's father, Archduke Karl Ludwig, the first in line to the throne. However, in 1896, Archduke Karl Ludwig died of a cold.
Ferdinand will officially become Crown Prince of Austria.
Perhaps Ferdinand was free-spirited by nature, he liked to travel around the world. From 1892 to 1893, after visiting India, he went to Australia to hunt kangaroos and magpies, went to Noumea, the New Hebrides, the Solomon Islands, New Guinea, Sarawak and Japan, crossed the Pacific Ocean from Yokohama to Vancouver on the Empress, and then crossed the United States to the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition held on the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad.
If he were not the crown prince, he would just be a royal family member who loves hunting.
But he is the crown prince.
He is so free.
This caused him to fall in love with a woman he shouldn't have.
Sophia was not the daughter of a commoner.
She was the fourth daughter of Count Bohuslav, a Bohemian noble. There was really nothing worth talking about in this level of noble family, so she had to make do with her family's difficult living conditions.
Maybe she would be sent to a convent, become a nun, and serve God for the rest of her life.
Maybe she would be sent to a noble family and become a maid to subsidize the family's life.
The reality is the second one.
Sophia was sent to the Halbman Castle of Archduke Friedrich of Teschen.
If she continues, Sophia will be the maid of Duke Teshen until she retires, or for decades in her life.
Being betrothed to a minor noble, such a life is indeed not worth talking about.
But at a dance in Prague, all that changed.
She met Ferdinand.
Except themselves.
No one knows whether their meeting is right or wrong, and no one has the right to comment.
When Prince Ferdinand first met Sofia.
He could no longer take his eyes off Sofia.
Even though they knew that this relationship was not allowed and not blessed, and could even be considered a sin in the Habsburg era.
It's also because of this.
Ferdinand visited Halbuten Castle so often that Lady Isabella, the Duke of Teschen's wife, mistakenly believed that
Ferdinand favored his eldest daughter, Marie Christine.
but.
This can't be kept secret for long.
When Ferdinand went out hunting, he left his pocket watch in Halbuten Castle. Lady Isabella picked up the pocket watch and thought there would be a photo of her daughter in the pocket watch, but she didn't expect that the photo inside was of her maid Sophia.
This incident instantly caused a sensation in the empire.
No one would support a crown prince being with a maid.
Especially the Crown Prince of Habsburg.
As the crown prince of the Habsburgs and the future emperor of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, he should marry a descendant of the European royal family, not a maid.
Ferdinand was lucky.
At least.
Unlike his cousin Crown Prince Rudolf, he did not fall in love with a baroness.
At least.
His uncle, Emperor Franz Joseph I, would not press further.
Ferdinand was proven right.
After five years of persistence, Emperor Franz Joseph I finally agreed to their marriage, even though the price was that their wedding could only be held in a monastery, even though Sophia and their children could not obtain any royal titles and royal privileges, and their children had no inheritance rights. Even in official ceremonies, carriage parades and major social events, Sophia could not sit with Ferdinand.
Even though there were only three members of the royal family attending their wedding, Ferdinand's stepmother Maria Theresa and her two daughters Maria Annunziata and Elisabeth Amalie.
Even though the road was difficult, they made it through.
They had three children, and their love for each other eventually gained recognition from others as time went by.
If this were the ending of a fairy tale.
The prince and Cinderella lived happily together.
But reality is not a fairy tale.
No.
No matter how you look at it, the story of Ferdinand and Sofia can be called a fairy tale.
But the fairy tale usually ends here.
But reality doesn't.
Ferdinand lived happily with Sofia. He wanted to be a qualified husband, a qualified father, and a qualified crown prince.
He hoped to bring the people of the Balkans into the Austro-Hungarian Empire and form a federal country. In this way, in this period of turbulent national waves, the Austro-Hungarian Empire would become a model of European national integration.
So he visited foreign countries.
In a foreign country.
Ferdinand was able to sit with his Cinderella.
They were assassinated and the assassin threw a grenade at them, but the driver discovered it first. Ferdinand
He stretched out his hand to block the grenade, causing it to fall behind him, damaging the vehicle behind and injuring several people.
Ferdinand remained calm and ordered the convoy to go to the city hall.
According to the plan, after the speech we were going to visit the museum and then have dinner at the Governor's Palace.
Ferdinand changed his plan. He wanted to go to the hospital to visit the injured people. He wanted Sofia to stay.
Sofia refused the possibility of encountering the assassin again, and she would face the danger together with her prince, her husband.
The convoy continued to head to the museum as planned. When the officer realized that they were on the wrong road, he asked the driver to stop.
When the driver stopped and turned around.
It was at this time.
The leader of the assassin group hiding in the crowd pulled out a pistol and shot two shots at the prince and Cinderella.
Blood continued to flow from Ferdinand's mouth.
He holds Sophia, who is already dead.
"Sophia, for the sake of our children, you
must live well."
The fairy tale is over.
Even a fairy tale will be crushed to pieces in the face of the unparalleled torrent of the times.