Austria-Hungary
Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg
1868–1914 Wife of Archduke Franz Ferdinand; killed at Sarajevo, 28 June 1914
Born in Stuttgart, Countess Sophie Chotek was the daughter of a Bohemian diplomat and became lady-in-waiting to Archduchess Isabella. Her family was old nobility but not of dynastic rank, and Emperor Franz Joseph at first refused to let Archduke Franz Ferdinand marry her. He eventually consented to a morganatic marriage: on 28 June 1900 the archduke renounced succession rights for their descendants, and they married on 1 July. She became Princess of Hohenberg and, in 1909, Duchess, yet court protocol kept her below the archduchesses. They had three surviving children. On 28 June 1914 she accompanied her husband to Sarajevo, where Gavrilo Princip shot them both, setting off the July Crisis. She was buried at Artstetten Castle, because burial in the Imperial Crypt was forbidden to her.