Dimby's Old-Timey Yarns - Habsburg Havoc!

During winter, Franz would also chase Rudolf a few miles out of the castle and forced the boy to find his own way back.

Rudolf and Stephanie had one daughter, at least. The unhappily married Rudolf spent quite a few nights, it seems, dressing up like a commoner and going drinking and cavorting with random Austrian folks.

Rudy and Mary Freiin von Vetsera shot and killed themselves at a hunting lodge in the town of Mayerling. The Mayerling Affair became the biggest international news story of the year.

This might be a bit of a historical tall tale, but he did certainly die of typhus immediately after returning from a visit to the holy land and seeing the Jordan River.

Franz Joseph specifically kicked him out of Vienna after a soldier in a bath house slapped Ludwig Viktor in the face for unwanted advances. It is likely that Ludwig's homosexuality and Joseph's homophobia was a key reason Ludwig was never considered to be the heir. There of course would have been an issue with succession if Luziwuzi were named heir, since he did not wish to take a wife or have children.

This was considered excessive even by other royals who spent much of their time big game hunting. Ferdinand traveled across the world, killing as he went. He even had elephant, kangaroo and emu trophies in his castle. His castle, Konopiště, with an assumably garish 100,000 trophies.

The Black Hand provided a group of teenagers, who called themselves "The Young Bosnians", a few bombs and guns. The youngest was probably only 15 years old.

Mehmedbasic was eventually caught after Princip and Čabrinović were tortured to give up their coconspirators. However, Mehmedbasic escaped a Montenegrin prison (possibly with help from the guards) and went on to fight in World War I and possibly take part in another assassination.

Unfortunately, the shrapnel did injure innocent people in the crowd. The people in the car behind Franz Ferdinand's suffered serious injuries.

The cyanide was quite old and likely impotent, but it did make him vomit. The river was at low tide, so he did not drown.

It has been converted, unsurprisingly, into a museum.

The sandwich part is untrue and was likely added because it adds a funny element to the story. Sandwiches were not commonly eaten in eastern Europe at this time, and there is no evidence that Princip ate a sandwich, nor that Schiller's even sold sandwiches.

It is not fully known why the motorcade failed at such a simple task. It didn't help that Ferdinand's driver spoke neither Austrian nor Bosnian, so it's debatable whether he understood the orders. Still, the first cars in the motorcade went the wrong direction anyway!

Princip said of the shooting that he regretted shooting the Duchess but was proud that he had killed the Archduke. He would be chained to a prison wall for the remainder of his short life.

Known as Charles I of Austria, Karl Franz failed to maintain the Austro-Hungarian Empire. After the war was lost, the Austrian Parliament voted to dethrone the Habsburgs and banished Charles. He died in exile in 1922.