Assassination/Archduke by King and Woolmans

[Greg_King]

Not Romanov related, but letting folks know:

My latest book, written with Sue Woolmans, Assassination of the Archduke: Sarajevo 1914 and the Romance That Changed the World, is now out in North America from St. Martin's Press; Macmillan will publish in the UK in 2 weeks.  The book, which includes a forword by Princess Sophie Hohenberg, details the private story of Franz Ferdinand, Sophie, and their children, as well as the assassination in Sarajevo, and draws on previously unpublished letters written by Franz Ferdinand and Sophie, memories of the couples’ present-day descendants, and materials from archives in Vienna, Germany, Sarajevo, and the Royal Archives at Windsor.

Think "Nicholas and Alexandra" on the Danube...

[TimM]

Thanks for letting is know, Greg.

[Greenowl]

Wonderful news! Thanks for the information. I am already looking forward to adding it to my collection.

GREENOWL (MONIKA)

[Greg_King]

Thanks.  I hope it proves interesting.  There are also some previously unpublished photos included, too.

[Kalafrana]

Do you have a date for publication in the UK?

Ann

[Greg_King]

I believe it's September 23 or 26 for the UK

[felix]

 I just finished reading it last week & enjoyed it very, very much.

  Great book, & really interesting subjects. One of history's "Great If's" had  Franz Ferdinand ended up on the   throne of Austria-Hungary.

[Greg_King]

I'm very glad you enjoyed it.

[Kalafrana]

Hello Felix

Indeed one of the great 'what ifs?' If we leave WW1 out of it, what sort of a ruler would Franz Ferdinand have been domestically? I can't help thinking that his loathing of the Hungarians would have been a significant drawback. I seem to remember that he travelled to Sarajevo by sea to avoid setting foot on Hungarian soil! Perhaps Greg will confirm whether or not this is correct.

We can assume that Franz Josef would have died in November 1916 in any event. FF would then have been 53, and not in robust health (neither of his sons was long-lived, though the vicissitudes they went through in WW2 may have had some effect).

I will look out for the book around the end of this month.

Ann

[Greg_King]

They both left Chlumetz in Bohemia and traveled to Vienna, and then she by train to Sarajevo and he by train to the coast and then by naval vessel up the coast to catch a train to Sarajevo, so I think if correct he would not have gone through Hungary.

[Suzanne]

Here's my review - I enjoyed the book

http://www.royalhistorian.com/the-assassination-of-the-archduke-sarajevo-1914-and-the-romance-that-changed-the-world-by-greg-king-and-sue-woolmans-review/

[TimM]

I'll keep my eyes out for this book next time I'm in Chapters.

[newfan]

I would love to hear from anyone who read the book.
Your opinion on any new info or just what you think
Thanks

[newfan]

By the way for search purpose should this book be under Habsburg ?

[Janet Ashton]

Here's my review - I enjoyed the book

http://www.royalhistorian.com/the-assassination-of-the-archduke-sarajevo-1914-and-the-romance-that-changed-the-world-by-greg-king-and-sue-woolmans-review/

I enjoyed this review and largely agree with it. Like you, I was impressed particularly by the fluent and engaging account of the murder, and the detailed politics of it are far more to my taste than ballistics of gunfire and the like, which often mar accounts of assassinations!

I was from the start predisposed to be highly critical of any attempt to romanticise the Archduke's marriage, particularly when held up against the way Greg has dealt with the Romanovs - I said so A LOT to him, and approached the text harshly with this in mind, well aware that his loyalest and most discerning audiences would do so too. So I'm going to hold my hands up here on the "fairytale" theme, because this was my suggestion - and I hoped its use implies not sentimentality but an element of distance. There is very little real evidence about the couple's personal relationship, and that which does exist tends to slot them and other protagonists into some archetype or other - from "wicked stepmother" to "fairy godmother" to Cinderella to Good King Wenceslas (some of the stories about FF's supposed magnanimity to peasants on his estates in Bohemia fall into this category). I think this is inevitable, given that nearly all surviving evidence emanates from court gossip, descendants, or Franz Ferdinand's political followers (the Christian Social movement and its associated newspapers). Actually, there's also a Gothic Novel narrative, with FF as the ogre who is tamed by his good woman!

With its mature protagonists and frog prince hero their story WASN'T a fairytale, despite the conveniently typical evidence one can always find to imply that a royal romance really WAS.....

The murder of FF and Sophie led to an instant transformation of their image, an instant romanticisation of them, just as in the case of Nicholas and Alexandra - you even see this in the way that people perceive his plea to her not to die as some massive and remarkable gesture of love, whereas to me it is a perfectly natural thing for a father and husband to say, for heaven's sake! In the case of N and A., there is a lot of evidence that allows us to draw our own conclusions on their marriage. With FF and Sophie, there simply isn't - they have to be what people want to claim they were.