Gavrilo Princip
Gavrilo Princip was a Bosnian Serb who was named for the Archangel Gabriel by an Eastern Orthodox priest as a defense against his sickly condition following his birth. Whether Gabriel had anything to do with his survival or not, Princip began school at the age of nine and eventually moved to Sarajevo to live with his older brother Jovan, continuing his studies at a merchant school. Bosnia and Herzegovina at the time were part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In 1911 the 17 year old Princip joined an organization called Young Bosnia, which supported the idea of Bosnia being freed from Austrian rule and united with the Kingdom of Serbia.
Under Austrian rule such organizations were illegal and thus forced to meet secretly. In 1912 growing anti-Austrian sentiment led to demonstrations on school campuses, and Princip was expelled after taking part in one. Princip went to Belgrade, in Serbia, and attempted to join the guerrilla fighters of the Black Hand who were fighting the Ottoman Turks. Rejected because of his small size, he returned to Sarajevo. He spent most of 1913 alternating between Belgrade and Sarajevo, as well as being trained in the use of bombs, firearms, and knives by the Serbian Chetnik Organization, a nationalist group based in Vranje. Princip was in Sarjevo when Austria declared martial law and seized control of the schools, outlawing displays of Serbian culture.
Princip was one of six conspirators recruited by military and terrorist elements in Serbia to assassinate Archduke Franz Ferdinand during a visit to Sarajevo in the summer of 1914. Ferdinand was travelling in his capacity as a military officer rather than as the Crown Prince. This was because of the status of his wife Sophie. Because she was not of noble birth she was not allowed to sit with the Crown Prince in his Imperial role, by direct fiat of the Emperor. As a general’s wife she could, and Ferdinand, who clearly loved his wife, decided to travel through Sarajevo in his military uniform with Sophie at his side, in an open car so that she could receive the veneration of the people so often denied to her.
As the motorcade bearing the Crown Prince left the train station the first of the six assassins threw a bomb at the car, which bounced off of a fender to the street, exploding under the next car in line. The remaining five vehicles of the motorcade sped to city hall, where an understandably angry Ferdinand berated the mayor before his wife calmed him. Following the reception there Ferdinand directed that they visit the injured from the bombing and the still open car departed for Sarajevo hospital. A driving error led to the cars passing the spot where Princip still waited, and he fired two shots, hitting both the Archduke and his wife.
The deaths of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife led to an ultimatum issued to Serbia which triggered the European system of alliances and counter-alliances which led to the outbreak of World War I. All of the assassins and the conspirators who directed them were eventually arrested, three of the ringleaders were hanged, but Princip, the actual killer, was sentenced to 20 years in prison. He died in prison from tuberculosis, brought on by the harsh conditions of his confinement and worsened by malnutrition. Over 18 million deaths occurred during World War I.