Franz Ferdinand may never reign

November 13, 1902

The Associated Press published a report today concerning conflicts over Austrian heir to the throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Despite official denials to the contrary, the Hungarian newspaper, the Neue Budapester Abenblatt reports of Franz Ferdinand's alleged abdication in favor of his 15-year-old nephew, Archduke Karl. The current order of succession also includes Franz Ferdinand's brother, Otto, who is Karl's father, and who also would renounce his rights to the throne.

The idea of this abdication is based on current political views in Viennese and Budapest circles, where it is believed that Franz Ferdinand's views are contrary to the views of the majority of his future subjects. The AP writes: Franz Ferdinand's "clerical and anti-German tendencies do not please the bulk of the Germans in Austria. and his clerical views are equally distasteful to the liberal Magyars in Hungary." Another heir, the report noted, might be less compromised with his views.
Franz Ferdinand is seen as a man of "exceptional independence of character, whose iron determination has before now broken down very powerful opposition to his own views."
Many in the Austro-Hungarian empire attribute this to the "clever ambitions" of Franz Ferdinand's morganatic wire, the Princess of Hohenberg.