ced, in
order to be understood, to address his Hungarian electors in the
language which they had learned in America.

Franz Ferdinand, whose murder at Sarajevo was used by the Central
Powers as a pretext for a war determined on long before that
time, was the heir to the throne of the late Francis Joseph. He
was a romantic character. He visited frequently at the house of
Archduchess Isabella, where Countess Chotek, of a Bohemian noble
family, was a lady in waiting. Franz Ferdinand fell violently in
love with the fair Bohemian, and in his desire to marry, enlisted
the aid of Koloman Szell, Premier of Hungary. Szell told friends
how Franz Ferdinand loved mystery and how, when he wanted to talk
to him about marriage plans, instead of meeting somewhere openly
in Vienna, would arrange that Szell's train should stop in the
open fields. Szell, on alighting and following directions, would
find Franz Ferdinand hiding behind a designated haystack.

In a country where one royal family not only rules but owns the
land, this attempt of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, then heir to the
throne, and mad with love, to marry Countess Sophie Chotek, lady
in waiting to Archduchess Isabella, caused a palace revolution.
By the aid of Szell he at last succeeded in carrying out the
marriage. But this was only after he and his wife had been
required to submit to the most humiliating conditions and
subscribe to a marriage contract or promise which was not only
enacted thereafter as a statute in Hungary, but was formally put
on record by the Austrian parliament.

In this declaration, Franz Ferdinand declared it to be "his firm
and resolute resolve to marry Countess Sophie Chotek, that he had
sought, in accordance with the laws of the house, to obtain
consent of the Imperial and Royal Apostolic Majesty, the Emperor
and King, Francis Joseph I, gloriously reigning, that the most
serene, supreme head of the Arch house had deigned graciously to
grant this permission and that Franz Ferdinand, however
(describing himself as 'We'), recognise the house laws and
declare them binding on Us particularly with regard to this
marriage declaration, that our Marriage with Countess Chotek is
not a marriage of equal birth, but a morganatic one and is to be
considered as such for all time, and that in consequence neither
our wife nor our issue or descendants is entitled to possess or
claim those rights, titles, armorial bearings and privileges that
belong to wives of