Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of I Heart Radio and Grim and Mild from Erin Manky.

Listener discretion advised.

One quick note before we begin, if you want to support Noble Blood, we are on Patreon

at patreon.com slash Noble Blood Tales and I upload episode scripts and some bonus episodes

where I talk about television shows involving period pieces.

I do reign on the CW, which is on Netflix and the tutors sometimes.

You can also get Noble Blood merch at dftba.com.

All of this is in the episode description and you can pick up a copy of my book Anatomy,

a love story.

But as always, just the best possible support for the show is you listening.

So thank you so much.

The morning of June 28, 1914 began with golden light spilling over Sarajevo.

It was a perfect day in a summer full of perfect days.

In later years, reflecting on the bloodshed that was to come, observers would remark

on how beautiful the summer had been.

The way the world had seemed to hum in harmony.

The way the sun had shown on Europe.

No one in the crowds gathered along that pelquah, a broad street running along the Mild

Jack River in central Sarajevo, knew quite how precious this day would be.

The beginnings and endings that it would mark.

For both the Archduke, Franz Ferdinand and for his assassin, June 28 held special significance.

For Franz Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria-S and heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary,

...