He didnt had any political influence anyway after his morganatic marriage with Sophie (if i remember her name correctly...)
Sophie Chotek, yes. I think this marriage ended up being one of the most important of the past century, certainly one of the most fateful. The reason that lady was in Sarajevo in the first place that day was because 28 June 1914 was their fourteenth wedding anniversary, and Franz Ferdinand very much wanted to see her get proper honors on the occasion, which she was entitled to in her role as wife as Inspector-General of the Armed Forces. It's not widely remembered today that Emperor Franz Joseph had actually been doing what he could to improve her status, bit by bit, starting with making her Duchess of Hohenberg in 1909, then giving her the right to receive formal military honors and be the colonel-in-chief of various regiments, and showing her signs of his personal favor such as having long conversations with her at grand balls
; he actually respected her quite highly for the dignified way in which she bore the slights pitched at her because of her non-royal status.
Actually, Franz Ferdinand did have a great deal of political influence. His so-called "Military Chancellery" at the Belvedere Palace, his Vienna residence, was both a sort of government-in-waiting and what we today might call a think tank, specializing in military reform and modernization. Conrad von Hotzendorf, the Austro-Hungarian chief of staff, was FF's man, and the Archduke himself wielded considerable power as Inspector-General of the A-H armed forces. He was an enthusiastic navalist, though he'd never actually done any naval service, and was a major factor in the development of the A-H navy. At the same time, he had a lot of importance in diplomatic affairs; had he not been assassinated, he, for example, might have been able to use personal diplomacy to significantly improve relations with Great Britain (he and Sophie had enjoyed a highly successful private visit there in the fall of 1913 during which they had been received by King George and Queen Mary, and there was a return invitation for the British pair in the works for the Archduke's estate at Konospicht (sp?) in what is today Czechoslovakia).
This hasn't even touched yet on his ambitious plans for reorganizing and reforming the governmental structure of Austria-Hungary had he acceded to the throne. His pet project was called "trialism", as he wanted to create a Triple Monarchy, elevating at least one of the Slavic parts of the empire to kingdom status co-equal with Austria and Hungary. This was directly aimed at counterbalancing Magyar power. FF deeply detested the Hungarian nobility, but one reason that may not be well-known is that he saw them as thoroughly reactionary, which they were (and since FF has sometimes been described as a "conservative revolutionary", if
he regarded a group of people as being reactionary, you can assume they were pretty bad, all right.)
-Joe-