of Maximilian, with his wife's sarcophagus on the left Maximilian was born on 29 September 1902 and baptized in
Vienna two days later with
Archduke Charles Stephen of Austria as sponsor. From birth he had the lesser
princely title and the
nobiliary particle von Hohenberg accorded his mother as a predicate at the time of her marriage, and in 1905 he shared with his siblings her receipt of the
style "
Serene Highness". Although Sophie had been raised from Princess (
Fürstin) to Duchess (
Herzogin) in 1909 by
Emperor Franz Joseph, because that title was accorded
ad personam, Maximilian did not inherit it upon her death in 1914. On 31 August 1917, however,
Emperor Charles I granted him the dukedom on a hereditary basis, simultaneously raising his treatment from "Serene Highness" (
Durchlaucht) to "
Highness" (
Hoheit). In 1911, it was rumored among French circles that
Germany planned to install Maximilian as
Imperial Governor of
Alsace-Lorraine. Following the assassination of his parents in
Sarajevo in 1914, which resulted in the outbreak of
World War I, Maximilian, his sister,
Princess Sophie and their brother,
Prince Ernst, were initially taken in by their
maternal aunt and uncle Marie and Jaroslav, Prince and Princess von
Thun und Hohenstein, subsequently being raised in the care of their step-grandmother,
Archduchess Maria-Theresa of Austria. His wife's remains are in a
sarcophagus to his left. His eldest son,
Franz, took the ducal title. ==Marriage and issue==