Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
|
Image:Ferdinand2.jpg Emperor Ferdinand II | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor (July 9, 1578 – February 15, 1637), of the House of Habsburg, reigned as Holy Roman Emperor from 1619-1637. He was also the Archduke of Styria (Inner Austria) from 1590–1637, King of Bohemia from 1617-1619 and again from 1620-1637, as well as King of Hungary from 1618-1625. A devout Catholic, his recognition as King of Bohemia and suppression of Protestantism precipitated the early events of the Thirty Years' War. The duration of his reign was occupied by confessional and military concerns.
Contents |
[edit] Biography
[edit] Early years
Born in Graz to Charles II of Austria (1540-1590) and Maria Anna of Bavaria (1551-1608), Ferdinand was provided with a strict Jesuit education culminating in his years at the University of Ingolstadt. After completing his studies in 1595, he acceded to his hereditary lands (where his older cousin Archduke Maximilian III of Austria had acted as his regent 1593-95) and made a pilgrimage to Loreto and Rome. Shortly afterwards, he began to suppress the practice of non-Catholic faiths within his territory.
[edit] King of Bohemia
In 1617, Ferdinand was elected King of Bohemia by the Bohemian Diet. He also secured support from the Spanish Habsburgs for his claim to succeed the childless Emperor Matthias on the throne, granting them future rule over Alsace and Imperial fiefs in Italy. Ferdinand's staunch Catholicism led to infringements on the religious freedoms of non-Catholics. Among other things, the king did not respect the religious freedoms granted in the Majestät (or "Majestic Letter") signed by the earlier emperor Rudolf II to end the Brothers' War, which had granted freedom of worship to nobles and the inhabitants of cities. Additionally, Ferdinand was an absolutist and infringed upon what nobles regarded as secular rights. Given the relatively large number of Protestants within the kingdom, including many among the noble classes, the new king soon became unpopular and some dissidents participated in the ensuing Bohemian Revolt. On May 22, 1618, two royal (Catholic) officials in Prague were thrown out a castle window by Bohemian Protestants (the Defenestration of Prague). Though the officials were uninjured, such actions did not fall within the realm of standard protocol, and the clear offense against the royal dignity led to a hardening of attitudes and full rebellion.
The nobility revolted against Ferdinand and replaced him with the Protestant Elector Frederick V of the Palatinate, known as the "Winter King."
[edit] Holy Roman Emperor
Emperor Matthias died in Vienna in March 1619. As earlier agreed, Ferdinand succeeded him on the throne. Supported by the Catholic League, which included the rulers of Poland, Spain, and Bavaria, Ferdinand sought to reclaim his Bohemian possessions and stamp out the Protestant rebellion. On November 8, 1620, Catholic forces engaged those supporting the Protestant Frederick, who had taken the Bohemian kingship, at the Battle of White Mountain. After only two hours of fighting, the Catholics emerged victorious. The now-deposed Frederick fled to the Netherlands and Duke Maximilian I of Bavaria, the leader of the Catholic League, moved to confiscate his lands in the Palatinate. The restored Ferdinand set about strengthening the Catholic church in Bohemia, reduced the authority of the Diet, and forcibly converted Austrian and Bohemian Protestants.
By 1625, despite receiving subsidies from the Spanish and the Pope, Ferdinand was strapped for cash and looking for a means to raise his own army. His solution was to charge the Bohemian soldier and "military entrepreneur" Albrecht von Wallenstein with raising and commanding an Imperial army. Wallenstein accepted the position with the proviso that the management (and possession) of the army's funds were solely his, as was the right to take and distribute loot and ransoms taken in the course of operations. Quickly raising at least 30,000 men (he would later command at least 100,000), and fighting alongside the Catholic League army under the Count of Tilly, Wallenstein defeated Protestant forces in Silesia, Anhalt, and Denmark.
With his forces scoring important victories against the Protestants, Ferdinand crowned his religious policies by issuing his Edict of Restitution (1629), which was designed to restore all ecclesiastical properties which had been secularized since the Peace of Passau in 1552. This blatantly pro-Catholic policy has been widely credited with bringing the Protestant King of Sweden, Gustavus Adolphus, into the war against Ferdinand.
Despite the successes of Wallenstein, many of Ferdinand's advisors saw a genuine political threat in the general, citing his growing influence, his increasing number of estates and titles, as well as his extortionate methods of raising funds for his army. Ferdinand responded by dismissing Wallenstein in 1630. With the loss of his commander, he was once again forced to rely on the Catholic League army under Tilly, who was unable to stem the Swedish advance and was killed in 1632. As a result, Ferdinand recalled Wallenstein from retirement.
In the spring of 1632, Wallenstein raised a fresh army in a matter of weeks and drove the Protestant army out of Bohemia. In November came the great Battle of Lützen, at which the Catholics were defeated, but Gustavus Adolphus was killed. Wallenstein withdrew to winter quarters in Bohemia. Although he had lost strategically and been forced out of Saxony, the Protestants had suffered much greater casualties.
The campaigning of 1633 was indecisive, partly because Wallenstein was negotiating with the enemy, thinking that the army would be loyal to him, rather than Ferdinand, and follow him if he switched sides. In early 1634, he was openly accused of treason and assassinated at Eger, probably at Ferdinand's instigation.
Despite the loss of Wallenstein, Imperial forces took Regensburg and won a victory at the Battle of Nördlingen. Swedish strength was greatly weakened, but France entered the war on the side of the Protestants out of fear of Habsburg domination. Although the country was Catholic, France feared both the Germans and the Spanish, so Cardinal Richelieu convinced King Louis XIII of France to ally himself with the Dutch and the Swedes.
The French were highly dissatisfied with the terms of the Peace of Prague concluded in 1635, the last important act of Ferdinand. Therefore, although a treaty was signed, peace did not come. At Ferdinand's death in 1637, his son Ferdinand III inherited an embattled empire.
[edit] Ancestors
| Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor | Father: Charles II of Austria | Father's father: Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor | Father's father's father: Philip I of Castile |
| Father's father's mother: Joanna of Castile | |||
| Father's mother: Anna of Bohemia and Hungary | Father's mother's father: Vladislaus II of Bohemia and Hungary | ||
| Father's mother's mother: Anne de Foix | |||
| Mother: Maria Anna of Bavaria | Mother's father: Albert V, Duke of Bavaria | Mother's father's father: William IV, Duke of Bavaria | |
| Mother's father's mother: Marie of Baden-Sponheim | |||
| Mother's mother: Anna of Austria | Mother's mother's father: Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor | ||
| Mother's mother's mother: Anna of Bohemia and Hungary |
[edit] Marriages and issue
In 1600, Ferdinand married Maria Anna of Bavaria (1574-1616), daughter of Duke William V of Bavaria. They had seven children:
- Archduchess Christine (1601-1601)
- Archduke Charles (1603-1603)
- Archduke John-Charles (November 1 1605 - December 28 1619)
- Ferdinand III (July 13, 1608-April 2, 1657)
- Archduchess Maria Anna of Austria (January 13, 1610-September 25, 1665)
- Archduchess Cecilia Renata of Austria (July 16, 1611-March 24, 1644), who married her cousin Władysław IV Vasa, King of Poland.
- Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria (1614-1662).
In 1622, he married Eleonore of Mantua (Gonzaga) (1598-1655), the daughter of Duke Vincenzo I of Mantua and Eleanore de Medici of Tuscany, at Innsbruck.
[edit] Ferdinand II in literature
Ferdinand II is cast in his real life role as head of the Catholic League in the best selling alternate history tales making up the first seven central works of the 1632 series (created by Eric Flint) co-starring with fellow antagonists Cardinal Richelieu of France, Christian IV of Denmark, Charles II of England, and Philip IV of Spain opposite Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden and Mike Stearns of the (eventual) United States of Europe (USE) in the stories which launch the American Revolution into the heart of the Thirty Years' War. The marriages and mind-set of his two daughters Archduchess Cecilia Renata of Austria and especially Archduchess Maria Anna of Austria figure prominently in the seventh novel 1634: The Bavarian Crisis wherein the spirited Archduchess Maria Anna is betrothed to the recent widower Duke Maximilian I, Elector of Bavaria while the Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand whose armies have reconquered 80-85% of the Low Countries by the summer of 1634 is contemplating a dynastic move of his own (and one which maybe includes Maria Anna) which his brother Phillip will find a bit disconcerting. Meanwhile, the peasant revolt building in 1634: The Ram Rebellion, the alliance of Wallenstein (King of Bohemia and allied to the USE) and two strong minded women pursuing worthy personal goals draws the attention of potentiates of every faith east of the Rhine and foments a crises in Bavaria tying together the various 1634 prefixed novels into a checkerboard view of Western Europe put into sharp relief demonstrating Flint's assertion that history is made up of an aggregate of little actions by everyday people acting in their own self-interest, not great men making or taking great actions which is (at best) an illusion of historical narration. Ferdinand plays his largest part thus far in any book of the set (heretofore, his appearances have been as a distant misguided but lurking religiously rigid heavy— his occasional appearance limited to a few cameos in the earlier books) in the series as these factors culminate in 1634: The Bavarian Crisis.
| Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor Born: 9 July 1578 Died: 15 February 1637
| ||
| Regnal titles | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Charles II | Archduke of Inner Austria 1590–1637 | Succeeded by Ferdinand III |
| Preceded by Matthias | King of Bohemia 1617–1637 | Succeeded by Ferdinand III |
| Preceded by Matthias | King of Hungary, Croatia and Slavonia 1618–1637 | Succeeded by Ferdinand III |
| Preceded by Matthias | Roman-German King 1618–1637 | Succeeded by Ferdinand III |
| Preceded by Matthias | Holy Roman Emperor (elect) 1619–1637 | Succeeded by Ferdinand III |
| Preceded by Matthias | Archduke of Austria 1619–1637 | Succeeded by Ferdinand III |
| Preceded by Matthias | Archduke of Further Austria 1619–1623 | Succeeded by Leopold V, Governor since 1619 |
Holy Roman Emperors | |
|---|---|
Carolingian Empire | |
bg:Фердинанд II (Свещена Римска империя) ca:Ferran II del Sacre Imperi Romanogermànic cs:Ferdinand II. Štýrský da:Ferdinand 2. (Tysk-romerske rige) de:Ferdinand II. (HRR) et:Ferdinand II (Saksa-Rooma keiser) es:Fernando II de Habsburgo eo:Ferdinando la 2-a (Sankta Romia Imperio) fr:Ferdinand II du Saint-Empire hr:Ferdinand II., car Svetog Rimskog Carstva is:Ferdinand 2. keisari it:Ferdinando II del Sacro Romano Impero he:פרדיננד השני, קיסר האימפריה הרומית הקדושה la:Ferdinandus II hu:II. Ferdinánd nl:Ferdinand II van het Heilige Roomse Rijk ja:フェルディナント2世 (神聖ローマ皇帝) no:Ferdinand II av Det tysk-romerske rike pl:Ferdynand II Habsburg pt:Fernando II, Sacro Imperador Romano-Germânico ru:Фердинанд II (император Священной Римской империи) sr:Фердинанд II, цар Светог римског царства fi:Ferdinand II sv:Ferdinand II (tysk-romersk kejsare) uk:Фердинанд II Габсбурґ zh:斐迪南二世 (神圣罗马帝国)
