Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

    

Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor

Archduke of Austria, 1619 to 1637 Holy Roman Emperor, King of Hungary and Bohemia

Date of Birth: 09-Jul-1578

Place of Birth: Graz, Styria, Austria

Date of Death: 15-Feb-1637

Profession: aristocrat

Zodiac Sign: Cancer


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About Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor

  • Ferdinand II (9 July 1578 – 15 February 1637), a member of the House of Habsburg, was Holy Roman Emperor (1619–1637), King of Bohemia (1617–1619, 1620–1637), and King of Hungary (1618–1637).
  • He was the son of Archduke Charles II of Inner Austria, and Maria of Bavaria.
  • In 1590, his parents, who were devout Catholics, sent him to study at the Jesuits' college in Ingolstadt, because they wanted to isolate him from the Lutheran nobles.
  • In the same year, he inherited Inner Austria—Styria, Carinthia, Carniola and smaller provinces—from his father.
  • Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor, who was the head of the Habsburg family, appointed regents to administer Inner Austria on behalf of the minor Ferdinand. Ferdinand was installed as the actual ruler of the Inner Austrian provinces in 1596 and 1597.
  • Rudolph II also charged him with the command of the defense of Croatia, Slavonia and southeastern Hungary against the Ottoman Empire.
  • He regarded the regulation of religious issues as a royal prerogative and introduced strict Counter-Reformation measures from 1598.
  • First, he ordered the expulsion of all Protestant pastors and teachers, then he established special commissions to restore the Catholic parishes.
  • The Ottomans captured Nagykanizsa in Hungary in 1600, which enabled them to invade Styria.
  • A year later, Ferdinand tried to recapture the fortress, but the action ended with a defeat due to the unprofessional command of his troops in November 1601.
  • During the first stage of the family feud known as the Brothers' Quarrel, Ferdinand initially supported Rudolph II's brother, Matthias, who wanted to convince the melancholic Emperor to abdicate, but Matthias' concessions to the Protestants in Hungary, Austria and Bohemia outraged him.
  • He planned an alliance to strengthen the position of the Catholic Church in the Holy Roman Empire, but the Catholic princes established the Catholic League without his participation in 1610. Philip III of Spain, who was the childless Matthias' nephew, acknowledged Ferdinand's right to succeed Matthias in Bohemia and Hungary in exchange for territorial concessions in 1617.
  • Spain also supported Ferdinand against the Republic of Venice during the Uskok War in 1617–18.
  • The Diets of Bohemia and Hungary confirmed Ferdinand's position as Matthias' successor only after he had promised to respect the Estates' privileges in both realms.
  • The different interpretation of the Letter of Majesty, which summarized the Bohemian Protestants' liberties, gave rise to an uprising, known as the Second Defenestration of Prague on 23 May 1618.
  • The Bohemian rebels established a provisional government, invaded Upper Austria and sought assistance from the Habsburgs' opponents.
  • Matthias II died on 20 March 1619.
  • Ferdinand was elected Holy Roman Emperor on 28 August 1619 (Frankfurt), two days earlier the Protestant Bohemian Estates had deposed Ferdinand (as king of Bohemia).
  • News of his deposition arrived in Frankfurt on the 28th but Ferdinand didn't leavetown until he'd been crowned.
  • Bohemia offered their crown (King of Bohemia) to the Calvinist Frederick V of the Palatinate on 26 August 1619. The Thirty Years' War had begun in 1618 as a result of inadequacies of his predecessors Rudolf II and Matthias.
  • But Ferdinand's acts against Protestantism caused the war to engulf the whole empire.
  • As a zealous Catholic, Ferdinand wanted to restore the Catholic Church as the only religion in the Empire and to wipe out any form of religious dissent.
  • The war left the Holy Roman Empire devastated, its cities in ruins, and its population took a century to recover.

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