Ferdinand II (July 9, 1578 –
February 15, 1637), of the House of Habsburg, Holy Roman Emperor (1619-1637), King of Bohemia (1617-1619, 1620-1637), King
of Hungary
(1618-1625).
Life
He was
born at Graz
, the son of
Charles II, Archduke of
Austria, and Maria Anna of
Bavaria. He was educated by the Jesuit and later
frequented 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 regent between 1593 and 1595) and made a pilgrimage to
Loreto
and
Rome. Shortly afterwards, he began to suppress non-catholic
faith in his territories.
In 1617, he was elected
King of
Bohemia by the Bohemian diet. He was also able to obtain the
support of the Spanish Habsburg in the succession to his cousin
Matthias, who was
heirless, as Holy Roman Emperor, in exchange of Alsace and other
imperial fiefs in Italy.
His ultracatholicism caused immediate turmoil in his non-Catholic's
subjects, especially in Bohemia. He did not respect the religious
liberties granted by the Letter of Majesty conceded, signed by the
previous emperor,
Rudolph
II, which had guaranteed the freedom of cult to the nobles and
the inhabitants of the cities. Additionally, Ferdinand was an
absolutist monarch and infringed several historical privileges of
the nobles. Given the relatively great number of protestants in the
kingdom, including part of the nobles, the king's unpopularity soon
caused the
Bohemian Revolt. The
Defenestration of Prague of
22 May 1618 is considered the first step of the
Thirty Years' War.
In the following events he remained one of the staunchest backers
of the
Anti-Protestant Counter Reformation efforts as one of
the heads of the
German Catholic
League. Ferdinand succeeded Matthias as Holy Roman Emperor in
1619.
Supported by the Catholic League, including
the Kings of Spain, Bavaria and
Poland
, Ferdinando decided to reclaim his possession in
Bohemia and to quench the rebels. On 8 November 1620 his
troops, led by the Belgian general
Tilly, smashed the rebels
of
Frederick V of
Palatinate, who had been elected as rival King in 1618. After
Frederick's flight to the Netherlands, Ferdinand ordered the forced
conversion to Catholicism in Bohemia and Austria, causing
Protestantism to nearly disappear in the following decades, and
reduced the Diet's power.
In 1625, despite the subsidies received from Spain and the Pope,
Ferdinand was in a bad financial situation. In order to muster an
imperial army to continue the war, he applied to
Albrecht von Wallenstein, one of
the richest men in Bohemia: the latter accepted at the condition
that he could keep a total control on the direction of the war, as
well as on the booties taken during the operations.
Wallenstein was able
to recruit some 30,000 men (later expanded up to 100,000), with
which he was able to defeat the Protestants in Silesia, Anhalt and Denmark
. In
the wake of the overwhelming Catholic military successes, in 1629
Ferdinand issued the
Edict of
Restitution, by which all the land stripped to the Catholics
after the
Peace of Passau of 1552
would be returned back.
His new ultracatholic demands caused the tottering Protestants to
call in
Gustavus II Adolphus,
King of Sweden. Further, some of Ferdinand's Catholic allies
started to complain about the exceeding power gained by
Wallenstein, as well as of the ruthless method he used to finance
his huge army. Ferdinand replied by firing the Bohemian general in
1630. The lead of the war thenceforth was assigned to Tilly, who
was however unable to stop the Swedish march from northern Germany
towards Austria.
Some historians directly blame Ferdinand for
the large civilian loss of life in the Sack of Magdeburg in 1631: he had
instructed Tilly to enforce the edict of Restitution upon Saxony, his orders causing the Belgian
general to move the Catholic armies east, ultimately to Leipzig
, where they
suffered their first substantial defeat at First
Breitenfeld
.
Tilly died in 1632. Wallenstein was recalled, being able to muster
an army in only a week, and to expel the Sweden from Bohemia.
In
November 1632 the Catholic were defeated in the Battle of
Lützen
, but Gustavus Adolphus died. A period of
minor operations followed, perhaps for Wallenstein ambiguous
conduct, which ended with his assassination in 1634, perhaps
ordered by Ferdinand himself.
Despite
Wallenstein's fall, the imperial forces recaptured Regensburg
and were victorious in the Battle of
Nördlingen. The Swedish army was substantially weakened,
and the fear the Habsburg's power could at the point become
overwhelming in the empire triggered France, led by
Cardinal Richelieu, to enter the war on
the Protestant side. In 1635 Ferdinand signed his last important
act, the
Peace of Prague,
which however did not end the war.
He died in 1637, leaving to his son
Ferdinand III, an empire
still entangled in a war and whose its fortunes seemed to be
increasingly fading away.
Marriages and issue
In 1600, Ferdinand married
Maria Anna of Bavaria ,
daughter of Duke
William
V of Bavaria. They had seven children:
In 1622,
he married Eleonore of Mantua
(1598-1655), the daughter of Duke Vincenzo I of Mantua
and Eleonora de' Medici, at Innsbruck
.
Ancestors
Titles
Ferdinand II, by the grace of God elected Holy Roman Emperor,
forever August, King in Germany, King of Hungary, Bohemia,
Dalmatia, Croatia, Slavonia, etc. Archduke of Austria, Duke of
Burgundy, Brabant, Styria, Carinthia, Carniola, Margrave of
Moravia, Duke of Luxemburg, of the Higher and Lower Silesia, of
Wurtemburg and Teck, Prince of Swabia, Count of Habsburg, Tyrol,
Kyburg and Goritia, Marquess of the Holy Roman Empire, Burgovia,
the Higher and Lower Lusace, Lord of the Marquisate of Slavonia, of
Port Naon and Salines, etc. etc.
References
-
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/204463/Ferdinand-II
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