Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor
1578 – 1637 · Generation XI · Holy Roman Emperor (r. 1619–1637) · Austrian Habsburgs
Ferdinand (1578 – 1637). Holy Roman Emperor (r. 1619–1637). Married Maria Anna in 1600. Married Eleonora in 1622. Champion of the Counter-Reformation; his policies opened the Thirty Years' War. Schooled by the Jesuits at Ingolstadt and heir to Inner Austria as a boy, he made the restoration of Catholicism his life’s programme, expelling Protestant pastors and teachers from his provinces from 1598 — a mission he is said to have solemnly pledged at the shrine of Loreto. His motto was “To Those Who Fight Justly Goes the Crown.” Bohemia’s Protestants threw imperial officials from a Prague window in 1618 and went on to depose him as their king in favour of Frederick V of the Palatinate — word of it reaching Frankfurt on the very day the electors made him emperor. His refusal to suffer any religious dissent drew the fighting across the whole Empire, which came out of the war so ruined that only around 1710 did its population climb back to its former level.
One of 23 people of Austrian Habsburgs (1527–1740) in this archive. The Vienna line, which held the Holy Roman crown almost without a break.
Line of descent: Rudolf I of Germany → Albert I of Germany → Albert II, Duke of Austria → Leopold III, Duke of Austria → Ernest, Duke of Austria → Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor → Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor → Philip I of Castile → Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor → Charles II, Archduke of Austria → Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor.
Parents
- Charles II, Archduke of Austria (1540 – 1590)
- Maria Anna of Bavaria (1551 – 1608)
Partners
- Married Maria Anna of Bavaria (1574 – 1616) in 1600 — one child together
- Married Eleonora Gonzaga (1598 – 1655) in 1622
Children
- Ferdinand III, Holy Roman Emperor (1608 – 1657)
Life
- 1578 — Born
- 1600 — Married Maria Anna
- 1622 — Married Eleonora
- 1637 — Died