Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor

Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian II.

Maximilian II (July 31, 1527 – October 12, 1576) was king of Bohemia from 1562, king of Hungary from 1563 and emperor of the Holy Roman Empire from 1564 until his death. He was a member of the of the House of Habsburg.

Biography

Born in Vienna, he was a son of his predecessor Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor and Anna of Bohemia and Hungary (1503–1547). Anne was a daughter of King Ladislaus II of Bohemia and Hungary and his wife Anne de Foix. In 1529, he was moved to Innsbruck when Vienna was threatened by the Turks. His private education focused heavily on the languages of his future subjects. He proved to have a gift for linguistics, mastering (as well as his native German), French, Spanish, Italian and Czech while a "eulogy at his funeral" in 1576 added "two additional languages, Dutch and Magyar." Given the multi-national composition of the empire, this skill would prove very useful. It was at Innsbruck that he first met Sebastian Pfauser, who joined the staff as a language tutor around about 1536. Pfauser had been with Martin Luther at Wittenburg from 1523 to 1523 where he had also befriended the "reformer's friend and disciple, Philip Melancthon. Maximilian appears to have learned something about Lutheranism at his stage.

Early Career

He gained some experience of warfare during the campaign of his paternal uncle Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor against France in 1544, and also during the War of the league of Schmalkalden, and soon began to take part in imperial business. Having in September 1548 married his cousin Maria, daughter of Charles V, he acted as the emperor's representative in Spain from 1548 to 1550, returning to Germany in December 1550 in order to take part in the discussion over the imperial succession. Charles V wished his son Philip (afterwards king of Spain) to succeed him as emperor, but his brother Ferdinand, who had already been designated as the next occupant of the imperial throne, and Maximilian objected to this proposal. At length a compromise was reached. Philip was to succeed Ferdinand, but during the former's reign Maximilian, as king of the Romans, was to govern Germany. This arrangement was not carried out, and is only important because the insistence of the emperor seriously disturbed the harmonious relations which had hitherto existed between the two branches of the Habsburg family; an illness which befell Maximilian in 1552 was attributed to poison given to him in the interests of his cousin and brother-in-law, Philip II of Spain.

About this time he took up his residence in Vienna, being engaged mainly in the government of the Austrian dominions and in defending them against the Turks. The religious views of the king of Bohemia, as Maximilian had been called since his recognition as the future ruler of that country in 1549, had always been somewhat uncertain, and he had probably learned something of Lutheranism in his youth; but his amicable relations with several Protestant princes, which began about the time of the discussion over the succession. From 1555 with the Peace of Augsburg, it was agreed that princes could choose whether their states would be Catholic or Protestant. In Vienna, Maximilian renewed his acquaintance with Sebastian Pfauser, and his own religious attitude started to cause some uneasiness to his father. Fears were freely expressed that he would definitely leave the Catholic Church, and when Ferdinand became emperor in 1558 he was prepared to assure Pope Paul IV that his son should not succeed him if he took this step. Eventually Maximilian remained nominally a follower of the older faith, although his views were tinged with Lutheranism until the end of his life. After several refusals he consented in 1560 to ban Pfauser, and began again to attend the services of the Catholic Church.

Holy Roman Emperor

In November 1562 Maximilian was chosen as King of the Romans, or German king, at Frankfurt, where he was crowned a few days later, after assuring the Catholic electors of his fidelity to their faith, and promising the Protestant electors that he would publicly accept Peace of Augsburg when he became emperor. He also took the usual oath to protect the Church, and his election was afterwards confirmed by the papacy. In September 1563 he was crowned king of Hungary by the Archbishop of Gran Nicolaus Olahus, and on his father's death, in July 1564, he succeeded to the empire and to the kingdoms of Hungary and Bohemia.

Coat of Arms of Maximilian.

The new emperor had already shown that he believed in the necessity for a thorough reform of the Church. He was unable, however, to obtain the consent of Pope Pius IV to the marriage of the clergy, and in 1568 the concession of communion in both kinds to the laity was withdrawn. He refused, though, to allow the publication of the decrees of the Council of Trent. Amidst general expectations on the part of the Protestants he met with the Diet of Augsburg in March 1566. He refused to yield to the demands of the Lutheran princes to allow a Lutheran church in Austria. He did, however, negotiate Protestant assistance for the Turkish War, which had just been renewed. Collecting a large army he marched to defend his territories in the East; but no decisive engagement had taken place when a truce was made in 1568, and the emperor continued to pay tribute to the sultan as the price of peace in the western and northern areas of the Hungarian kingdom still under Habsburg control. The same year he gave substantial freedom to Lutherans in the south, in return for which the princes promised to help him repay debts "many of them inherited from his father". He also launched a project to write a creed that "all his people could adopt", an early attempt at forging Christian unity. In 1570, he gave members of the nobility the freedom to worship as they chose.

Meanwhile the relations between Maximilian and Philip of Spain had improved; and the emperor's increasingly cautious and moderate attitude in religious matters was doubtless due to the fact that the death of Philip's son, Don Carlos, had opened the way for the succession of Maximilian, or of one of his sons, to the Spanish throne. Evidence of this friendly feeling was given in 1570, when the emperor's daughter, Anna, became the fourth wife of Philip; but Maximilian was unable to moderate the harsh proceedings of the Spanish king against the revolting inhabitants of the Netherlands. In 1570 the emperor met the diet of Speyer and asked for aid to place his eastern borders in a state of defense against the Ottomans, and also for power to repress the disorder caused by troops in the service of foreign powers passing through Germany. He proposed that his consent should be necessary before any soldiers for foreign service were recruited in the empire; but the estates were unwilling to strengthen the imperial authority, the Protestant princes regarded the suggestion as an attempt to prevent them from assisting their co-religionists in France and the Netherlands, and nothing was done in this direction, although some assistance was voted for the defense of Austria. Maximilian's power was in reality very limited; it was inability rather than unwillingness that prevented him from yielding to the entreaties of Pope Pius V to join in an attack on the Turks both before and after the victory of Lepanto in 1571; and he remained inert while the authority of the empire in north-eastern Europe was threatened.

In 1575, Maximilian was elected by the Polish and Lithuanian magnates to be the King of Poland in opposition to Stephan IV Bathory. However, he failed to become widely accepted there and was soon forced to abandon any claim to Poland.

Death

Maximilian died on 12 October 1576 in Regensburg while preparing to invade Poland. On his deathbed he refused to receive the last sacraments of the Church. He is buried in St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague.

By his wife Maria he had a family of nine sons and six daughters. He was succeeded by his eldest surviving son, Rudolf, who had been chosen king of the Romans in October 1575. Another of his sons, Matthias, also became emperor; three others, Ernest, Albert and Maximilian, took some part in the government of the Habsburg territories or of the Netherlands, and a daughter, Elizabeth, married Charles IX of France.

Religious policies

Maximilian's policies of religious neutrality and peace in the Empire afforded its Roman Catholics and Protestants a breathing-space after the first struggles of the Reformation. Given the blood-bath that took place over religion during this period, his religious toleration was a remarkably enlightened, humanitarian policy.

Fichhtner argues that this was based as much on his personal convictions as on any pragmatic desire to prevent social chaos or to retain the support of Protestant rulers, crucial in times of war;"it would be a mistake to think that Maximilian's behavior was solely a product of political calculations." He "would not have persisted in his views to the point where he came close to losing both land and position unless he had been propmpted by spirital conviction."

However, he disappointed the German Protestant princes by his refusal to invest Protestant administrators of bishoprics with their imperial fiefs. Yet on a personal basis he granted freedom of worship to the Protestant nobility and worked for reform in the Roman Catholic church, including the right of priests to marry. He was a strong advocate of communion in both kinds.This failed because of Spanish opposition. His wife, Maria, was in comparison a "one-woman redoubt of Catholic orthodoxy" while two of his sisters were generous supporters of the Jesuits. One, Archduchess Magdalene, "all but bankrupted herself" in the process.

Name in other languages

Names in other languages:

• German: Maximilian II.
• Hungarian: II. Miksa
• Italian: Massimiliano II
• Czech Maxmilián
• Slovak: Maximilián II
• Croatian: Maksimilijan

Ancestors

Maximilian's ancestors in three generations

Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor	Father: Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor	Paternal Grandfather: Philip I of Castile	Paternal Great-Grandfather:<br[Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor
			Paternal Great-grandmother: Mary of Burgundy
		Paternal Grandmother: Joanna of Castile	Paternal Great-Grandfather: Ferdinand II of Aragon
			Paternal Great-Grandmother: Isabella I of Castile
	Mother: Anna of Bohemia and Hungary	Maternal Grandfather: Vladislaus II of Bohemia and Hungary	Maternal Great-Grandfather: Casimir IV Jagiellon
			Maternal Great-Grandmother: Elisabeth of Austria (d. 1505)
		Maternal Grandmother: Anne de Foix	Maternal Great-grandfather: Gaston II de Foix, Count of Candale and Benauges
			Maternal Great-Grandmother: Infanta Catherine of Navarre

Marriage and children

On 13 September 1548, Maximilian married his first cousin Maria of Spain, daughter of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and Isabella of Portugal. They had sixteen children:

• Anna of Austria (1549-1580) (November 1, 1549 - October 26, 1580). Married Philip II of Spain. She was the mother of Philip III of Spain.
• Ferdinand of Austria (March 28, 1551 - June 25, 1552).
• Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor (July 18, 1552 - January 20, 1612).
• Archduke Ernest of Austria, (July 15, 1553 - February 12, 1595). He served as Governor of the Low Countries.
• Elisabeth of Austria (1554-1592) (June 5, 1554 - January 22, 1592). Married Charles IX of France.
• Marie of Austria (July 27, 1555 - June 25, 1556).
• Matthias, Holy Roman Emperor (February 24, 1557 - March 20, 1619).
• A stillborn son (born and deceased on October 20, 1557).
• Maximilian III, Archduke of Austria (October 12, 1558 - November 2, 1618). He served as grandmaster of the Teutonic Order and Administrator of Prussia.
• Albert VII, Archduke of Austria (November 15, 1559 - July 13, 1621). He served as Governor of the Low Countries.
• Wenzel of Austria (March 9, 1561 - September 22, 1578).
• Friedrich of Austria (June 21, 1562 - January 16, 1563).
• Marie of Austria (February 19 - March 26, 1564). Named after her deceased older sister.
• Karl of Austria (September 26, 1565 - May 23, 1566).
• Margaret of Austria (January 25, 1567 - July 5, 1633). A nun.
• Eleonore of Austria (November 4, 1568 - March 12, 1580).

Legacy

Fichtner points out that by many standards, Maximilian would be considered a failure. He failed to unite push back the Turks. He also failed to resolve Catholic-Protestant tension, although he tried very hard. Yet his effort to try to reconcile the new and the old expressions of Christianity and his policy of toleration were still enlightened. Perhaps what most handicapped him was the close relationship between Church and state, so that rulers were expected to support and even to privilege one branch of the faith. The solution to the problems confronted by Europe at this time lay in the polity of church-state separation, which leaves people free to worship as they choose. That policy, at this point, would have satisfied neither side.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Fichtner, Paula S. 2001. Emperor Maximilian II. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 9780300085273
• Fichtner, Paula S. 2003. The Habsburg Monarchy, 1490-1848: attributes of empire. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan.ISBN 9780333737279
• Kaufmann, Thomas DaCosta. 1978. Variations on the Imperial theme in the age of Maximilian II and Rudolf II. Outstanding dissertations in the fine arts. New York: Garland Pub.ISBN 9780824032319
• Louthan, Howard. 1997. The quest for compromise peacemakers in counter-Reformation Vienna. Cambridge studies in early modern history. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780585039725

Credits

New World Encyclopedia writers and editors rewrote and completed the Wikipedia article in accordance with New World Encyclopedia standards. This article abides by terms of the Creative Commons CC-by-sa 3.0 License (CC-by-sa), which may be used and disseminated with proper attribution. Credit is due under the terms of this license that can reference both the New World Encyclopedia contributors and the selfless volunteer contributors of the Wikimedia Foundation. To cite this article click here for a list of acceptable citing formats.The history of earlier contributions by wikipedians is accessible to researchers here:

• Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor  ^history

The history of this article since it was imported to New World Encyclopedia:

• History of "Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor"

Note: Some restrictions may apply to use of individual images which are separately licensed.