Charles II (Inner Austria)

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Archduke Charles II

Charles II. Franz of Inner Austria (born June 3, 1540 in Vienna ; † July 10, 1590 in Graz ) was Archduke of Austria from 1564 until his death and ruled Inner Austria . He came from the House of Habsburg and was the third son of the Roman-German king and later Emperor Ferdinand I.

Life

Portrait relief of Archduke Karl II. ( Canons Court Graz / Adeliges Jesuitenkonvikt 1597–1775: Detail of the portal with sculptures by Veit Königer , 1768)
Küriss of Charles II.
Seckau Basilica , putti on cenotaph holding the coat of arms of Charles II, front (view from the entrance)
Head of Archduke Charles II at the cenotaph in the Seckau basilica
Seckau basilica , reclining figures of Archduke Karl II and his wife Archduchess Maria Anna of Bavaria on cenotaph

At a young age, Karl traveled the empire , Italy and Spain .

In the recent division of the estate under Ferdinand I (whose great-grandfather Friedrich III had only just overcome the decades-long division of the Habsburg hereditary lands at the beginning of the century ) in the Ferdinand house rules , the eldest brother Maximilian II - alienated from his father in matters of faith - only received the Crown of Bohemia and Hungary as well as Lower Austria (the Archduchy) , Ferdinand (II.) Got Upper Austria (Tyrol and the Vorlande) , and the young Karl, who was the 12th of 15 children, the Duchies of Styria , Carinthia , Carniola and the county of Gorizia . The division of the inheritance only related to the reign; furthermore, in accordance with the Rudolfinian house rules, all sons were archdukes of the entire hereditary lands, and mutual pretenders.

At the age of 24, in 1564, shortly before his father's death, he received homage to the lands that had fallen to him and took office.

Unlike his brother Maximilian (II), he was a devout Catholic and promoted the Counter-Reformation , for example by bringing the Jesuits into the country. Before that, he had had to make considerable concessions to the inner Austrian estates in the Graz religious pacifications in 1572 and in the Brucker Libell in 1578 , which in practice amounted to a toleration of Protestantism . He then tried to reverse these concessions to the Protestants. At a conference in Munich in 1579, he agreed a strategy for recatholicization with the papal nuncio and representatives of the Duchy of Bavaria , the Archbishopric of Salzburg and the County of Tyrol . The Catholic authorities should control the printing works, gradually weaken the agreements with the estates in their favor, use the patronage right in the Catholic sense, arrest and expel Protestant preachers and prevent the building of Protestant churches. Protestant officials should give way to Catholics. He consistently implemented these resolutions in his territory.

Since the inner Austrian line had to bear the brunt of the Turkish wars , the fortress Karlstadt ( Karlovac ) was founded in Croatia in 1579 .

Karl is also important as a promoter of art and science, especially the composer Orlando di Lasso was promoted by him. In 1573 he founded the Academic Gymnasium in Graz and in 1585 the University of Graz . His mausoleum in the Seckau basilica , in which eight other members of the Habsburg family are also buried, is one of the most important buildings of the early Baroque in the southeastern region. It was built by Alessandro de Verda from 1587 and completed and designed by Sebastian Carlone until 1612. In addition to the cenotaph in the Seckau basilica , a splendid double sarcophagus made of red marble with fully plastic reclining figures was made for Charles II and his wife Maria of Bavaria , which was initially set up in the Graz Clariss convent in Paradeis and was probably made by Sebastian Carlone around 1608. Only Maria of Bavaria was buried in this double sarcophagus ; after the abolition of the monastery, the double sarcophagus was transferred to the mausoleum of Emperor Ferdinand II (Graz) , where it is still located today.

Since Charles II married late at the age of 31 and his first-born son Ferdinand died in 1572, his designated successor, Ferdinand, born in 1578 (Ferdinand II as Roman-German Emperor since 1619), was still a minor when he died, making his cousin Ernst , at that time governor in Lower Austria, also took over the regency in Inner Austria in guardianship. Overall, the Ferdinandeische inheritance remained only briefly, since Emperor Ferdinand II survived. All his cousins from the other lines, took a final common heritage, and Karl in the ancestor of the reigning house since Austria lineage of Inner Austria was.

Charles II died on July 10, 1590 in Graz and was buried on October 31, 1590 in the crypt of his mausoleum in the Seckau basilica .

Marriage and offspring

Princess Maria Anna of Bavaria, wife of Karl II.

At the beginning of the reign of Queen Elizabeth I of England (1533–1603) in 1558, Emperor Ferdinand I considered a possible marriage of his son Archduke Ferdinand of Austria-Tyrol with the Protestant Queen, as he was anxious to join England to keep the death of the Catholic Queen Maria I under the influence of the Habsburgs and to support the English Catholics. After Archduke Ferdinand's confession of his secret marriage to Philippine Welser , the Emperor offered the hand of Archduke Charles. But the years of negotiations, from 1559–1560, then again 1564–1568, with the English queen failed on the one hand because of the religious question and on the other hand because of Elizabeth's doubts about getting married at all. The marriage negotiations with Maria Stuart  (1563/1564) did not lead to the desired success either. Finally, on August 26, 1571, Karl married his Bavarian niece, Princess Maria Anna , daughter of Albrecht V , Duke of Bavaria, in a magnificent ceremony . The marriage had 15 children:

  1. Ferdinand (* / † 1572)
  2. Anna (1573–1598) ⚭ 1592 Sigismund III. Wasa , King of Poland
  3. Maria Christina (1574–1621), 1607 canoness, 1612 superior of Hall / Tyrol ⚭ 1595–1599 Sigismund Báthory , Grand Duke of Transylvania
  4. Katharina Renata (1576–1595)
  5. Elisabeth (1577–1586)
  6. Ferdinand II (1578–1637), later emperor
    1. ⚭ Maria Anna of Bavaria (1574–1616)
    2. ⚭ Eleanor of Gonzaga (1598–1655)
  7. Karl (1579–1580)
  8. Gregoria Maximiliane (1581–1597)
  9. Eleonore (1582–1620), canon of Hall / Tyrol
  10. Maximilian Ernst (1583–1616), Archduke
  11. Margarete (1584–1611) ⚭ 1599 King Philip III. from Spain
  12. Leopold V. Ferdinand , Archduke (1586–1632) ⚭ 1626 Princess Claudia de 'Medici (1604–1648)
  13. Constanze (1588–1631) ⚭ 1602 King Sigismund III. from Sweden and Poland from Wasa
  14. Maria Magdalena (1589–1631) ⚭ 1608 Cosimo II. De 'Medici , Grand Duke of Tuscany
  15. Karl Joseph , the Postume (1590–1624) - Grand Master and Bishop of Breslau and Brixen

  • Archduchess Gregoria Maximiliane (1581–1597)

  • Archduchess Eleonore (1582–1620), canoness of Hall / Tyrol

  • Archduke Maximilian Ernst (1583–1616), since 1615 high and German master

literature

In reference books:

Web links

Commons : Karl II.  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Arno Herzig: Recatholization in the German territories in the 16th and 17th centuries. In: History and Society. 26, 2000 pp. 80-82.
  2. ^ Benno Roth: Seckau: History and Culture, 1164–1964 . for the 800th anniversary of the consecration of the basilica. Herold, Vienna / Munich 1964, p. 204 .
  3. ^ Mausoleum & St. Catherine's Church. Styrian Tourism GmbH
  4. ↑ Horst Schweigert: The Mausoleum of Emperor Ferdinand II. Last accessed on April 11, 2019.
  5. ^ Benno Roth: Seckau: History and Culture, 1164–1964 . for the 800th anniversary of the consecration of the basilica. Herold, Vienna-Munich 1964, p. 204 .
predecessor Office successor
Ferdinand I. Archduke of Inner Austria
1576–1590 		Ferdinand II.
personal data
SURNAME Charles II
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Charles II. Franz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Archduke of Inner Austria
DATE OF BIRTH June 3, 1540
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH July 10, 1590
Place of death Graz