Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor

Ferdinand I
Holy Roman Emperor; King of the Romans, Italy, Bohemia, Hungary, Croatia and Slavonia; Archduke of Austria
Holy Roman Emperor; King of Italy
Reign	1556 - 1564
Predecessor	Charles V
Successor	Maximilian II
King of Bohemia, Hungary, and Croatia
Reign	1526 - 1564
Predecessor	Louis II
Successor	Maximilian II
Archduke of Austria
Reign	1521 - 1564
Predecessor	Charles I
Successor	Maximilian II (Austria proper) Charles II (Inner Austria) Ferdinand II (Further Austria)
Burial	St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague
Spouse	Anna of Bohemia and Hungary
Issue	Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor Elisabeth, Queen of Poland Joanna, Grand Duchess of Tuscany Anna, Duchess of Bavaria Ferdinand II, Archduke of Austria Catherine, Queen of Poland Barbara, Duchess of Ferrara Charles II, Archduke of Austria Eleonora, Duchess of Mantua
House	House of Habsburg
Father	Philip I of Castile
Mother	Joanna of Castile

Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor (Alcalá de Henares (near Madrid), Kingdom of Castile (now Spain), 10 March 1503 – Prague, Bohemia (now Czech Republic), 25 July 1564) was a Central European monarch from the House of Habsburg. His titles from birth were Archduke of Austria, from his father, and Infante of Castile, León, Aragon and Navarre from his mother.

He ruled the Austrian hereditary lands of the Habsburgs most of his public life, at the behest of his elder brother, Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain. Ferdinand was Archduke of Austria from 1521-1564. After the death of his brother-in-law Louis II, Ferdinand ruled as King of Bohemia and Hungary (1526–1564). When Charles retired in 1556, Ferdinand became his successor as Holy Roman Emperor, while Spain, the Spanish Empire, Naples, Sicily, Milan, the Netherlands, and Franche-Comté went to Philip, son of Charles.

Ferdinand's motto was Fiat justitia et pereat mundus ("Let justice be done, though the world perish").

Biography

Early years

Ferdinand in 1531, the year of his election as King of the Romans

Ferdinand was born on 10 March 1503 in Alcala de Henares, 40 km from Madrid, the son of the Infanta Joanna of Castile (1479–1555), the future Queen of Castile known as Joanna the Mad, and Habsburg Archduke Philip the Handsome (1478–1506), Duke of Burgundy and future King of Castile, who was heir to Emperor Maximilian I. Ferdinand shared his birthday with his maternal grandfather Ferdinand II the Catholic, King of Aragon.

Charles entrusted Ferdinand with the government of the Austrian hereditary lands, roughly modern-day Austria and Slovenia. Ferdinand also served as his brother's deputy in the Holy Roman Empire during his brother's many absences and in 1531 was elected King of the Romans, making him Charles's designated heir in the Empire. Charles abdicated in 1556 and Ferdinand succeeded him, assuming the title of Emperor elect in 1558.

Hungary and the Ottomans

After Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent defeated Ferdinand's brother-in-law Louis II, King of Bohemia and of Hungary, at the battle of Mohács on 29 August 1526, Ferdinand was elected King of Bohemia in his place. Nicolaus Olahus, secretary of Louis, attached himself to the party of King Ferdinand, but retained his position with the queen-dowager Mary of Habsburg. The throne of Hungary became the subject of a dynastic dispute between Ferdinand and John Zápolya, voivode of Transylvania. Each was supported by different factions of the nobility in the Hungarian kingdom; Ferdinand also had the support of Charles V. After defeat by Ferdinand at the Battle of Tokaj in 1527, Zápolya gained the support of Suleiman. Ferdinand was able to win control only of western Hungary because Zápolya clung to the east and the Ottomans to the conquered south. Zápolya's widow, Isabella Jagiełło, ceded Royal Hungary and Transylvania to Ferdinand in the Treaty of Weissenburg of 1551. In 1554 Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq was sent to Istanbul by Ferdinand to discuss a border treaty over disputed land with Suleiman.

The most dangerous moment of Ferdinand's career came in 1529 when he took refuge in Bohemia from a massive but ultimately unsuccessful assault on his capital by Suleiman and the Ottoman armies at the Siege of Vienna. A further Ottoman attack on Vienna was repelled in 1533. In that year Ferdinand signed a peace treaty with the Ottoman Empire, splitting the Kingdom of Hungary into a Habsburg sector in the west and John Zápolya's domain in the east, the latter effectively a vassal state of the Ottoman Empire.

In 1538, by the Treaty of Nagyvárad, Ferdinand became Zápolya's successor. He was unable to enforce this agreement during his lifetime because John II Sigismund Zápolya, infant son of John Zápolya and Isabella Jagiełło, was elected King of Hungary in 1540. Zápolya was initially supported by King Sigismund of Poland, his mother's father, but in 1543 a treaty was signed between the Habsburgs and the Polish ruler as a result of which Poland became neutral in the conflict. Prince Sigismund Augustus married Elisabeth of Austria, Ferdinand's daughter.

Government

Posthumous engraving of Ferdinand by Martin Rota, 1575

The western rump of Hungary over which Ferdinand retained dominion became known as Royal Hungary. As the ruler of Austria, Bohemia and Royal Hungary, Ferdinand adopted a policy of centralization and, in common with other monarchs of the time, the construction of an absolute monarchy. In 1527 he published a constitution for his hereditary domains (Hofstaatsordnung) and established Austrian-style institutions in Pressburg for Hungary, in Prague for Bohemia, and in Breslau for Silesia. Opposition from the nobles in those realms forced him to concede the independence of these institutions from supervision by the Austrian government in Vienna in 1559.

In 1547 the Bohemian Estates rebelled against Ferdinand after he had ordered the Bohemian army to move against the German Protestants. After suppressing Prague with the help of his brother Charles V's Spanish forces, he retaliated by limiting the privileges of Bohemian cities and inserting a new bureaucracy of royal officials to control urban authorities. Ferdinand was a supporter of the Counter-Reformation and helped lead the Catholic response against what he saw as the heretical tide of Protestantism. For example, in 1551 he invited the Jesuits to Vienna and in 1556 to Prague. Finally, in 1561 Ferdinand revived the Archdiocese of Prague, which had been previously liquidated due to the success of the Protestants.

Ferdinand died in Vienna and is buried in St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague.

Name in other languages

German, Czech, Slovak, Croatian: Ferdinand I.; Hungarian: I. Ferdinánd; Spanish: Fernando I.

Anna, Queen of Bohemia and Hungary.

Marriage and children

On 25 May 1521 in Linz, Austria, Ferdinand married Anna of Bohemia and Hungary (1503–1547), daughter of Vladislaus II of Bohemia and Hungary and his wife Anne de Foix. They had fifteen children:

Name	Birth	Death	Notes
Elisabeth of Austria	July 9, 1526	June 15, 1545	In 1543 she was married to future King Sigismund II Augustus of Poland and Lithuania.
Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor	July 31, 1527	October 12, 1576	Married to his first cousin Maria of Spain and had issues.
Anna of Austria	July 7 1528	October 16/October 17, 1590	Married Albert V, Duke of Bavaria.
Ferdinand II, Archduke of Austria	June 14, 1529	January 24, 1595	Married to Philippine Welser and then married his niece Anne Juliana Gonzaga.
Maria of Austria	May 15 1531	December 11 1581	Consort of Wilhelm, Duke of Jülich-Cleves-Berg.
Magdalena of Austria	August 14, 1532	September 10, 1590	A nun.
Catharine of Austria	September 15, 1533	February 28, 1572	In 1553 she was married to king Sigismund II Augustus of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania.
Eleonora of Austria	November 2, 1534	August 5, 1594	Married William I, Duke of Mantua.
Margaret of Austria	February 16, 1536	March 12, 1567	A nun.
Johann of Austria	April 10, 1538	March 20, 1539	Died in childhood.
Barbara of Austria	April 30, 1539	September 19, 1572	Married Alfonso II d'Este.
Charles II, Archduke of Austria	June 3, 1540	July 10, 1590	father of Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor.
Ursula of Austria	July 24, 1541	April 30, 1543	Died in childhood.
Helen of Austria	January 7, 1543	March 5, 1574	A nun.
Johanna of Austria	January 24, 1547	April 10, 1578	Married Francesco I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany. Ancestors of Charles II of England and Louis XIII of France.

Ancestors

Family of Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor

16. Ernest, Duke of Austria 8. Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor 17. Cymburgis of Masovia 4. Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor 18. Edward of Portugal 9. Eleanor of Portugal 19. Leonor of Aragon 2. Philip I of Castile 20. Philip, Duke of Burgundy 10. Charles, Duke of Burgundy 21. Isabella of Portugal 5. Mary, Duchess of Burgundy 22. Charles I, Duke of Bourbon 11. Isabella of Bourbon 23. Agnes of Burgundy 1. Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor 24. Ferdinand I of Aragon 12. John II of Aragon 25. Eleanor of Alburquerque 6. Ferdinand II of Aragon 26. Frederick Enríquez, Count of Melgar 13. Juana Enriquez 27. Merina de Cordova 3. Joanna I of Castile 28. Henry III of Castile 14. John II of Castile 29. Katherine of Lancaster 7. Isabella I of Castile 30. Infante João, Lord of Reguengos 15. Isabella of Portugal 31. Isabella of Braganza

The Renaissance coin

Ferdinand I Coin

Ferdinand I has been the main motif for many collector coins and medals, the most recent one is the famous silver 20 euro Renaissance coin issued in June 12 2002. A portrait of Ferdinand I is shown in the reverse of the coin, while in the obverse a view of the Swiss Gate of the Hofburg Palace can be seen.

See also

• Kings of Germany family tree. He was related to every other king of Germany.

External links

• A pedigree of the Habsburg