Spanish succession

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Spanish succession referred to the idea of ​​passing on the imperial crown of the Holy Roman Empire from one member of the Spanish line of the House of Habsburg to the next. The Austrian line of the Habsburgs was to remain excluded from the line of succession.

After his defeat against the Protestants under the leadership of Moritz von Sachsen in 1552, Emperor Charles V intended to have his son Philip II of Spain acquire the dignity of Emperor, although Ferdinand I had been elected King of Rome in 1531 . That would also have been a breach of the Passau Treaty of 1552, in which Ferdinand was designated as emperor.

The German electors, however, were not interested in a Spanish succession on the imperial throne because they feared that their power would be curtailed in favor of the Spanish. The Protestants also saw the danger that their denomination would be suppressed by the Catholic Spaniard. That is why they preferred Ferdinand I, who ruled in Bohemia and Austria. Charles V's plans to succeed him were one of the reasons that led to the so-called prince rebellion under Margrave Hans von Küstrin and later Moritz von Sachsen after the Schmalkaldic War , who initially became its leader. Overall, the succession plans weakened the emperor's position in the empire.

The tensions that arose between Philip and Ferdinand because of the succession led Charles V to a compromise solution. Philip was to be the successor to Ferdinand I on the imperial throne. Ferdinand, however, could be sure that the Protestant imperial estates would not agree to a Spanish succession even after his death. And in accordance with his wishes, the electors elected his son Maximilian II as Roman King while his father was still alive.

The disputes over the Spanish succession deepened the rift between the Austrian and Spanish lines of the House of Habsburg.

literature

  • Wilhelm Maurenbrecher : Charles V and the German Protestants , Düsseldorf 1865.
  • Karl Brandi : Emperor Karl V becoming a personality and a world empire , Munich 1937.
  • Ludwig Pfandl : Philipp II. , Munich 1936.
  • Alfred Kohler : Charles V 1500-1558. A biography. , Munich 1999.
  • Hermann Baumgarten : The struggle for the Spanish succession in the last years of King Ferdinand , in: HZ 21, 1869, pp. 352–397.

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