RUDOLPH II. (1552-1612), Roman emperor, son of the emperor Maximilian II. by his wife Maria, daughter of the em peror Charles V., was born in Vienna on July 18, 1552. In 1563 he was sent to Spain, where he was educated. In 1572 he was crowned king of Hungary, in 1575 king of Bohemia; and in Oct. 1575 he was chosen German king, at Regensburg, becoming emperor on his father's death in Oct. 1576 The more active part of the emperor's life was the period from his accession to about 1597. During that time he attended the infrequent imperial diets, and took an interest in the struggle in the Netherlands and the defence of the empire against the Turks. He was at times suspicious of the papal policy, while his relations with Spain were somewhat inharmonious. He forwarded the progress of the counter-reformation, and in' general the tolerant policy of Maximilian II. was reversed. Political as well as religious privileges were attacked; and discontent became very pronounced about the opening of the 17th century. Meanwhile Rudolph had become increasingly subject to attacks of depression, which bordered on insanity. In 1604, after a war with Turkey had been in progress since 1593, many of the Hungarians rebelled against Rudolph and chose Stephen Bocskay as their prince. In April 1606 the Habsburg family declared Rudolph incapable of ruling, and recognized one of his younger brothers, the archduke Matthias, afterwards emperor, as their head; and in the following June Matthias, having taken over the conduct of affairs, made peace by granting extensive concessions to the rebellious Hungarians, and concluded a treaty with the sultan in November of the same year. Then shaking off his lethargy Rudolph prepared to renew the war with the Turks, a move which Matthias met by throwing himself upon the support of the national party in Hungary. Matthias also found adherents in other parts of his brother's dominions, with the result that in June i6o8 the emperor was compelled to cede to him the kingdom of Hungary together with the government of Austria and Moravia. Rudolph now sought the aid of the princes of the empire, and even of the Protestants ; but he had met with no success in this direction when trouble arose in Bohemia. Hav ing at first rejected the demand of the Bohemians for greater religious liberty, the emperor was soon obliged to yield to superior force, and in 1609 he acceded to the popular wishes by issuing the Letter of Majesty (Majestatsbrief), and then made similar concessions to his subjects in Silesia and elsewhere. A short
reconciliation with Matthias was followed by further disorder in Bohemia, which was invaded by Rudolph's cousin, the archduke Leopold (1586-1632). The Bohemians invoked the aid of Matthias, who gathered an army; and in 16ii the emperor, prac tically a prisoner at Prague, was again forced to cede a kingdom to his brother. Rudolph died at Prague, his usual place of resi dence, on Jan. 20, 1612, and was succeeded as emperor by Matthias.
Rudolph was greatly interested in chemistry, alchemy, astron omy and astrology; he was a patron of Tycho Brahe and Kepler, and was himself something of a scholar and an artist. He was the greatest collector of his age, his agents ransacking Europe to fill his museums with rare works of art. His education at the Spanish court and an hereditary tendency to insanity, however, made him haughty, suspicious and consequently very unpopular.
The sources for the life and times of Rudolph II. are somewhat scanty, as many of the official documents of the reign, which were kept at Prague and not at Vienna, were destroyed, probably during the Thirty Years' War. The best authorities, however, are: Rudolphi II. epistolae meditate, edited by B. Comte de Pace (Vienna, 1771) M. Ritter, Quellenbeitrdge zur Geschichte des Kaisers Rudolf II. (Munich, 1872) ; and Deutsche Geschichte im Zeitalter der Gegen reformation und des dreissigjahrigen Krieges (Stuttgart, 1887 fol.) ; L. von Ranke, Zur deutschen Geschichte: V om Religionsfrieden bis zum 3o-jiihrigen Kriege (Leipzig, 1868) ; A. Gindely, Rudolf II. and seine Zeit (Prague, 1862-68) ; F. Strieve, Die Verhandlungen fiber die Nachfolge Kaiser Rudolfs II. (Munich, 188o) ; in the Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie, Band xxix. (Leipzig, 1889) ; and Der Ursprung des dreissigjdhrigen Krieges (Munich, 1875) ; F. von Bezold, Kaiser Rudolf II. und die heilige Liga (Munich, 1886) ; J. Janssen, Geschichte des Deutschen V olks seit dem Ausgang des Mittelalters (Freiburg, 1878 fol.), of which there is an English translation by M. A. Mitchell and A. M. Christie (1896 fol.) ; and H. Moritz, Die Wahl Rudolfs II. (Marburg, 1895).