FERDINAND II. of Austria, son of Charles, duke of Styria, and grandson of Ferdinand L, succeeded his cousin Matthias in 1619. But the states of Bohemia, who were already in open revolt against Matthias, both from political and religious grievances, refused to acknowledge Ferdinand, and declared the throne vacant. Count Thorn, who was at the head of the Bohemian insurgents, was joined by the dissidents of Moravia, Silesia, and Upper Austria, and Ferdinand found himself besieged within the walls of Vienna by the insurgents, who threatened to put to death his ministers, to confine Ferdinand himself in a monastery, and educate his children in tho Protestant faith. His friends however found means to raise tho siege, and Ferdinand hastened to Germany to claim the imperial crown, having been acknowledged King of the Romans during the reign of his pre decessor. He carried his election by means of the Roman Catholic electors, who formed the majority. But the Bohemian states elected as their king Frederic, count Palatine, son-in-law of James I. of England, and Hungary joined in the revolt, supported by Bethley Gabor, Prince of Transylvania.. This was the beginniog of the Thirty Years' War, a war both religious and political, and one of the most desolating in the history of modern Europe. In the midst of these difficulties Ferdinand was ably supported by his general, Count de Lilly, who re.conquered Bohemia and expelled Frederic. Hungary was soon after obliged to submit, and 13sthlen Gabor sued for Deace. Another confederacy was formed against Ferdinand by the Protestant states of Saxony, supported by Christian IV. of Denmark, who put himself at their head in 1625. Ferdinand opposed to rim Tilly and Waldsteiu, or Wallenstein, another commander of extraordinaryin two campaigns the oonfederates were lefeated, Christian was driven into his hereditary states, and the seace of Lubeck, 1629, put an end to the war. Ferdinand now alopted measures of retaliation which drove the Protestants to lespair: he abolished the exercise of the Protestant religion in 3ohemia ; he exiled or put to death the leaders of that and other lissident commuuions; ho confiscated their property ; seven hundred ioble families were proscribed, and the common people were forced to :hange their faith, Above 30,000 families, preferring their conseieuces o their country, sought refuge in Protestant states. Ferdinand intended to awry on the same sweeping measures throughout Ger many, but here he adopted a more cautious plan. Ile began by dividing the Lutheran. from the Calviniste, and be called for the
execution of a former act which allowed to the Lutherans only the free exercise of their religion, but condemned the Calvinists to apostacy or exile. He also instated on the restitution of such eccle siastical property as the Protestants had seized since the treaty of Passau in 1532. The Protestant princes were compelled lu many cases to give up the lands and revenues which they Lad seized to the monadic and collegiate bodies, their former owner% But the Roman Catholic princes prevented the entire execution of the decree. They had theruaelve., in the general confusion which followed the reforma tion, seized upon ecclesiastical property, which they did not wish to restore, and they moreover felt jealous of the threatening power of the house of Austria, allied as it was to the Spanish branch of the same house. They feared also that they might be made as completely dependant upon the emperor as the grandees of Spain had become upon their king. In this feeling they secretly encouraged their Pro testant countrymen in resisting the further execution of the decree. The diet at ltatisbon, on Ferdinand'a request that his son Maximilian might be elected King of the Romans, replied by insisting that the emperor should reduce his army and dismiss Waldatein, who had rendered himself hateful by the disorders of his troops. Soou after wards Gustavus Adolphus landed in Pomerania, and put himself at the head of the Protestant party in Germany. The events of the memorable campaigns that followed are well known from Sehiller'a Thirty Years War,' and other historians. [Gustavus Aeotertus.] The Protestant cause trinmphed in Germany until Gustavue fell at the battle of Lutzen, 1632, after which the Swedes and German Pro testants continued the war; but the victory of liordlingen, gained by Ferdinand, eldest sets of tho emperor, had the effect of detaching the Elector of Saxony from the Swedes, an example followed by almost all the other Gorman at des. Ferdinand died in February 1637, after having witnessed the election and coronation of his eon Ferdinand as King of the Romero.
Ferdinand II. reigned in very troubled times; his bigotry and ruthless intolerance were the cause of most of his troubles, but be was not deficient in abilities or perseverance. His connivance at the assassination of his best general Waldstein, whose ambition and arro gance had made him suspected and feared, is an everlasting blot on his memory, but it was only accordant with the general tenor of his rharacter.