FERDINAND II. (1578-1637). Holy Roman Emperor from 1619 to 1637. He was born at Gratz, July 9. 1578, and was the son of Charles, Duke of Styria, and grandson of the Emperor Ferdinand I. His mother. Mary of Bavaria, was a fervent Catholic, and from her, as well as from his Jesuit instructors at Ingolstadt, he imbibed that hatred of Protestantism which is the key note to the policy of his reign. In 1590 he suc ceeded his father in the duchies of Styria. Carin thia, and Carniola. As soon as he was of age, be proceeded to stamp out Protestantism in his dominions by annulling his father's act of tolera tion and expelling the Protestant pastors. He joined with Maximilian of Bavaria in forming the Catholic League, the ostensible object of which was the protection of the Roman Catholic interests in Germany. In 1617 Ferdinand was crowned King of Bohemia, while the Emperor Matthias was still reigning, and the year following he was crowned King of Hungary as well. The Protestants of Bohemia had enjoyed religious tol eration since 1609, hut Ferdinand, as regent of the kingdom, showed little regard for the rights of his heretical subjects. A dispute regarding the right of the Protestants to build new churches precipitated a conflict. All petitions to the Em peror proving vain, the Protestants under Count Thurn rose in Prague in :May, 161S. invaded the council chamber of the castle, and threw two members of the Council of Regency, Martinitz and Slavata, out of a lofty window. They then or ganized a national government, and a Bohemian army under Count Thum advanced to the Aus trian frontier. This was the beginning of the Thirty Years' War ( q.v.), The death of Matthias, early in 1619, left the Imperial succession open to Ferdinand. but at this juncture he was be sieged in Vienna hy the victorious Thurn. The opportune victory of Bucquoi over Mansfeld and the approach of a force under Dampierre caused Thurn to withdraw, and Ferdinand was able to proceed to Frankfort and receive the Imperial election, August, 1619. Two clays before his elec tion he had been deposed in Bohemia and the crown offered to Frederick V. (q.v.), Elector Pal atine of the Rhine. This prince, who was son in-law to James 1. of England, accepted the dig nity, Ind was ousted from his new dominions by the army of the Catholic League under Tilly, which won the battle of the White Mountain, near Prague, November. 1620.
As soon as his success in Bohemia was as sured, Ferdinand proceeded to extirpate tantism iu that knig,dom by the most violent persecution. In Hungary, however, was forced to grant tel toleration and to recognize Bethlen Glibor as ruler of half the kingdom. In 1626 •allenstein took the field with a vast, army lvhieli he had raised for the Emperor, whose main reliance in the War against the Protestants had hitherto been the army of the Catholic League, muter Tilly, and the forces of Spain. In 1625 Christian IV. of Denmark took up arms for the German Protestants. The victories of Wallem stein and Tilly made the Catholic cause for the King triumphant, and Denmark was forced to the Peace of Liibeek in 1629. This was followed by Ferdinand's Edict of Restitution, which was to apply to all ecclesiastical property which had be come Protestant since the Peace of Passau (1532). But the plans of Ferdinand for reconverting the Empire to IZoman Catholicism were suddenly checked by the irruption of Gustavus Adolphus, King of Sweden, in whom the Protestants found a deliverer. Ile landed in Germany in 1630, at the moment of the dismissal of Wallenstein through jealousy on the part of the Catholic League. Ferdinand had the mortifieation of see ing the whole of Germany overrun by the Protes tants, and though Gustavus was slain at Liitzen, in 1632, in a great battle against Wallenstein (who had been reinstated), the disasters to the Imperial cause continued. A blot on Ferdinand's character was the assassination of Wallenstein (q.v.) in 1634, to which there is little doubt the Emperor was privy. Though the Imperial army was victorious at NZirdlingen, in 1634, and the Elector of Saxony made peace with the Emperor, vet when Ferdinand died, February 15, 16:37. he left a heritage of war to his son, Ferdinand who had been chosen King of the Romans the year previous, and who had been previously crowned King of Hungary and Bohemia. Consult. Hurter, Gesehichte Kaiser Ferdinands II. and seiner Eltern (Schaffhausen, 1850-64). See Aus TRIA-11uNnAnY ; GERMANY.