Ferdinand II, Archduke of Austria

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Ferdinand II
File:Archduke Ferdinand II of Further Austria.jpg
Portrait by Francesco Terzi
Archduke of Further Austria
Reign25 July 1564 – 24 January 1595
PredecessorFerdinand I
SuccessorMatthias
Born(1529-06-14)14 June 1529
Linz, Archduchy of Austria, Holy Roman Empire
Died24 January 1595(1595-01-24) (aged 65)
Innsbruck, County of Tyrol, Holy Roman Empire
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1557; died 1580)​
​
​
(m. 1582)​
Issue
more...
HouseHabsburg
FatherFerdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor
MotherAnna of Bohemia and Hungary

Ferdinand II, Archduke of Austria (14 June 1529 – 24 January 1595) was ruler of Further Austria and Imperial Count of Tyrol since 1564. The son of Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor, he first married Philippine Welser, and later Anna Caterina Gonzaga. Through his second marriage he was the father of Anna of Tyrol, the future Holy Roman Empress.

Biography

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File:William Scrots 002.jpg
Archduke Ferdinand at a young age
File:New-reformierte-Landts-Ordnung-der-fürstlichen-Grafschafft-Tyrol-1573 MG 0965.tif
Engraving of Ferdinand, published in New Reformierte Landts-Ordnung Der Fürstlichen Graffschafft Tyrol Wie Die Auss Lands-Fürstlichem Befelch, Im 1603

Archduke Ferdinand of Austria was the second son of Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor and Anna of Bohemia and Hungary. He was a younger brother of Emperor Maximilian II.

He grew up in Innsbruck, where his father governed the Austrian hereditary lands on behalf of Ferdinand's uncle Charles V.

Ferdinand was said to be the favorite son of his father. He was described by a visiting dignitary to court as "handsome and friendlier" than his brother Maximilian.[citation needed]

Ferdinand and his siblings were raised very strictly and given a thorough education. Among his teachers were Kaspar Ursinus Velius and Georg Tannstätter. Ferdinand and his brother were educated in languages, and other young noble boys were invited to court to be educated alongside the two archdukes. They were not to speak to them in German, only in Latin, Czech or other foreign languages.[citation needed]

Ferdinand was also instructed in the Catholic religion and their God-given right to rule, and that this was a gift based on the condition that they were to fear and love God.

At the behest of his father, he was put in charge of the administration of Bohemia in 1547. He also led the campaign against the Turks in Hungary in 1556.[1]

In 1557, he was secretly married to Philippine Welser, daughter of a patrician from Augsburg, with whom he had several children. The marriage was only accepted by Emperor Ferdinand I in 1559 under the condition of secrecy. The children were to receive the name "of Austria" but would only be entitled to inherit if the House of Habsburg became totally extinct in the male line, and thus the marriage had many qualities of a morganatic marriage. The sons born of this marriage received the title Margrave of Burgau, an ancient Habsburg possession in Further Austria. The younger of the sons, who survived their father, later received the princely title of Fürst zu Burgau.[2]

After his father's death in 1564, Ferdinand became the ruler of Tyrol and other Further Austrian possessions under his father's will. However, he remained governor of Bohemia in Prague until 1567, according to the wishes of his brother Maximilian II.[citation needed]

File:Coat of Arms of Ferdinand II, Archduke of Further Austria.svg
Coat of arms of Archduke Ferdinand II as Archduke of Further Austria and Imperial Count of Tyrol

In his own lands, Ferdinand made sure that the Catholic Counter-Reformation would prevail. He also was instrumental in promoting the Renaissance in central Europe and was an avid collector of art. He accommodated his world-famous collections in a museum built specifically for that purpose, making Ambras Castle the oldest museum in the world, and as the only Renaissance Kunstkammer of its kind to have been preserved at its original location, the Chamber of Art and Curiosities at Ambras Castle represents an unrivalled cultural monument.[citation needed] The collection was started during Ferdinand's time in Bohemia, and he subsequently moved it to Tyrol. In particular, the Chamber of Art and Curiosities, the gallery of portraits, and the collection of armor were very expensive, leading Ferdinand to incur a high level of debt. Part of the collections remained in Innsbruck, and part ultimately was moved to the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.[citation needed]

After the death of his wife Philippine in 1580, he married his niece, Anna Caterina Gonzaga, a daughter of William I, Duke of Mantua, in 1582.[citation needed]

Archduke Ferdinand died on 24 January 1595. Since his sons from the first marriage were not entitled to the inheritance, and the second produced only surviving daughters, Tyrol was reunified with the other Habsburg lands. His daughter from the Mantuan marriage to Anna Caterina (later Anna Juliana) became Empress Anna, consort of Mathias, Holy Roman Emperor, who received his Further Austrian inheritance.[citation needed]

Children

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File:Portrait of Philippine Welser (1527-1580).jpg
Philippine Welser, Ferdinand's first wife
File:Anne Catherine Gonzaga as Archduchess.jpg
Anne Catherine Gonzaga, Ferdinand's second wife

He and his first wife Philippine Welser were parents of four children:

On 14 May 1582, Ferdinand married his niece Anna Caterina Gonzaga. She was a daughter of William I, Duke of Mantua, and Eleonora of Austria, younger sister of Ferdinand. They were parents to three daughters:[5]

He had at least two illegitimate children:

With Anna von Obrizon:[6]

  • Veronika von Villanders (1551–1589). Married Giovan Francesco di Gonzaga-Novellara, Lord of Campitello.

With Johanna Lydl von Mayenburg:[7]

  • Hans Christoph von Hertenberg (c. 1592 – 2 September 1613). Married Ursula Gienger.

Ancestors

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Male-line family tree

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Notes

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  5. ^ Wurzbach: Anna Katherina von Mantua, vol. 31. In: Biographisches Lexikon, Vienna 1860, p. 154.
  6. ^ Stamboom-boden.com
  7. ^ Stamboom-boden.com
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