Ferdinand II (Holy Roman Emperor)

b. 1578, Graz; d. 1637

Ferdinand was a nephew of Maximilian II. His early training and his education by the Jesuits imbued him with a deep hatred against Protestantism, which he tried to extinguish by force, first in his own duchy of Styria, and then in Bohemia (of which he was crowned king in 1617). The Bohemians then declared that he had forfeited the throne and elected Frederick the Elector Palatine in his stead. This led to the outbreak of the Thirty Years War which had already begun when Ferdinand succeeded Matthias as emperor in 1619. Ferdinand, supported by the Catholic League, was at first successful and gained a firm hold on the Bohemian throne. His army, under Wallenstein, defeated Christian IV of Denmark and the Protestant confederacy in 1626, but two years later, after Wallenstein was checked before Stralsund, the Catholic cause began to decline. The success of the Protestant champion, Gustavus Adolphus, and the assassination of Wallenstein at which Ferdinand connived, finally destroyed Ferdinand's hope of crushing Protestantism completely.

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