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Austria Division and Rebellion
Ferdinand I died in 1564, and Habsburg territories in Central
Europe were divided among his three sons, with the eldest,
Maximilian III (r. 1564-76), becoming Holy Roman Emperor.
Although Maximilian's sympathetic policies toward the Protestants
contrasted with his brothers' efforts to reestablish Catholicism
as the sole religion in their lands, military policy, not
religious doctrine, was to divide the dynasty in the final years
of the sixteenth century and open the door to the religious wars
of the seventeenth century.
Maximilian's son, Rudolf II (r. 1576-1612), succeeded his
father as both king of Hungary and Holy Roman Emperor. After the
Turks reopened the war in Hungary in 1593, Rudolf was blamed for
the rebellion among Protestant nobles in Royal Hungary caused by
his brutal conduct of the war. Backed by junior members of the
dynasty, Rudolf's younger brother, Matthias (r. 1612-19),
confiscated Rudolf's lands, restored order, and, after Rudolf's
death, became Holy Roman Emperor. But the religious and political
concessions that the two brothers had made to the nobility to win
their support in this dynastic feud created new dangers for the
Habsburgs.
The childless Matthias chose his cousin Ferdinand as his
successor. To facilitate Ferdinand's eventual election as Holy
Roman Emperor, Matthias secured his election as king of Bohemia
in 1617. Before accepting Ferdinand as king, however, the
Protestant nobility of Bohemia had required this strong proponent
of the Catholic Counter-Reformation to confirm the religious
charter granted them by Rudolf II. A dispute over the charter in
1618 triggered a rebellion by the Protestant nobles. Hopes for an
arbitrated settlement were dashed when Matthias died in March
1619, and other areas under Habsburg control rebelled against
Habsburg rule.
Data as of December 1993
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