Misplaced Pages

#404595

85-516: Rudolf II (18 July 1552 – 20 January 1612) was Holy Roman Emperor (1576–1612), King of Hungary and Croatia (as Rudolf I , 1572–1608), King of Bohemia (1575–1608/1611) and Archduke of Austria (1576–1608). He was a member of the House of Habsburg . Rudolf's legacy has traditionally been viewed in three ways: an ineffectual ruler whose mistakes led directly to the Thirty Years' War ;

170-553: A difficult peace with the Hungarian rebels ( Peace of Vienna ) and the Ottomans ( Peace of Zsitvatorok ). Rudolf was angry with Matthias's concessions and saw them as giving away too much to further his hold on power. That made Rudolf prepare to start a new war against the Ottomans, but Matthias rallied support from the disaffected Hungarians and forced Rudolf to cede the crowns of Hungary, Austria and Moravia to him. Meanwhile,

255-778: A great and influential patron of Northern Mannerist art; and an intellectual devotee of occult arts and learning which helped seed what would be called the Scientific Revolution . Determined to unify Christendom , he initiated the Long Turkish War (1593–1606) with the Ottoman Empire . Exhausted by war, his citizens in Hungary revolted in the Bocskai Uprising , which led to more authority given to his brother Matthias . Under his reign, there

340-498: A menagerie of exotic animals, botanical gardens, and Europe's most extensive " cabinet of curiosities " ( Kunstkammer ) incorporating "the three kingdoms of nature and the works of man". It was housed at Prague Castle , where between 1587 and 1605 he built the northern wing to house his growing collections. A lion and a tiger were allowed to roam the castle, as is documented by the account books, which record compensation paid to survivors of attacks or to family members of victims. Rudolf

425-438: A new crusade , he started a long and indecisive war against the Ottomans in 1593. The war lasted until 1606 and is known as the " Long Turkish War ". By 1604, his Hungarian subjects were exhausted by the war and revolted, led by Stephen Bocskai ( Bocskai uprising ). In 1605, Rudolf was forced by his other family members to cede control of Hungarian affairs to his younger brother Archduke Matthias . By 1606, Matthias had forged

510-484: A prize in a string of diplomatic negotiations for marriages but never in fact married. Rudolf was known to have had a succession of affairs with women, some of whom claimed to have been impregnated by him. He had several illegitimate children by his mistress Catherina Strada . Their eldest son, Don Julius Caesar d'Austria , was likely born between 1584 and 1586 and received an education and opportunities for political and social prominence from his father. Another famous child

595-711: A relationship with the Royal mistress Kateřina Stradová (also known as Anna Marie Stradová, or Catherina Strada, c. 1568-1629), with whom he had six children: Holy Roman Emperor The Holy Roman Emperor , originally and officially the Emperor of the Romans ( Latin : Imperator Romanorum ; German : Kaiser der Römer ) during the Middle Ages, and also known as the Romano-German Emperor since

680-489: A wide variety of personal hobbies such as horses, clocks, collecting rarities, and being a patron of the arts. He suffered from periodic bouts of " melancholy " (depression), which was common in the Habsburg line. These became worse with age and were manifested by a withdrawal from the world and its affairs into his private interests. Like Elizabeth I of England , whose birth was 19 years before his, Rudolf dangled himself as

765-606: Is a modern shorthand for "emperor of the Holy Roman Empire" not corresponding to the historical style or title, i.e., the adjective "holy" is not intended as modifying "emperor"; the English term "Holy Roman Emperor" gained currency in the interbellum period (the 1920s to 1930s); formerly the title had also been rendered as "German-Roman emperor" in English. The elective monarchy of the Kingdom of Germany goes back to

850-761: The Bavarian Elector at the Regensburg Imperial Diet. However, as Charles continued to work against Richelieu and cover up the conspiracy of the Count of Soissons , he should be arrested after the Cardinal caught the conspirators. In July 1641, he managed to evade this by fleeing. He re-entered military service, fighting first on the side of the Spanish in Flanders, later in the south-west of

935-644: The Holy Roman Empire . Under the Ottonians , much of the former Carolingian kingdom of Eastern Francia fell within the boundaries of the Holy Roman Empire. Since 911, the various German princes had elected the King of the Germans from among their peers. The King of the Germans would then be crowned as emperor following the precedent set by Charlemagne, during the period of 962–1530. Charles V

SECTION 10

#1732771928405

1020-610: The House of Habsburg-Lorraine , from 1765 to 1806. The Holy Roman Empire was dissolved by Francis II , after a devastating defeat by Napoleon at the Battle of Austerlitz . The emperor was widely perceived to rule by divine right , though he often contradicted or rivaled the pope , most notably during the Investiture controversy . The Holy Roman Empire never had an empress regnant , though women such as Theophanu and Maria Theresa exerted strong influence. Throughout its history,

1105-623: The King of the Franks and King of Italy , for securing his life and position. By this time, the Eastern Emperor Constantine VI had been deposed in 797 and replaced as monarch by his mother, Irene . Under the pretext that a woman could not rule the empire, Pope Leo III declared the throne vacant and crowned Charlemagne Emperor of the Romans ( Imperator Romanorum ), the successor of Constantine VI as Roman emperor, using

1190-500: The Kunstkammer and in 1609 published Gemmarum et Lapidum , the finest gemological treatise and encyclopedia ever written for this time. As was customary at the time, the collection was private, but friends of the emperor, artists and professional scholars were allowed to study it. The collection became an invaluable research tool during the flowering of 17th-century European philosophy . Rudolf's successors did not appreciate

1275-776: The Orléans Collection after the death of Christina of Sweden . In 1782, the remainder of the collection was sold piecemeal to private parties by Joseph II . One of the surviving items from the Kunstkammer is a "fine chair" that was looted by the Swedes in 1648 and now owned by the Earl of Radnor at Longford Castle in England, and others survive in museums. Astrology and alchemy were regarded as mainstream scientific fields in Renaissance Prague , and Rudolf

1360-838: The Teutons ' ) throughout the 12th to 18th centuries. The Holy Roman Emperor title provided the highest prestige among medieval Catholic monarchs , because the empire was considered by the Catholic Church to be the only successor of the Roman Empire during the Middle Ages and the early modern period . Thus, in theory and diplomacy, the emperors were considered primus inter pares , regarded as first among equals among other Catholic monarchs across Europe. From an autocracy in Carolingian times (AD 800–924),

1445-562: The archbishop of Mainz , the archbishop of Trier , the archbishop of Cologne , the king of Bohemia , the count palatine of the Rhine , the duke of Saxony and the margrave of Brandenburg . After 1438, the title remained in the House of Habsburg and Habsburg-Lorraine , with the brief exception of Charles VII , who was a Wittelsbach . Maximilian I (emperor 1508–1519) and his successors no longer traveled to Rome to be crowned as emperor by

1530-452: The early modern period ( Latin : Imperator Germanorum ; German : Römisch-deutscher Kaiser , lit.   'Roman-German emperor'), was the ruler and head of state of the Holy Roman Empire . The title was held in conjunction with the title of King of Italy ( Rex Italiae ) from the 8th to the 16th century, and, almost without interruption, with the title of King of Germany ( Rex Teutonicorum , lit.   ' King of

1615-432: The imperial service in the Thirty Years' War and was victorious at the Battle of Nördlingen . Shortly thereafter, Nicholas Francis too fled into exile and abdicated his claims, which were now taken up once again by Charles, who remained Duke of Lorraine in exile for the next quarter century. In 1635, he tried in vain to recapture his duchy together with an Imperial army under Matthias Gallas . The aggressive Charles and

1700-626: The relief attempt of the Spanish army for Arras , he re-entered negotiations with France in early 1641, which returned his duchy to him as a French protectorate in the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye of 2 April 1641, on condition that he refrain from alliances detrimental to France. Charles's confidant Johann Wilhelm von Hunolstein , who was serving in the Bavarian military, announced the Lorraine negotiations with France to Emperor Ferdinand III and

1785-586: The (Germanic) Holy Roman emperors as the inheritors of the title of emperor of the Western Roman Empire , despite the continued existence of the Eastern Roman Empire. In German-language historiography, the term Römisch-deutscher Kaiser ("Roman-German emperor") is used to distinguish the title from that of Roman emperor on one hand, and that of German emperor ( Deutscher Kaiser ) on the other. The English term "Holy Roman Emperor"

SECTION 20

#1732771928405

1870-603: The 5th to 8th centuries were convoked by the Eastern Roman Emperors . In Western Europe , the title of Emperor in the West lapsed after the death of Julius Nepos in 480, although the rulers of the barbarian kingdoms continued to recognize the authority of the Eastern Emperor at least nominally well into the 6th century. While the reconquest of Justinian I had re-established Byzantine presence in

1955-694: The Bohemian Protestants demanded greater religious liberty, which Rudolf granted in the Letter of Majesty in 1609. Bohemians continued to press for further freedoms, and Rudolf used his army to repress them. Bohemian Protestants then appealed to Matthias for help. His army held Rudolf prisoner in his castle in Prague until 1611, when Rudolf ceded the crown of Bohemia, as well, to his brother. Rudolf died in 1612, nine months after he had been stripped of all effective power by his younger brother, except

2040-784: The Continent. In 1675 he defeated François de Créquy at Konzer Brucke , and died the same year in Austrian service. The duchy was not restored to his family until more than twenty years later. He is sometimes numbered as Charles III of Lorraine . Charles married first Nicolette of Lorraine , whom he deposed and replaced as monarch of Lorraine in 1625. They had no children and Charles abandoned her. On 2 April 1637, he married Béatrice de Cusance, Princess de Cantecroix (1614–1663), daughter and heiress of Claude-François de Cusance, Baron de Belvoir, (1590–1633) and of Ernestine de Witthem, Countess van Walhain (before 1588–1649), who had become

2125-540: The Holy Roman Empire (800–1806). Several rulers were crowned king of the Romans (king of Germany) but not emperor, although they styled themselves thus, among whom were: Conrad I and Henry the Fowler in the 10th century, and Conrad IV , Rudolf I , Adolf and Albert I during the interregnum of the late 13th century. Traditional historiography assumes a continuity between the Carolingian Empire and

2210-411: The Holy Roman Empire, while a modern convention takes the coronation of Otto I in 962 as the starting point of the Holy Roman Empire (although the term Sacrum Imperium Romanum was not in use before the 13th century). On Christmas Day, 800, Charlemagne, King of the Franks, was crowned Emperor of the Romans ( Imperator Romanorum ) by Pope Leo III , in opposition to Empress Irene , who was then ruling

2295-820: The Italian Peninsula , religious frictions existed with the Papacy who sought dominance over the Church of Constantinople . Toward the end of the 8th century, the Papacy still recognised the ruler at Constantinople as the Roman Emperor, though Byzantine military support in Italy had increasingly waned, leading to the Papacy to look to the Franks for protection. In 800 Pope Leo III owed a great debt to Charlemagne ,

2380-657: The Roman Empire from Constantinople. Charlemagne's descendants from the Carolingian Dynasty continued to be crowned Emperor until 899, excepting a brief period when the Imperial crown was awarded to the Widonid Dukes of Spoleto . There is some contention as to whether the Holy Roman Empire dates as far back as Charlemagne, some histories consider the Carolingian Empire to be a distinct polity from

2465-553: The Rudolfine Kunstkammer was systematically arranged in an encyclopaedic fashion. In addition, Rudolf employed his court gemologist and physician Anselmus Boetius de Boodt (1550–1632), to curate the collection. Anselmus was an avid mineral collector and travelled widely on collecting trips to the mining regions of Germany, Bohemia and Silesia , often accompanied by his Bohemian naturalist friend, Thaddaeus Hagecius . Between 1607 and 1611, Anselmus catalogued

2550-553: The arts and occult sciences as a triumph and key part of the Renaissance, and his political failures are seen as a legitimate attempt to create a unified Christian empire that was undermined by the realities of religious, political and intellectual disintegrations of the time. Although raised in his uncle's Catholic court in Spain, Rudolf was tolerant of Protestantism and other religions including Judaism . The tolerant policy by

2635-472: The best craftsmen in Europe. He patronized natural philosophers such as the botanist Charles de l'Ecluse , and the astronomers Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler both attended his court. Tycho, who had spent much of his life making observations of stars and planets that were more accurate than any previous observations, directed Kepler to work on the planet Mars. In doing so, Kepler found that in order to fit

Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor - Misplaced Pages Continue

2720-464: The best scientific instrument makers of the time, such as Jost Bürgi , Erasmus Habermel and Hans Christoph Schissler . They had direct contact with the court astronomers and through the financial support of the court were economically independent to develop scientific instruments and manufacturing techniques. The poet Elizabeth Jane Weston , a writer of Renaissance Latin poetry, was also part of his court and wrote numerous odes to him. Rudolf kept

2805-508: The childless Louis XIII and treated dangerously with its enemies as a young heir presumptive —and Richelieu's policies were always anti-Habsburg so as to increase the strength and prestige of France at the expense of the two dynasties. Gaston d'Orléans, frequently sided with either branch of the Habsburg family against Richelieu, who was de facto ruler of France as its Chief Minister, and had to flee several times to avoid charges and trial for treason. His allies and confederates generally bore

2890-443: The collection was moved to the dedicated Kunstkammer . Naturalia ( minerals and gemstones ) were arranged in a 37-cabinet display that had three vaulted chambers in front, each about 5.5 m wide by 3 m high and 60 m long, connected to a main chamber 33 m long. Large uncut gemstones were held in strong boxes. Apart from the fantastic nature of the objects, it is also the aesthetics of their arrangement and presentation which attracts

2975-401: The collection, and the Kunstkammer gradually fell into disarray. Some 50 years after its establishment, most of the collection was packed into wooden crates and moved to Vienna. The collection remaining at Prague was looted during the last year of the Thirty Years' War by Swedish troops who sacked Prague Castle on 26 July 1648 and took the best of the paintings, many of which later passed to

3060-420: The concept of translatio imperii . On his coins, the name and title used by Charlemagne is Karolus Imperator Augustus . In documents, he used Imperator Augustus Romanum gubernans Imperium ("Emperor Augustus, governing the Roman Empire") and serenissimus Augustus a Deo coronatus, magnus pacificus Imperator Romanorum gubernans Imperium ("most serene Augustus crowned by God, great peaceful emperor governing

3145-592: The coronation of Henry VII, Holy Roman Emperor . The period of free election ended with the ascension of the Austrian House of Habsburg , as an unbroken line of Habsburgs held the imperial throne until the 18th century. Later a cadet branch known as the House of Habsburg-Lorraine passed it from father to son until the abolition of the Empire in 1806. Notably, from the 16th century, the Habsburgs dispensed with

3230-501: The court of his maternal uncle Philip II , together with his younger brother Ernest , future governor of the Low Countries . After his return to Vienna, his father was concerned about Rudolf's aloof and stiff manner, typical of the more conservative Spanish court, rather than the more relaxed and open Austrian court; but his Spanish mother saw in him courtliness and refinement. In the years following his return to Vienna, Rudolf

3315-443: The daughter of a local barber, who had been living in the castle, and then disfigured her body. Rudolf condemned his son's act and suggested that he should be imprisoned for the rest of his life. However, Julius died in 1609 after he had shown signs of schizophrenia , refused to bathe and lived in squalor. His death was apparently caused by an ulcer that ruptured. Many artworks commissioned by Rudolf are unusually erotic. The emperor

3400-698: The defensive-minded Gallas did not go along well; while Charles urged to recapture his capital Nancy, Gallas preferred to entrench his troops at the Seille to give them some rest after a long march from the Rhine. An outbreak of plague ended all hopes of further approaching Nancy. The next year, the Imperials sent Charles to the Spanish Franche-Comté , where he lifted the French siege of Dole and advanced as far as Dijon . Appointed captain general of

3485-458: The early 10th century, the election of Conrad I of Germany in 911 following the death without issue of Louis the Child , the last Carolingian ruler of Germany. Elections meant the kingship of Germany was only partially hereditary, unlike the kingship of England , although sovereignty frequently remained in a dynasty until there were no more male successors. The process of an election meant that

Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor - Misplaced Pages Continue

3570-496: The election of Rudolf I of Germany (1273). Rudolf was not crowned emperor, nor were his successors Adolf and Albert . The next emperor was Henry VII , crowned on 29 June 1312 by Pope Clement V . In 1508, Pope Julius II allowed Maximilian I to use the title of Emperor without coronation in Rome, though the title was qualified as Electus Romanorum Imperator ("elected Emperor of the Romans"). Maximilian's successors each adopted

3655-465: The election procedure by (unnamed) princes of the realm, reserving for the pope the right to approve of the candidates. A letter of Pope Urban IV (1263), in the context of the disputed vote of 1256 and the subsequent interregnum , suggests that by " immemorial custom ", seven princes had the right to elect the king and future emperor. The seven prince-electors are named in the Golden Bull of 1356 :

3740-530: The elector palatine was restored, as the eighth elector. The Electorate of Hanover was added as a ninth elector in 1692, confirmed by the Imperial Diet in 1708. The whole college was reshuffled in the German mediatization of 1803 with a total of ten electors, a mere three years before the dissolution of the Empire. This list includes all 47 German monarchs crowned from Charlemagne until the dissolution of

3825-475: The empire of the Romans"). The Eastern Empire eventually relented to recognizing Charlemagne and his successors as emperors, but as "Frankish" and "German emperors", at no point referring to them as Roman, a label they reserved for themselves. The title of emperor in the West implied recognition by the pope. As the power of the papacy grew during the Middle Ages, popes and emperors came into conflict over church administration. The best-known and most bitter conflict

3910-457: The empire towards the Jews would see Jewish cultural life flourishing, and their population increased under Rudolf's reign. He largely withdrew from Catholic observances and even in death refused the last sacramental rites. He had little attachment to Protestants either, except as a counter-weight to papal policies. He put his primary support behind conciliarists , irenicists and humanists . When

3995-666: The empire, where he took part in the Battle of Tuttlingen in November 1643, in which he defeated the French together with Franz von Mercy and Johann von Werth . In 1651 Charles IV was approached by an Irish delegation who were seeking his support to defend Ireland from the invasion of the Parliamentarian army of England. Traditional accounts of the Cromwellian wars often dismiss the appeal to Lorraine as an act of desperation, but recently one historian has argued that

4080-636: The empty title of Holy Roman Emperor, to which Matthias was elected five months later. In May 1618 with the event known as the Defenestration of Prague , the Protestant Bohemians, in defence of the rights granted them in the Letter of Majesty , threw imperial officials out of the window and thus the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) started. Rudolf moved the Habsburg capital from Vienna to Prague in 1583. Rudolf loved collecting paintings and

4165-650: The jealousy of those who desired the loss of it, than they should be obliged for its recovery to the protection of his said Highness . In 1661, the French withdrew from Lorraine, and Charles was able to return to the Duchy for the first time. In 1670, the duchy was again occupied by the French under King Louis XIV . Charles served in the Imperial armies in both the Thirty Years' War and the Franco-Dutch War (1672–1678), both of which secured French dominance on

4250-469: The later Holy Roman Empire as established under Otto I in 962. Nephew and adopted son of Charles III While earlier Frankish and Italian monarchs had been crowned as Roman emperors, the actual Holy Roman Empire is often considered to have begun with the crowning of Otto I , at the time Duke of Saxony and King of Germany . Because the King of Germany was an elected position, being elected King of Germany

4335-425: The meantime Bernard of Saxe-Weimar was besieging the fortress Breisach on the Upper Rhine, Charles was called upon to relieve it and attack the besiegers from two sides at the same time, together with the Imperial and Bavarian troops on the right bank of the Rhine. Bernard, however, used the advantage of the inner line and was able to repulse Charles at Thann on 15 October as well as Johann von Götzen 's attack on

SECTION 50

#1732771928405

4420-542: The month in which she bore a son whom Charles recognised. More than 20 years later, on 20 May 1663, Charles married Béatrice de Cusance a second time, to allow legitimation of their children. She died two weeks after this second marriage. Charles married a fourth time at the age of 61. The bride was Countess Marie Louise of Aspremont-Lynden (1652–1692), the 18-year-old daughter of Charles of Aspremont-Lynden , Count of Reckheim (1590-1671) and his wife, Marie Françoise de Mailly (1625-1702). They had no children and in 1679,

4505-584: The most impressive in the Europe of his day and the greatest collection of Northern Mannerist art ever to be assembled. The adjective Rudolfine, as in "Rudolfine Mannerism" is often used in art history to describe the style of the art that he patronised. His love of collecting went far beyond paintings and sculptures. He commissioned decorative objects of all kinds and in particular mechanical moving devices. Ceremonial swords and musical instruments, clocks, waterworks, astrolabes, compasses, telescopes and other scientific instruments were all produced for him by some of

4590-445: The observations to the required accuracy, it was necessary to assume that each planet orbits the sun in an ellipse with the sun at one focus, sweeping out equal areas in equal times. Thus were born two of Kepler's laws of planetary motion . It was Rudolf's patronage of the two astronomers that made this possible, as Kepler recognized when he eventually published the Rudolphine Tables . As mentioned earlier, Rudolf also attracted some of

4675-462: The papacy instigated the Counter-Reformation by using agents sent to his court, Rudolf backed those who he thought were the most neutral in the debate, were not taking a side or trying to effect restraint. That led to political chaos and threatened to provoke civil war. His conflict with the Ottoman Empire was the final cause of his undoing. Unwilling to compromise with the Ottomans and stubbornly determined that he could unify all of Christendom with

4760-401: The pope. Maximilian, therefore, named himself elected Roman emperor ( Erwählter Römischer Kaiser ) in 1508 with papal approval. This title was in use by all his uncrowned successors. Of his successors, only Charles V , the immediate one, received a papal coronation . The elector palatine's seat was conferred on the duke of Bavaria in 1621, but in 1648, in the wake of the Thirty Years' War ,

4845-403: The position was viewed as a defender of the Catholic faith. Until Maximilian I in 1508, the Emperor-elect ( Imperator electus ) was required to be crowned by the pope before assuming the imperial title. Charles V was the last to be crowned by the pope in 1530. Even after the Reformation , the elected emperor was always a Catholic . There were short periods in history when the electoral college

4930-421: The price of these escapades by the young and impetuous heir and Charles IV was one such. On one visit to the ducal court at Nancy, the widowed Gaston fell in love with Charles's 15-year-old sister and married her secretly, which so infuriated the king that he convened the clergy of France and the Parlement of Paris to void the marriage, giving consent only on his death bed. In that circumstance and sense, Charles

5015-404: The prime candidate had to make concessions, by which the voters were kept on his side, which was known as Wahlkapitulationen ( electoral capitulation ). Conrad was elected by the German dukes , and it is not known precisely when the system of seven prince-electors was established. The papal decree Venerabilem by Innocent III (1202), addressed to Berthold V, Duke of Zähringen , establishes

5100-402: The requirement that emperors be crowned by the pope before exercising their office. Starting with Ferdinand I , all successive emperors forwent the traditional coronation. The interregnum of the Holy Roman Empire is taken to have lasted from the deposition of Frederick II by Pope Innocent IV in 1245 (or alternatively from Frederick's death in 1250 or from the death of Conrad IV in 1254) to

5185-537: The same titulature, usually on becoming the sole ruler of the Holy Roman Empire. Maximilian's predecessor Frederick III was the last to be crowned Emperor by the Pope in Rome, while Maximilian's successor Charles V was the last to be crowned by the pope, though in Bologna , in 1530. The Emperor was crowned in a special ceremony, traditionally performed by the Pope in Rome . Without that coronation, no king, despite exercising all powers, could call himself Emperor. In 1508, Pope Julius II allowed Maximilian I to use

SECTION 60

#1732771928405

5270-441: The siege positions around Breisach a few days later. The fall of Breisach on 17 December largely cut off Franche-Comté from the Empire and the rest of the Habsburg territories. Charles gave up the post of captain general in January 1639, relieved the besieged castle of his second wife in Belvoir and went to Brussels , where he hoped for a new command. After Charles fought in the Spanish Netherlands in 1640, where he took part in

5355-424: The spiritual health of their subjects, and after Constantine they had a duty to help the Church define and maintain orthodoxy . The emperor's role was to enforce doctrine, root out heresies , and uphold ecclesiastical unity. Both the title and connection between Emperor and Church continued in the Eastern Roman Empire throughout the medieval period ( in exile during 1204–1261). The ecumenical councils of

5440-463: The stateless Duke was in fact seriously interested in becoming the Protector of Ireland. In the summer of 1652, a number of ships sent by Charles arrived at Inishbofin island with supplies, one of the last strongholds of the Irish. Unfortunately Charles faced great opposition by the Irish Leaders Clanricarde and Ormonde , both of whom were arch-royalists loyal to Charles II of England . Lorraine eventually concluded that Ireland had been destroyed by

5525-461: The title by the 13th century evolved into an elective monarchy , with the emperor chosen by the prince-electors . Various royal houses of Europe, at different times, became de facto hereditary holders of the title, notably the Ottonians (962–1024) and the Salians (1027–1125). Following the late medieval crisis of government , the Habsburgs kept possession of the title (with only one interruption ) from 1440 to 1806. The final emperors were from

5610-621: The title of Emperor without coronation in Rome, though the title was qualified as Electus Romanorum Imperator ("elected Emperor of the Romans"). Maximilian's successors adopted the same titulature, usually when they became the sole ruler of the Holy Roman Empire. Maximilian's first successor Charles V was the last to be crowned Emperor. Charles IV of Lorraine He came to lose his duchy because of his notionally anti-French policy; in 1633, French troops invaded Lorraine in retaliation for Charles's support of Gaston d'Orléans —who repeatedly plotted against Richelieu's governance of France under

5695-406: The troops in Burgundy, Charles defended the core area of the Franche-Comté around Besançon , Dole and Salins against the French over the next few years. He also made repeated forays into the French heartland or into Lorraine to attack French garrisons. In May 1638, he advanced into Bassigny , moved from there to Lorraine, recaptured Épinal in August and besieged Lunéville in September. Since in

5780-443: The visitor's attention. Without, however, there being a desire for purely scientific systematization on the part of the sovereign, it is necessary to detect the harmonious expression of the order of God and discern in the micro-macrocosm the analogy of a mimetic dependence on human arts towards nature and the world. Rudolf's Kunstkammer was not a typical "cabinet of curiosities", a haphazard collection of unrelated specimens. Rather,

5865-404: The widow of Eugene Perrenot de Granvelle dit d'Oiselet, Prince de Cantecroix (1615-1637), earlier that year; and had three children; His marriage to Béatrice de Cusance was not deemed valid by the Roman Catholic church, which had not authorised his divorce from Nicole. The couple separated in April 1642 following his excommunication , which was the consequence of his second marriage; it was also

5950-432: Was Caroline (1591–1662), Princess of Cantecroix, mother-in-law of Beatrice de Cusance , later Duchess of Lorraine as the second wife of Charles IV of Lorraine . During his periods of self-imposed isolation, Rudolf reportedly had affairs with his Obersthofmeister , Wolfgang Siegmund Rumpf vom Wullroß (1536–1606), and a series of valets . One of them, Philipp Lang von Langenfels (1560–1609), influenced him for years and

6035-427: Was "August Emperor of the Romans" ( Romanorum Imperator Augustus ). When Charlemagne was crowned in 800, he was styled as "most serene Augustus, crowned by God, great and pacific emperor, governing the Roman Empire," thus constituting the elements of "Holy" and "Roman" in the imperial title. The word Roman was a reflection of the principle of translatio imperii (or in this case restauratio imperii ) that regarded

6120-497: Was a casualty of the fierce factional infighting in the French court between the King's brother Gaston d'Orléans, and Cardinal Richelieu , even though technically, Lorraine was subject to the Holy Roman Empire and the Emperor Ferdinand II of Austria . Forced to make humiliating concessions to France, he abdicated under the French pressure and invasion in 1634 in favor of his brother, Nicholas Francis , and entered

6205-424: Was a firm devotee of both. His lifelong quest was to find the philosopher's stone , and Rudolf spared no expense in bringing Europe's best alchemists to court, such as Edward Kelley and John Dee . Rudolf even performed his own experiments in a private alchemy laboratory. When Rudolf was a prince, Nostradamus prepared a horoscope , which was dedicated to him as 'Prince and King'. In the 1590s, Michael Sendivogius

6290-637: Was a policy of toleration towards Judaism . Rudolf was born in Vienna on 18 July 1552. He was the eldest son and successor of Maximilian II , Holy Roman Emperor, King of Bohemia , and King of Hungary and Croatia ; his mother was the Spanish Princess Maria , a daughter of Charles V and Isabella of Portugal . He was the elder brother of Matthias who was to succeed him as King of Bohemia and Holy Roman Emperor. Rudolf spent eight formative years, from age 11 to 19 (1563–1571), in Spain, at

6375-463: Was active at Rudolph's court. Rudolf gave Prague a mystical reputation that persists in part to this day, with Alchemists' Alley l, on the grounds of Prague Castle, being a popular visiting place and tourist attraction . Rudolf was a patron of the occult sciences. That and his practice of tolerance towards Jews caused during his reign the legend of the Golem of Prague to be established. Rudolf had

6460-528: Was also in his possessions. As was typical of the time, Rudolf II had a portrait painted in the studio of the renowned Alonso Sánchez Coello . Completed in 1567, the portrait depicted Rudolf II at the age of 15. This painting can be seen at the Lobkowicz Palace in the Rozmberk room. By 1597, the collection occupied three rooms of the incomplete northern wing. When building was completed in 1605,

6545-485: Was crowned King of Hungary (1572), King of Bohemia and King of the Romans (1575) when his father was still alive. For the rest of his life, Rudolf would remain reserved, secretive, and largely a recluse who did not like to travel or even partake in the daily affairs of the state. He was more intrigued by occult learning such as astrology and alchemy , which was mainstream in the Renaissance period, and had

6630-619: Was dominated by Protestants , and the electors usually voted in their own political interest. From the time of Constantine I ( r.  306–337 ), the Roman Emperors had, with very few exceptions, taken on a role as promoters and defenders of Christianity . The reign of Constantine established a precedent for the position of the Christian emperor in the Great Church . Emperors considered themselves responsible to God for

6715-529: Was even alleged by one person to have owned the Voynich manuscript , a codex whose author and purpose, as well as the language and script and posited cipher remain unidentified to this day. According to hearsay passed on in a letter written by Johannes Marcus Marci in 1665, Rudolf was said to have acquired the manuscript at some unspecified time for 600 gold ducats . No evidence in support of this single piece of hearsay has ever been discovered. The Codex Gigas

6800-561: Was functionally a pre-requisite to being crowned Holy Roman Emperor. By the 13th century, the Prince-electors became formalized as a specific body of seven electors, consisting of three bishops and four secular princes. Through the middle 15th century, the electors chose freely from among a number of dynasties. A period of dispute during the second half of the 13th century over the kingship of Germany led to there being no emperor crowned for several decades, though this ended in 1312 with

6885-610: Was hated by those seeking favours with the emperor. Rudolf succeeded his father, Maximilian II, on 12 October 1576. In 1583, he moved the court to Prague . In 1607, Rudolf sent Julius to live at Český Krumlov , in Bohemia , in what is now the Czech Republic , a castle that Rudolf had purchased from Peter Vok of Rosenberg , the last member of the House of Rosenberg , who had fallen into financial ruin. Julius lived at Český Krumlov in 1608, when he reportedly abused and murdered

6970-636: Was often reported to sit and stare in rapture at a new work for hours on end. He spared no expense in acquiring great past masterworks, such as those of Dürer and Brueghel . He was also patron to some of the best contemporary artists, who mainly produced new works in the Northern Mannerist style, such as Bartholomeus Spranger , Hans von Aachen , Giambologna , Giuseppe Arcimboldo , Aegidius Sadeler , Roelant Savery , Joris Hoefnagel and Adrian de Vries , as well as commissioning works from Italians like Paolo Veronese . Rudolf's collections were

7055-531: Was that known as the investiture controversy , fought during the 11th century between Henry IV and Pope Gregory VII . After the coronation of Charlemagne, his successors maintained the title until the death of Berengar I of Italy in 924. The comparatively brief interregnum between 924 and the coronation of Otto the Great in 962 is taken as marking the transition from the Frankish Empire to

7140-599: Was the last emperor to be crowned by the pope, and his successor, Ferdinand I , merely adopted the title of "Emperor elect" in 1558. The final Holy Roman emperor-elect, Francis II , abdicated in 1806 during the Napoleonic Wars that saw the Empire's final dissolution. The term sacrum (i.e., "holy") in connection with the German Roman Empire was first used in 1157 under Frederick I Barbarossa . The Holy Roman Emperor's standard designation

7225-452: Was the subject of a whispering campaign by his enemies in his family and the Catholic Church in the years before he was deposed. Sexual allegations may well have formed a part of the campaign against him. Historians have traditionally blamed Rudolf's preoccupation with the arts, occult sciences, and other personal interests for the political disasters of his reign. More recently historians have re-evaluated that view and see his patronage of

#404595