Ferdinand I Holy Roman EMPEROR

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Ferdinand I (10 March 1503 ? 25 July 1564), Holy Roman Emperor (1556?1564), was born in Madrid, the son of Juana the Mad, Queen of Castile (1479?1555), and Philip I the Handsome, King of Castile (1478?1506), who was heir to Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I of Habsburg.

Ferdinand was the younger brother of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, who entrusted him with the government of the Habsburg hereditary lands (roughly modern-day Austria and Slovenia). In 1531 Ferdinand was elected King of the Romans, making him Charles's designated heir as emperor. He deputised as ruler during his brother's many absences from imperial lands.

After Charles's abdication as emperor in 1556, Ferdinand assumed the title of Holy Roman Emperor, Charles having agreed to exclude his own son Philip from the German succession, which instead passed to Ferdinand's eldest son Maximilian (1527?1576
Hungary and the Ottomans
After Suleiman the Magnificent defeated Ferdinand's brother-in-law Louis II, King of Bohemia and of Hungary, at the battle of Moh·cs on 29 August 1526, Ferdinand was elected King of Bohemia in his place. The throne of Hungary became the subject of a dynastic dispute between Ferdinand and John Z·polya, voivode of Transylvania. Each was supported by different factions of the nobility in the Hungarian kingdom; Ferdinand also had the support of Charles V, and Z·polya, after defeat by Ferdinand at the Battle of Tokaj in 1527, the support of Suleiman. Ferdinand was able to win control only of western Hungary because Z·polya clung to the east and the Ottomans to the conquered south. In 1554 Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq was sent to Istanbul by Ferdinand to discuss a border treaty over disputed land with the Sultan, Suleiman.

The most dangerous moment of Ferdinand's career came in 1529 when he took refuge in Bohemia from a massive but ultimately unsuccessful assault on his capital by Suleiman and the Ottoman armies at the Siege of Vienna. A further Ottoman attack on Vienna was repelled in 1533. In that year Ferdinand signed a peace treaty with the Ottoman Empire, splitting the Kingdom of Hungary into a Habsburg sector in the west and John Z·polya's domain in the east, the latter effectively now a vassal state of the Ottoman Empire.

In 1538, by the Treaty of Nagyv·rad, Ferdinand became Z·polya's successor, but he was unable to enforce this agreement during his lifetime because in 1540 John II Sigismund Z·polya, infant son of John Z·polya and Isabella Jagiello, was elected the new king of Hungary. He was initially supported by King Sigismund II Augustus of Poland and Lithuania, his mother's brother, but in 1549 a treaty was signed between the Habsburgs and the Polish ruler as a result of which Poland became neutral in the conflict, Sigismund Augustus marrying Elisabeth von Habsburg, Ferdinand's daughter.

[edit] Government
The western rump of Hungary over which Ferdinand retained dominion became known as Royal Hungary. As the ruler of Austria, Bohemia and Royal Hungary, Ferdinand adopted a policy of centralization and, in common with other monarchs of the time, the construction of an absolute monarchy. In 1527 he published a constitution for his hereditary domains (Hofstaatsordnung) and established Austrian-style institutions in Pressburg for Hungary, in Prague for Bohemia, and in Wroclaw (Breslau) for Silesia. Opposition from the nobles in those realms forced him in 1559 to concede the independence of these institutions from supervision by the Austrian government in Vienna.

In 1547 the Bohemian Estates rebelled against Ferdinand when he ordered the Bohemian army against the German Protestants. After suppressing Prague with the help of his brother's Spanish forces, he retaliated by limiting the privileges of Bohemian cities and inserting a new bureaucracy of royal officials to control urban authorities. Ferdinand was a supporter of the Counter-Reformation and helped lead the Catholic fight-back against what he saw as the heretical tide of Protestantism. For example, in 1551 he invited the Jesuits to Vienna and in 1556 to Prague; and in 1561 he revived the archbishopric of Prague.

Ferdinand died in Vienna and is buried in St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague.

Names in other languages: German, Czech, Slovak, Croatian: Ferdinand I.; Hungarian: I. Ferdin·nd

Ferdinand married Anna Of Bohemia And HUNGARY in 1521. Anna (daughter of Vladislaus II Of Bohemia And HUNGARY and Anne DE FOIX) was born on 23 Jul 1503; died on 27 Jan 1547. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

1. Charles II Archduke Of AUSTRIA was born on 03 Jun 1540; died on 10 Jul 1590.
2. Magdalena Of AUSTRIA was born on 14 Aug 1532; died on 10 Sep 1590.
3. Margaret Of AUSTRIA was born on 16 Feb 1536; died on 12 Mar 1567.
4. Archduchess of Austria Maria Of HABSBURG was born on 15 May 1531; died on 11 Dec 1581.
5. Johanna Of AUSTRIA was born on 24 Jan 1547; died on 10 Apr 1578.
6. Ursula Of AUSTRIA was born on 24 Jul 1541; died on 30 Apr 1543.
7. Eleonora Of AUSTRIA was born on 02 Nov 1534; died on 05 Aug 1594.
8. Ferdinand II Archduke Of AUSTRIA was born on 14 Jun 1529; died on 24 Jan 1595.
9. Johann Of AUSTRIA was born on 10 Apr 1538; died on 20 Mar 1539.
10. Catharine Of AUSTRIA was born on 15 Sep 1533; died on 28 Feb 1572.
11. Helen Of AUSTRIA was born on 07 Jan 1543; died on 05 Mar 1574.
12. Elisabeth Of AUSTRIA was born on 09 Jul 1526; died on 15 Jun 1543.
13. Barbara Of AUSTRIA was born on 30 Apr 1539; died on 19 Sep 1572.
14. Maximilian II Holy Roman EMPEROR was born on 31 Jul 1527 in Vienna; died on 12 Oct 1576.
15. Anna Of AUSTRIA was born on 07 Jul 1528; died between 16 and 17 Oct 1590.

Other Events and Attributes:

• Name: Phillip I King Of Spain

Notes:

Wikipedia Encyclopedia:
Philip the Handsome (July 22, 1478 ? September 25, 1506), (Felipe el Hermoso - Philipp der Schˆne - Philippe le Beau) was the son of the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I. Through his mother Mary of Burgundy he inherited the greater part of the Burgundian state and through his wife Joanna the Mad he briefly succeeded to the kingdom of Castile. He was the first Habsburg ruler in Spain and his successors reckoned him as Philip I of Spain.
Philip was born in Bruges, then in the County of Flanders (today in Belgium). And was named after his grandfather, Philip the Good. In 1482, upon the death of his mother Mary of Burgundy, daughter of Charles the Bold, he succeeded to her Burgundian possessions under the guardianship of his father. A period of turmoil ensued which witnessed sporadic hostilities between, principally, the large towns of Flanders (especially Ghent and Bruges) and the supporters of Maximilian. During this interregnum, the young Philip became caught up in events and was even briefly sequestered in Bruges as part of the larger Flemish campaign to support their claims of greater autonomy, which they had wrested from Mary of Burgundy in an agreement known as the Blijde Inkomst or Joyous Entry of 1477. By the early 1490s, the turmoil of the interregnum gave way to an uneasy stand-off, with neither French support for the cities of the Franc (Flanders), nor Imperial support from Maximilian's father Frederick III proving decisive. Both sides came to terms in the Peace of Senlis in 1493, which smoothed over the internal power struggle by agreeing to make the 15-year old Philip prince in the following year.

[edit] The Burgundian Inheritance and the Spanish Alliance
In 1494 Maximilian relinquished his regency under the terms of the Treaty of Senlis and Philip, at the age of 16, took over the rule of the Burgundian lands himself, although in practice authority was derived from a council of Burgundian notables. On October 20, 1496, he married Joanna, daughter of Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile, in Lier, Belgium.

The marriage was one of a set of family alliances between Habsburgs and Trast·mara, designed to strengthen both the against growing French power, which had increased significantly thanks to the policies of Louis XI and the successful assertion of regal power after war with the League of the Public Weal. The matter became more urgent after Charles VIII's invasion of Italy (known as the First Peninsular War).

Philip's sister Margaret married Juan, Prince of Asturias, the only son of Ferdinand and Isabella and successor to the unified crowns of Castile and Aragon. [1] The double alliance was never intended to let the Spanish kingdoms fall under Habsburg control. At the time of her marriage to Philip, Juana was third in line to the throne, with both Juan and his elder sister Isabella married and hopeful of progeny.

[edit] The Castilian Inheritance
In 1500, shortly after the birth of Juana and Philip's second child (the future Charles V), the succession to the Castilian and Aragonese crowns was thrown into turmoil. The heir presumptive, Juan, had died in 1497 very shortly after his marriage to Margaret of Austria. The succession thereby passed to Isabella, who had married Manuel I of Portugal. She died in 1498, while giving birth to a son, Miguel, to whom succession to the united crowns of Castile, Aragon and Portugal now fell; however, the infant was sickly, and he died during the summer of 1500. The succession to the Castilian and Aragonese crowns now fell to Juana. Because Ferdinand could conceivably produce another heir, the Cortes of Aragon refused to recognise Juana and Philip as the heirs presumptive to the Kingdom of Aragon. In Castile, however, the succession was clear. Moreover, there was no salic tradition which the Castilian Cortes could use to thwart the succession passing to Juana. At this point, the issue of Juana's mental incompetence moved from courtly annoyance to the centre of the political stage, since it was clear that Philip and his Burgundian entourage would be the real power-holders in Castile.

In 1502, Philip, Juana and a large part of the Burgundian court travelled to Spain to receive fealty from the Cortes of Castile as king-consort of Juana, a journey chronicled in intense detail by Antoon van Lalaing (Antoine de Lalaing in French), the future Stadtholder of Holland and Zeeland. Philip and the majority of the court returned to the Low Countries in the following year, leaving a pregnant Juana behind in Spain, where she gave birth to Ferdinand, later Holy Roman Emperor. Philip's life with Joanna was rendered extremely unhappy by his infidelity and by her jealousy, which, working on a neurotic temperament, furthered her insanity. The princess gave way to paroxysms of rage, in which she was guilty of acts of atrocious violence. Before her mother's death, in 1504, she was unquestionably quite insane, and husband and wife lived apart.

[edit] Struggle for Power in Spain
When Isabella died, Ferdinand endeavoured to lay hands on the regency of Castile, but the nobles, who disliked and feared him, forced him to withdraw. Philip was summoned to Spain, where he was recognized as king. He landed, with his wife, at La CoruÒa on April 28, 1506, accompanied by a body of German mercenaries. Father and son-in-law mediated under Cardinal Cisneros at Remesal, near Puebla de Sanabria, and at Renedo, the only result of which was an indecent family quarrel, in which Ferdinand professed to defend the interests of his daughter, who he said was imprisoned by her husband.

A civil war would probably have broken out between them; but Philip, who had only been in Spain long enough to prove his incapacity, died suddenly at Burgos, apparently of typhoid fever, on September 25, 1506. His wife refused for long to allow his body to be buried or to part from it.

Philip married Juana Queen Of CASTILE in 1496. Juana (daughter of Ferdinand V of Castile Ferdinand II King Of ARAGON and Isabella I Queen Of Castile And LEON) was born on 06 Nov 1479; died on 12 Apr 1555. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Name: Joanna Of Aragon

Notes:

Wikipedia Encyclopedia:

Her youngest sister was Catherine of Aragon, the first wife of Henry VIII. In 1496 at Lille, Joanna was married to the archduke Philip the Handsome, son of the German King Maximilian I, and at Ghent in February 1500, she gave birth to future emperor Charles V.

The death of her only brother John, Prince of Asturias, of her eldest sister Isabella of Asturias, queen of Portugal, and then of the latter's infant son Miguel, Prince of Asturias, made Joanna the heiress of the Spanish kingdoms, and in 1502 the cortes of Castile and of Aragon recognized her and her husband as their future sovereigns, already Princess and Prince of Asturias.

Joanna was said to pine day and night for her husband while he was overseas, and when she eventually joined Philip in Flanders, her passionate jealousy and constant suspicion of him made her notorious, if not necessarily beloved, in the local court.

Her mother's death left Joanna Queen of Castile in November of 1504. She and Philip set sail from Flanders to Spain, where he would assume the kingship as her husband. Their ships were wrecked on the English coast and the couple became guests of Henry VII at Windsor Castle. After they continued their trip to Spain, they landed at CoruÒa in 1506 and started their trip south for the coronation. Ferdinand, her father, claimed that Joanna was being kept prisoner by Philip and that he was speaking for her, and therefore he should be made co-regent with her. This conflict threatened to lead to civil war. However, Philip unexpectedly died due to typhus fever in Burgos in September 1506. Joanna became completely deranged ? it was almost impossible to get her away from the corpse of her husband.

F.Pradilla Ortiz: Juana la Loca Depicts Queen Joanna in vigil over her husband's coffinFerdinand's way to the regency was clear. Ferdinand convinced Joanna to grant him co-regency, and, in turn, kept her isolated in the castle of Tordesillas. After his death in 1516, her son Charles assumed the regency and was proclaimed co-king. Joanna was kept prisoner at Tordesillas, however, with the revolt of the comuneros she had a chance to resume her sole sovereignty but failed to take it. When Charles succeeded in quelling the uprising, Joanna was locked up for good in a windowless room in the castle of Tordesillas for the rest of her life. She died on Good Friday, April 12, 1555.

Joanna was the last of the original Spanish royals; after her, all royalty on the Spanish throne was from houses that had come from abroad - though most of the future monarchs also were born in Spain. Most historians believe she suffered from schizophrenia and she was kept locked away and imprisoned. Needed to legitimize the claims of her father and son to the throne, Joanna only nominally remained queen of Castile until her death. Many historians, not understanding the nature and severity of a disease like schizophrenia, have made her story into an archtypal victim parable, without adequately understanding the dangers which her condition posed to the governance of Castile.

She is entombed in the Capilla Real of Granada, alongside her parents, her husband, and her nephew Miguel.