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Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor

 

Rudolf II (Vienna, 1552-1612, Prague), son of the Emperor Maximilian II, was from 1572 king of Hungary, from 1575 king of Bohemia, and became emperor in 1576. He put much effort into seeking to prevent the nomination of his brother Matthias as his successor. Unmarried himself and without an heir, he distrusted the advice of his family even when political action, especially against the Turks and, in 1604, during the revolts in Hungary, was called for. In 1608 Rudolf was forced to transfer the government of Austria and Hungary to Matthias. Only Bohemia and Moravia remained faithful to him. But the Bohemians exploited his weakened position by forcing him to guarantee their religious freedom in the Letter of Majesty (see Majestätsbrief) of 1609. Difficulties arising out of the interpretation of the Letter of Majesty ended in his deposition in 1611 and in the recognition of Matthias as king of Bohemia.

Rudolf, who had been brought up at the Spanish court, was a highly gifted and educated man who devoted his voluntary isolation at the Hradschin in Prague to the collection and study of works of art and literature as well as to scientific and astronomical pursuits, inviting J. Kepler (1571-1630) and the astronomer Tycho Brahe (1546-1601) to his court. Towards the end of his life he became more and more eccentric and inefficient in the administration of government. The reign of Rudolf II is the subject of Grillparzer's tragedy Ein Bruderzwist in Habsburg.

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Columbia Encyclopedia: Rudolf II
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Rudolf II, 1552-1612, Holy Roman emperor (1576-1612), king of Bohemia (1575-1611) and of Hungary (1572-1608), son and successor of Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian II. Acceding to the Hapsburg lands, he reversed his father's tolerant policy toward Protestantism and gave assistance to the Counter Reformation. Although Rudolf was a learned man, he was incapable of ruling because he was plagued by melancholy and later became subject to occasional fits of insanity. Other members of his family began to intervene in imperial affairs. Following a revolt in Hungary (1604-6) by Stephen Bocskay and his Ottoman allies, most of the actual ruling power passed to Rudolf's brother Matthias; the revolt was provoked by Rudolf's attempt to impose Roman Catholicism in Hungary. In 1608, Matthias forced Rudolf to cede Hungary, Austria, and Moravia to him. Seeking to gain the support of the Bohemian estates, Rudolf issued (1609) a royal charter that guaranteed religious freedom to the nobles and cities. This effort was in vain, and Rudolf was forced to give up Bohemia to Matthias in 1611. Rudolf's turbulent reign was a prelude to the Thirty Years War.
History 1450-1789: Rudolf II
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Rudolf II (Holy Roman Empire) (1552–1612; ruled 1576–1612), Holy Roman emperor and Habsburg monarch. Rudolf II was a controversial figure during his lifetime and has remained one for historians since. He has many claims to fame and infamy. His political and religious policies led to his ouster as ruler by members of his own family and contributed to the outbreak of the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648), one of the most destructive wars in European history. He became a believer in and practitioner of the occult, promoting alchemy, pursuing research into the Cabala, and seeking truth in various mysteries and superstitions. And he was one of the great patrons of the arts and letters, financing the work of scientists such as Tycho Brahe (1546–1601) and Johannes Kepler (1571–1630), commissioning artists and engravers of remarkable skill, and collecting fine works throughout Europe.

Rudolf possessed an unstable personality and suffered serious physical and psychological upheavals in 1578–1580 and 1599–1600. In response to the latter, Rudolf retreated to his castle in Prague and became somewhat of a recluse, focusing his attention on the occult. In some ways his breakdowns and his internal struggles can be attributed to the two heavy burdens that tormented his reign—the increasingly divisive struggle between Catholics and Protestants and the threat to his lands posed by the Ottoman Empire.

Regarding the first, Rudolf and his brothers were educated at the leading Roman Catholic center of power in Europe, the court of Philip II (ruled 1556–1598) of Spain, who was the cousin of their father, Emperor Maximilian II (ruled 1564–1576). In Spain they observed the implementation of Philip's belief that political and social strength can only come through religious conformity—in this case Catholicism—and likewise observed the destructive impact sectarian violence could have in the war in the Netherlands. Their father, unlike Philip, was perfectly willing to tolerate Protestantism, and some historians have argued that he was in fact a closet Lutheran. By the time Maximilian died, a majority of Habsburg subjects had adopted Lutheranism, and some had converted to Calvinism or one of the other Protestant movements. Likewise the Estates of most of the Habsburg lands had become strongholds of Protestantism.

Scholars have argued that, given his upbringing, Rudolf believed it his task to restore Catholicism to his patrimony. He invited the Jesuits into his lands, and they worked hard to reconvert Protestants. That action got him into trouble with the Protestant Estates. In 1606 the Estates of Hungary, Austria, and Moravia voted to turn him out and recognized his brother, Matthias (ruled 1612–1619), as ruler. That in turn prompted Rudolf to issue in 1609 what became the famous Letter of Majesty to the Estates of Bohemia, promising them religious toleration if they would retain him as sovereign. That did not work, and just before Rudolf's death in 1612 the Bohemian Estates themselves recognized Matthias. The perceived infringement of the Letter of Majesty in 1618 inspired the Bohemian Estates to reject Habsburg rule altogether and to engage in those events that precipitated the Thirty Years' War.

Rudolf's foremost biographer, R. J. W. Evans, has argued that Rudolf's religious beliefs were by no means so solid. In fact he did not like Catholicism because of the power of its clergy, and he particularly distrusted the papacy. Yet he also had no affinity for Protestants because of their tendency to divide endlessly into sects and squabbles. In the end he was uncertain about religion and whether or not it did any good. Evans has argued that in many ways Rudolf reflected doubts about religion found elsewhere in Bohemia and has compared him to his distant successor Joseph II (ruled 1765–1790), who was a tolerant Catholic but suspicious of the church. Rudolf's doubts about religion encouraged his forays into the occult and the mysterious in hopes of finding a different truth that underlay life. Thus the Catholic-Protestant divide deepened not because of his actions but because of his inability to take action.

Rudolf's other deep concern was the threat from the Turks. In large part because of that threat, Rudolf moved the capital of the Habsburg lands from Vienna to Prague, which became under his aegis a cultural capital of Europe. Brahe and Kepler did their work there, and Rudolf employed many of Europe's brilliant architects and artists there. He brought much art to the city. His wars with the Turks lasted until 1606, ending with the Treaty of Sitvatorok, an obscure treaty but the first in which the Turks acknowledged the Habsburgs as their equals in international diplomacy. By that time the radicalizing of the Catholic-Protestant split, Rudolf's seclusion, the growing opposition to him among the Estates, and the discontent of his family members had created an atmosphere that would no longer tolerate him as ruler. Stripped of power, Rudolf died in 1612.

Bibliography

Evans, R. J. W. Rudolf II and His World: A Study in Intellectual History, 1576–1612. Oxford, 1973.

Fučíková, Eliška, et al., eds. Rudolf II and Prague: The Court and the City. London, 1997.

Kaufmann, Thomas Da Costa. The School of Prague: Painting at the Court of Rudolf II. Chicago, 1988.

—KARL A. ROIDER

Wikipedia: Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor
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Rudolf II
Holy Roman Emperor; King of Bohemia, King of Hungary, Archduke of Austria[2][3]
Reign 1576 - 1611
Predecessor Maximilian II
Successor Matthias
House House of Habsburg
Father Maximilian II
Mother Maria of Spain
Born 18 July,1552
Vienna, Austria
Died 20 January 1612
Prague, Bohemia
Burial St. Vitus Cathedral, Prague

Rudolf II ( 18 July 1552 – 20 January 1612), Holy Roman Emperor as Rudolf II (1576-1612), King of Hungary as Rudolf (1572-1608), King of Bohemia as Rudolf II (1575-1608/1611) and Archduke of Austria as Rudolf V (1576-1608). He was a member of the Habsburg family.

Rudolf's legacy has traditionally been viewed in three ways:[1] an ineffectual ruler whose mistakes led directly to the Thirty Years' War; a great and influential patron of Northern Mannerist art; and a devotee of occult arts and learning which helped seed the scientific revolution.

Contents

Biography

Archduke Rudolf

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; his mother was Maria of Spain, a daughter of Charles V and Isabella of Portugal.

Rudolf spent eight formative years, from age 11 to 19 (1563-1571), in Spain, at the court of his maternal uncle Phillip II. 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.[2] Rudolf would remain for the rest of his life reserved, secretive, and largely a homebody who did not like to travel or even partake in the daily affairs of state.[2] He was more intrigued by occult learning such as astrology and alchemy, which was mainstream in the Renaissance period, and had 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 his contemporary, Elizabeth I of England, Rudolf dangled himself as a prize in a string of diplomatic negotiations for marriages, but never in fact married. It has been proposed by A. L. Rowse that he was homosexual. During his periods of self-imposed isolation, Rudolf reportedly had affairs with his court chamberlain, Wolfgang von Rumpf, and a series of valets. One of these, Philip Lang, ruled him for years and was hated by those seeking favor with the emperor.[3] Rudolf was known, in addition, to have had a succession of affairs with women, some of whom claimed to have been impregnated by him[2]. Many artworks commissioned by Rudolf are unusually erotic.[4] The emperor was the subject of a whispering campaign by his enemies in his family and the church in the years before he was deposed. Sexual allegations may well have formed a part of the campaign against him.[5]

Holy Roman Emperor
Rudolf II Arms-imperial.svg

Historians have traditionally blamed Rudolf's preoccupation with the arts, occult sciences, and other personal interests as the reason for the political disasters of his reign.[1] More recently historians have re-evaluated this view and see his patronage of the arts and occult sciences as a triumph and key part of the Renaissance, while his political failures are seen as a legitimate attempt to create a unified Christian empire, which was undermined by the realities of religious, political and intellectual disintegrations of the time.[1]

Although raised in his uncle's Catholic court in Spain, Rudolf was tolerant of Protestantism and other religions including Judaism.[2] He largely withdrew from Catholic observances, even in death denying last sacramental rites. He had little attachment to Protestants either, except as counter-weight to repressive Papal policies.[1] He put his primary support behind conciliarists, irenicists and humanists.[1] When the papacy instigated the Counter-Reformation, using agents sent to his court, Rudolf backed those who he thought were the most neutral in the debate, not taking a side or trying to effect restraint, thus leading to political chaos and threatening to provoke civil war.[1]

His conflict with the Ottoman Turks was the final cause of his undoing. Unwilling to compromise with the Turks, and stubbornly determined that he could unify all of Christendom with a new Crusade, he started a long and indecisive war with the Turks in 1593. This war lasted till 1606, and was known as "The Long War".[1] By 1604 his Hungarian subjects were exhausted by the war and revolted, led by Stephen Bocskay. In 1605 Rudolf was forced by his other family members to cede control of Hungarian affairs to his younger brother Archduke Matthias. Matthias by 1606 forged a difficult peace with the Hungarian rebels (Peace of Vienna) and the Turks (Peace of Zsitvatorok). Rudolf was angry with his brother's concessions, which he saw as giving away too much in order to further Matthias' hold on power. So Rudolf prepared to start a new war with the Turks. But Matthias rallied support from the disaffected Hungarians and forced Rudolf to give up the crowns of Hungary, Austria, and Moravia to him. At the same time, seeing a moment of royal weakness, Bohemian Protestants demanded greater religious liberty, which Rudolf granted in the Letter of Majesty in 1609. However the Bohemians continued to press for further freedoms and Rudolf used his army to repress them. The Bohemian Protestants appealed to Matthias for help, whose army then held Rudolf prisoner in his castle in Prague, until 1611, when Rudolf was forced to cede the crown of Bohemia to his brother.

Rudolf died in 1612, nine months after he had been stripped of all effective power by his younger brother, except the empty title of Holy Roman Emperor, which Matthias inherited five months later. He died unmarried. In May 1618 at an event known as the Defenestration of Prague, the Protestant Bohemians, in defense of the rights granted them in the Letter of Majesty, began the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648).

Patron of arts

Bartholomeus Spranger, Minerva triumphs over Ignorance, 1591

Rudolf moved the Habsburg capital from Vienna to Prague in 1583. Rudolf loved collecting paintings, and was often reported to sit and stare in rapture at a new work for hours on end.[2] 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, and Adrian de Vries, as well as commissioning works from Italians like Veronese. Rudolf's collections were the most impressive in the Europe of his day, and the greatest collection of Northern Mannerist art ever assembled.[1]

Rudolf's 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, water works, astrolabes, compasses, telescopes and other scientific instruments, were all produced for him by some of 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 Brahe developed the Rudolfine tables (finished by Kepler, after Brahe's death), the first comprehensive table of data of the movements of the stars.

The poetess Elizabeth Jane Weston, a writer of neo-Latin poetry, was also part of his court and wrote numerous odes to him.

Rudolf kept a menagerie of exotic animals, botanical gardens, and Europe's most extensive "cabinet of curiosities"[2] (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.[6]

Rudolf painted as Vertumnus, Roman God of the seasons, by Giuseppe Arcimboldo (1590-1). Rudolph greatly appreciated the work.

By 1597, the collection occupied three rooms of the incomplete northern wing. When building was completed in 1605, 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 meters wide by 3 meters high and 60 meters long, connected to a main chamber 33 meters long. Large uncut gemstones were held in strong boxes.

Rudolph's Kunstkammer was not a typical "cabinet of curiosities" - a haphazard collection of unrelated specimens. Rather, the Rudolfine Kunstkammer was systematically arranged in an encyclopaedic fashion. In addition, Rudolf II employed his polyglot court physician, Anselmus Boetius de Boodt (c. 1550-1632), to curate the collection. De Boodt was an avid mineral collector. He 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, de Boodt catalogued the Kunstkammer, and in 1609 he published Gemmarum et Lapidum, one of the finest mineralogical treatises of the 17th century.

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, the "Age of Reason".

The Crown of Rudolf II later became the imperial crown of the Austrian Empire.

Rudolf's successors did not appreciate 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, also taking the best of the paintings, many of which later passed to the Orleans Collection after the death of Christina of Sweden. In 1782, the remainder of the collection was sold piecemeal to private parties by Joseph II, who was a lover of the Arts rather than the Sciences. One of the surviving items from the Kunstkammer is a "fine chair" looted by the Swedes in 1648 and now owned by the Earl of Radnor at Longford Castle, United Kingdom;[7] others survive in museums.

Occult sciences

Astrology and alchemy were mainstream science in Renaissance Prague, and Rudolf 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.[2] When Rudolf was a prince, Nostradamus prepared a horoscope which was dedicated to him as 'Prince and King'.

Rudolf gave Prague a mystical reputation that persists in part to this day, with Alchemists' Alley on the grounds of Prague Castle a popular visiting place.

Titles

Holy Roman Emperor, King of Bohemia, Margrave of Moravia, Prince of Piombino, King of Hungary, King of Croatia, King of Slavonia, Archduke of Austria, King of the Romans.

Ancestors

See also

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Hotson, 1999.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Marshall, 2006.
  3. ^ Rouse, 1977.
  4. ^ Trevor-Roper, 116-120
  5. ^ Trevor-Roper, 121-123. Trevor-Roper mentions many stories and rumours, but not those of Rudolf's homosexuality
  6. ^ Wendell E. Wilson, Joel A. Bartsch & Mark Mauthner, Masterpieces of the Mineral World: Treasures from the Houston Museum of Natural Science, Houston Museum of Natural Science Harry N. Abrams/New York, 2004,.ISBN 0-810-96751-0
  7. ^ Hayward, J. F., 1980. A Chair from the 'Kunstkammer' of the Emperor Rudolf II. The Burlington Magazine, 122(927), 428 to 432. [1]

References

  • Bolton, Henry Carrington (1904). The Follies of Science at the Court of Rudolph II, 1576-1612, Milwaukee: Pharmaceutical Review Publishing Co., 1904. From Internet Archive Inaccurate and misleading
  • Evans, R. J. W. (1953). Rudolf II and his world: A study in intellectual history, 1576-1612. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2nd ed, 1984. Considered the fundamental re-evaluation of Rudolf.
  • Rowse, A. L. (1977). Homosexuals in History: Ambivalence in Society, Literature and the Arts. MacMillan Publishing Co., Inc. ISBN 0026056208
  • Hotson, Howard (1999). "Rudolf II", in Encyclopedia of the Renaissance, ed. Paul Grendler. Vol. 5. ISBN 0684805146
  • Marshall, Peter (2006). The Magic Circle of Rudolf II: Alchemy and Astrology in Renaissance Prague. ISBN 0802715516. Also published as The Theatre of the World: Alchemy, Astrology and Magic in Renaissance Prague (in the UK, ISBN 0436205211; in Canada, ISBN 0771756907); and in paperback as The Mercurial Emperor: The Magic Circle of Rudolf II in Renaissance Prague (2007) ISBN 978184413537. Biography, focusing on the many artists and "scientists" Rudolf patronized.
  • Trevor-Roper, Hugh; Princes and Artists, Patronage and Ideology at Four Habsburg Courts 1517-1633, Thames & Hudson, London, 1976, ISBN 0500232326

External links

Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor
Born: 18 July 1552 Died: 20 January 1612
Regnal titles
Preceded by
Maximilian II
King of Bohemia
1576–1611
Succeeded by
Matthias
King of Hungary
Margrave of Moravia

1576–1608
King in Germany
(formally King of the Romans)

1575–1612
Holy Roman Emperor (elect)
1576–1612
Archduke of Austria
1576–1608
Preceded by
Iacopo VII Appiani
Prince of Piombino
1603–1611
Succeeded by
Isabella Appiani
Preceded by
Sigismund Báthory
Prince of Transylvania
1598
Succeeded by
Sigismund Báthory
Preceded by
Michael the Brave
Prince of Transylvania
1600–1601
Succeeded by
Sigismund Báthory
Preceded by
Sigismund Báthory
Prince of Transylvania
1601–1605
Succeeded by
Stephen Bocskay

 
 

 

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