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48-525: Maximilian's rule was shaped by the confessionalization process after the 1555 Peace of Augsburg . Though a Habsburg and a Catholic, he approached the Lutheran Imperial estates with a view to overcome the denominational schism, which ultimately failed. He also was faced with the ongoing Ottoman–Habsburg wars and rising conflicts with his Spanish Habsburg cousins. According to Fichtner, Maximilian failed to achieve his three major aims: rationalizing

96-663: A large army and marched to fight the Ottomans. The Ottomans besieged and conquered Szigetvár in 1566, but their sultan , Suleiman the Magnificent , died of old age during the siege. With neither side winning a decisive engagement, Maximilian's ambassadors Antun Vrančić and Christoph Teuffenbach met with the Ottoman Grand Vizier Sokollu Mehmed Pasha in Adrianople to negotiate a truce in 1568. The terms of

144-669: A multi-confessional empire with one state religion, banned the proselytization of other faiths to Orthodox Christians. However, the tsarist administration supported centralizing institutions within other religions (such as the Orenburg Assembly ) insofar as they would aid in local administration and were allied with the state. Princes of the Holy Roman Empire Prince of the Holy Roman Empire ( Latin : princeps imperii , German : Reichsfürst , cf. Fürst )

192-477: Is often described as a developmental stage towards both the absolutist states of the 17th and 18th centuries, as well as the modern welfare state . Nancy Shields Kollmann used the term "confessionalization" to refer to the religious arbitration and control used in the Russian Empire to manage the activity of non-Orthodox religions such as Catholicism, Lutheranism, Islam, Judaism, and Buddhism. Tsarist Russia,

240-677: The Reichsgrafen (imperial counts), Freiherren (barons) and Reichsprälaten (imperial prelates), who formed with them the Imperial Diet assemblies, but held only collective votes. Around 1180, the secular Princes comprised the Herzöge (Dukes) who generally ruled larger territories within the Empire in the tradition of the former German stem duchies , but also the Counts of Anhalt and Namur ,

288-582: The Corpus Christianum . The new model sought to establish a decentralized Christian community, rooted in the belief that one's own interpretative theology was correct and sufficient. Confessionalization was supported by monarchs and rulers in general, because after the Reformation had brought control over their territories' churches into their hands, they could exercise more power over their subjects by enforcing strict religious obedience. The main tool for

336-502: The Diet of Augsburg in 1582 explicitly stated that the status was inextricably linked with the possession of a particular Imperial territory. Later elevated noble families like the Fürstenberg , Liechtenstein or Thurn und Taxis dynasties subsequently began to refer to their territory as a "principality" and assumed the awarded rank of a Prince ( Fürst ) as a hereditary title . Most of

384-646: The Jagiellonian Princess Anne of Bohemia and Hungary (1503–1547). He was named after his great-grandfather, Emperor Maximilian I . At the time of his birth, his father Ferdinand succeeded his brother-in-law King Louis II in the Kingdom of Bohemia and the Kingdom of Hungary , greatly expanding the Habsburg monarchy . Having spent his childhood years at his father's court in Innsbruck , Tyrol , Maximilian

432-683: The Masses of the Catholic Church. In November 1562 Maximilian was chosen King of the Romans , or German king, by the electoral college at Frankfurt , where he was crowned a few days later, after assuring the Catholic electors of his fidelity to their faith, and promising the Protestant electors that he would publicly accept the confession of Augsburg when he became emperor. He also took the usual oath to protect

480-533: The Netherlands , and nothing was done in this direction, although some assistance was voted for the defense of Austria. The religious demands of the Protestants were still unsatisfied, while the policy of toleration had failed to give peace to Austria. Maximilian's power was very limited; it was inability rather than unwillingness that prevented him from yielding to the entreaties of Pope Pius V to join in an attack on

528-718: The Renaissance Stallburg wing, the site of the later Spanish Riding School , and also ordered the construction of Neugebäude Palace in Simmering . In the 1550s, Vienna had more than 50,000 inhabitants, making it the largest city in Central Europe with Prague and before Nuremberg (40,000 inhabitants). The religious views of the future King of Bohemia had always been somewhat uncertain, and he had probably learned something of Lutheranism in his youth; but his amicable relations with several Protestant princes, which began about

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576-653: The Schmalkaldic War . Upon Charles' victory in the 1547 Battle of Mühlberg , Maximilian put in a good word for the Schmalkaldic leaders, Elector John Frederick I, Elector of Saxony and Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse , and soon began to take part in Imperial business. On 13 September 1548 Emperor Charles V married Maximilian to Charles's daughter (Maximilian's cousin) Maria of Spain in the Castile residence of Valladolid . By

624-482: The Treaty of Adrianople required the emperor to recognise Ottoman suzerainty over Transylvania , Wallachia , and Moldavia . Meanwhile, the relations between Maximilian and Philip of Spain had improved, and the emperor's increasingly cautious and moderate attitude in religious matters was doubtless because the death of Philip's son, Don Carlos , had opened the way for the succession of Maximilian, or of one of his sons, to

672-420: The Catholic Church, and when his father Ferdinand became emperor in 1558 he was prepared to assure Pope Paul IV that his son should not succeed him if he took this step. Eventually Maximilian remained nominally an adherent of the older faith, although his views were tinged with Lutheranism until the end of his life. After several refusals he consented in 1560 to the banishment of Pfauser, and began again to attend

720-610: The Church, and his election was afterwards confirmed by the papacy. He was the first King of the Romans not to be crowned in Aachen . In September 1563 he was crowned King of Hungary by the Archbishop of Esztergom , Nicolaus Olahus , and on his father's death, in July 1564, he succeeded to the empire and to the kingdoms of Hungary, Croatia and Bohemia. The new emperor had already shown that he believed in

768-565: The Counts who ruled territories were raised to Princely rank in the decades before the end of the Empire in 1806. Ecclesiastical Princes were the Prince-Bishops (including the Prince-Archbishops of Besançon , Bremen , Magdeburg and Salzburg ) as well as the actual Prince-abbots . They comprised a number of political entities which were secularized and mediatized after the 1648 Peace of Westphalia . The honorary status of prince of

816-626: The Empire, but were codified by the Congress of Vienna in 1815 when it created the German Confederation and recognised a specific, elevated status ( Standesherren or Mediatized Houses ) for the mediatized princes of the defunct Empire. The actual titles used by Imperial nobles varied considerably for historical reasons, and included archdukes , dukes , margraves , landgraves , counts palatine , princely counts ( Gefürstete Grafen ), as well as princes and prince-electors . Moreover, most of

864-685: The German Protestant princes by his refusal to invest Lutheran administrators of prince-bishoprics with their imperial fiefs. Yet on a personal basis he granted freedom of worship to the Protestant nobility and worked for reform in the Roman Catholic Church, including the right of priests to marry. This failed because of Spanish opposition. Maximilian II was a member of the Order of the Golden Fleece . Under Ferdinand I and Maximilian II,

912-568: The German fiefs in the Empire (except electorships) were heritable by all males of a family rather than by primogeniture , the princely title (or whatever title the family used) being likewise shared by all agnatic family members, male and female. The estate of imperial princes or Reichsfürstenstand was established in a legal sense in the Late Middle Ages . A particular estate of "the Princes"

960-718: The Habsburg territories or of the Netherlands. His eldest daughter, Anna, married Philip II of Spain. Another daughter, Elizabeth , married Charles IX of France . Maximilian's policies of religious neutrality and peace in the empire afforded its Roman Catholics and Protestants a breathing space after the first struggles of the Reformation . His reign also saw the high point of Protestantism in Austria and Bohemia and unlike his successors, Maximilian did not try to suppress it. He disappointed

1008-428: The Holy Roman Empire. Calvin's Geneva is also a model case for the confessional era because of its high degree of social control, unity and homogeneity under one expression of a reformed Christian faith. The Genevan model was informed by an interpretation of Erasmus' humanism . The reformation had shown the independent character of northern Europe to resist acceptance to Catholic orthodoxy and thus called for an end to

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1056-606: The Kingdom of Bohemia, nevertheless Maximilian's right of succession as the future king was recognised in 1549. He returned to Germany in December 1550 in order to take part in the discussion over the Imperial succession. Maximilian's relations with his uncle worsened, as Charles V, again embattled by rebellious Protestant princes led by Elector Maurice of Saxony , wished his son Philip II of Spain to succeed him as emperor. However, Charles' brother Ferdinand, who had already been elected as

1104-744: The Landgraves of Thuringia and the Margraves of Meissen . From the 13th century onwards, further estates were formally raised to the princely status by the emperor. Among the most important of these were the Welf descendants of Henry the Lion in Brunswick-Lüneburg , elevated to Princes of the Empire and vested with the ducal title by Emperor Frederick II in 1235, and the Landgraves of Hesse in 1292. The resolutions of

1152-431: The Romans , was to govern Germany. This arrangement was not carried out, and is only important because the insistence of the emperor seriously disturbed the harmonious relations that had hitherto existed between the two branches of the Habsburg family; an illness that befell Maximilian in 1552 was attributed to poison given to him in the interests of his cousin and brother-in-law, Philip II of Spain. The relationship between

1200-476: The Spanish throne. Evidence of this friendly feeling was given in 1570, when the emperor's daughter, Anna , became the fourth wife of Philip; but Maximilian was unable to moderate the harsh proceedings of the Spanish king against the revolting inhabitants of the Netherlands . In 1570 the emperor met the Diet of Speyer and asked for aid to place his eastern borders in a state of defence, and also for power to repress

1248-666: The Turks both before and after the victory of Lepanto in 1571; and he remained inert while the authority of the empire in north-eastern Europe was threatened. In 1576, Maximilian was elected by the part of Polish and Lithuanian magnates to be the King of Poland in opposition to Stephan IV Bathory , but he did not manage to become widely accepted there and was forced to leave Poland. Maximilian died on 12 October 1576 in Regensburg while preparing to invade Poland. On his deathbed he refused to receive

1296-821: The botanist Carolus Clusius and the diplomat Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq . Maximilian's library curated by Hugo Blotius later became the nucleus of the Austrian National Library . He implemented the Roman School of composition with his court orchestra, however, his plans to win Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina as Kapellmeister foundered on financial reasons. On 13 September 1548, Maximilian married his first cousin Maria of Spain , daughter of Emperor Charles V and Isabella of Portugal . Despite Maria's commitment to Habsburg Spain and her strong Catholic manners,

1344-498: The city with a large entourage including the elephant Suleiman . While his father Ferdinand concluded the 1552 Treaty of Passau with the Protestant estates and finally reached the Peace of Augsburg in 1555, Maximilian was engaged mainly in the government of the Austrian hereditary lands and in defending them against Ottoman incursions. In Vienna, he had his Hofburg residence extended with

1392-540: The consequence of creating distinctive confessional identities that influenced church dogma, faith formation, liturgy, and the development of universities. The German historian Ernst Walter Zeeden first described the phenomenon of 'confession building' ( Konfessionsbildung ) in the 1950s. In the 1970s, Wolfgang Reinhard and Heinz Schilling further developed these ideas in parallel, applying their ideas to church-state formation in Roman Catholic and Lutheran contexts in

1440-453: The disorder caused by troops in the service of foreign powers passing through Germany. He proposed that his consent should be necessary before any soldiers for foreign service were recruited in the empire; but the estates were unwilling to strengthen the imperial authority, the Protestant princes regarded the suggestion as an attempt to prevent them from assisting their co-religionists in France and

1488-470: The enforcement of these rules were "police-regulations". These were behavior codes for religious, social and economic life to which the common citizen had to oblige under threat of severe punishment. Increasingly, the secular governments (sometimes in cooperation or conflict with the churches they controlled) provided material relief for the poor and needy, and in return the state demanded obedience and increased taxes from its subjects. Thus, confessionalization

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1536-608: The government structure, unifying Christianity, and evicting the Turks from Hungary. Peter Marshall opines that it is wrong to dismiss Maximilian as a failure. According to Marshall, through his religious tolerance as well as his encouragement of arts and sciences, he succeeded in maintaining a precarious peace. Maximilian was born in Vienna , Austria , the second child and eldest son of the Habsburg King Ferdinand I , younger brother of Emperor Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor , and

1584-484: The imperial court itself became the centre of humanist scholarship. The court held close ties to the University of Vienna but the university, that reached its summit under Maximilian I , had been severely diminished due to wars and civil disturbances. In his court, Catholic and Prostestant scholars equally thrived. Many artists and scholars came from Spain, Italy and Spanish Netherlands. Maximilian employed scholars like

1632-547: The last sacraments of the Church. He is buried in St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague . By his wife Maria he had a family of ten sons and six daughters. He was succeeded by his eldest surviving son, Rudolf , who had been chosen king of the Romans in October 1575. Another of his sons, Matthias , also became emperor; three others, Ernest , Albert and Maximilian , took some part in the government of

1680-626: The laws and traditions of the empire) as well as an individual or shared vote in the College of Princes , and those whose title was honorary (the possessor lacking an immediate Imperial fief and/or a vote in the Imperial Diet). The first came to be reckoned as "royalty" in the sense of being treated as sovereigns, entitled to inter-marry with reigning dynasties. The second tier consisted of high-ranking nobles whose princely title did not, however, imply equality with royalty. These distinctions evolved within

1728-561: The marriage his uncle intended to strengthen the ties with the Spanish branch of the Habsburgs, but also to consolidate his nephew's Catholic faith. Maximilian temporarily acted as the emperor's representative in Spain , however not as stadtholder of the Habsburg Netherlands as he had hoped for. To his indignation, King Ferdinand appointed his younger brother Ferdinand II administrator in

1776-507: The marriage was a happy one. The couple had sixteen children in just nineteen years, but only nine of them lived to adulthood: Confessionalization In Protestant Reformation history, confessionalization is the parallel processes of "confession-building" taking place in Europe between the Peace of Augsburg (1555) and the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648). For most of this time, there

1824-533: The necessity for a thorough reform of the Church. He was unable, however, to obtain the consent of Pope Pius IV to the marriage of the clergy, and in 1568 the concession of communion in both kinds to the laity was withdrawn. On his part Maximilian granted religious liberty to the Lutheran nobles and knights in Austria, and refused to allow the publication of the decrees of the Council of Trent . Amidst general expectations on

1872-403: The next occupant of the imperial throne, and his son Maximilian objected to this proposal. Maximilian sought the support of the German princes such as Albert V, Duke of Bavaria and even contacted Protestant leaders like Maurice of Saxony and Christoph, Duke of Württemberg . At length a compromise was reached: Philip was to succeed Ferdinand, but during the former's reign Maximilian, as King of

1920-453: The part of the Protestants he met his first summoned Diet of Augsburg in March 1566. He refused to accede to the demands of the Lutheran princes; on the other hand, although the increase of sectarianism was discussed, no decisive steps were taken to suppress it, and the only result of the meeting was a grant of assistance for the war with the Turks , which had just been renewed. Maximilian gathered

1968-520: The princely states of the Holy Roman Empire had to meet three requirements: Not all states met all three requirements, so one may distinguish between effective and honorary princes of the Holy Roman Empire. The Princes of the Empire ranked below the seven Prince-electors ( Kurfürsten ; archaic spelling Churfürsten ) designated by the Golden Bull of 1356 (and later electors), but above

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2016-475: The time of the discussion over the succession, were probably due more to political than to religious considerations. However, in Vienna he became very intimate with Sebastian Pfauser  [ de ] , a court preacher influenced by Heinrich Bullinger with strong leanings towards Lutheranism, and his religious attitude caused some uneasiness to his father. Fears were freely expressed that he would definitely leave

2064-450: The two cousins was uneasy. While Philip had been raised a Spaniard and barely travelled out of the kingdom during his life, Maximilian identified himself as the quintessential German prince and often displayed a strong dislike of Spaniards, whom he considered as intolerant and arrogant. While his cousin was reserved and shy, Maximilian was outgoing and charismatic. His adherence to humanism and religious tolerance put him at odds with Philip who

2112-468: Was a nominal peace in the Holy Roman Empire between the Protestant and Catholic confessions as both competed to establish their faith more firmly with the population of their respective areas. This confession-building occurred through "social-disciplining," as there was a stricter enforcement by the churches of their particular rules for all aspects of life in both Protestant and Catholic areas. This had

2160-697: Was a title attributed to a hereditary ruler, nobleman or prelate recognised by the Holy Roman Emperor . Originally, possessors of the princely title bore it as immediate vassals of the Emperor who held a fief (secular or ecclesiastical) that had no suzerain except the Emperor. However, by the time the Holy Roman Empire was abolished in 1806, there were a number of holders of Imperial princely titles who did not meet these criteria. Thus, there were two main types of princes: those who exercised Landeshoheit ( sovereignty within one's territory while respecting

2208-535: Was educated principally in Italy. Among his teachers were humanist scholars like Kaspar Ursinus Velius and Georg Tannstetter . He also came in contact with the Lutheran teaching and early on corresponded with the Protestant prince Augustus of Saxony . From the age of 17, he gained some experience of warfare during the Italian War campaign of his uncle Charles V against King Francis I of France in 1544, and also during

2256-455: Was first mentioned in the decree issued by Emperor Frederick Barbarossa in 1180 at the Imperial Diet of Gelnhausen , in which he divested Duke Henry the Lion of Saxony and Bavaria . About fifty years later, Eike of Repgow codified it as an emanation of feudal law recorded in his Sachsenspiegel , where the lay princes formed the third level or Heerschild in the feudal military structure below ecclesiastical princes. Officially

2304-411: Was more committed to the defence of the Catholic faith. Also, he was considered a promising commander, while Philip disliked war and only once personally commanded an army. Nonetheless, the two remained committed to the unity of their dynasty. In 1551 Maximilian attended the Council of Trent and the next year took up his residence at the Hofburg palace in Vienna, celebrated by a triumphal return into

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