Charles II of Austria-Stetyria — Wikipedia

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Charles II François (in German : Karl II. Franz ), born the June 3, 1540 In Vienna and Death on July 10, 1590 In Graz, is a prince of the house of Habsburg, younger son of Emperor Ferdinand I ^isand his wife Anne Jagellon. He was Archduke of Austria, reigning over interior Austria (the duchies of Styria, Carinthia and Carniole as well as the county of Goritz) from 1564 to his death. He is the father of Ferdinand II, archduke of interior Austria and emperor of the Holy Empire, who in the 1620s became heir to all the lines of the dynasty.

At the birth of Charles François, his father Ferdinand I ^isreigned as king of the Romans and representative of his older brother, the emperor Charles V. During the Protestant reform, the rejection of the Confession of Augsburg by Charles V in 1530 had involved a collaboration of the Lutheran princes who have teamed up with The Smalkalde League, a military alliance. Ferdinand demonstrated his will to achieve a compromise and to find a solution achievable to the peace of Nuremberg and to the religious conference of Haguenau; Nevertheless, the Smalkalde war broke out, culminating in the battle of Muehlberg in 1547. The September 25, 1555 , Ferdinand was able to conclude the peace of Augsburg; He became emperor following the abdication of his brother in 1556.

Relations between Ferdinand and his eldest son Maximilien II had been marked by the latter’s sympathies for Protestantism. It guarantees the election of Maximilian as king of the Romans in 1562 but, by a inheritance regulation of the February 25, 1554 , distributes the hereditary territories of the Habsburgs among its sons. Maximilien only received the architect of Austria; His brother Ferdinand II, the preferred preferred of the emperor, obtained the county of Tyrol and the possessions of previous Austria. Charles François, the third son, received the countries of interior Austria. In doing so, Ferdinand I ^ishad reintroduced a partition of the countries of the Habsburg which is almost the same as that carried out according to the Treaty of Neuberg in 1379. When his father died in 1564, Charles, 24, took power over his countries.

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Marriage [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

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Portrait of Marie-Anne de Bavaria (1577).

From 1558, Ferdinand I ^ishad developed great plans for a marriage of one of her sons with the Protestant Queen Elisabeth of England in order to strengthen the position of the English Catholics followed the death of Queen Marie I ^re. After Ferdinand II was secretly married with Philippine Welser, the emperor also negotiated a matrimonial link between Élisabeth and Charles. Nevertheless took place in 1559 and again from 1564 to 1568 to arrange a marriage. However, the queen had finally decided that she would not marry the archduke – the main cause, apart from the character of the queen, being religion ^{[ first ]}.

Charles II marries, the August 26, 1571 , his niece Marie-Anne (1551-1608), daughter of Duke Albert V of Bavaria and his wife Anne of Austria.

Religious positions [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

Unlike his brother Maximilien II, Charles is a pious Catholic who promotes the counter-reform; He invites for example the Jesuits on his lands. However, in 1572, he had to make significant concessions to the states of interior Austria following the events of Graz and Bruck in 1578 ^{[Ref. necessary]}, and Protestantism is now tolerated in practice. The following year, in the attempt to cancel these compromises, he organized a meeting of the apostolic nuncio and representatives of Bavaria, the archbishopric of Salzburg and Tyrol where he asked to define a coherent strategy for the counter-reform , a commitment that immediately resulted in measures in its fields.

Dead [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

Charles died in Graz on July 10, 1590. He was buried in a mausoleum in Seckle with other members of the Habsburg family. This mausoleum, whose construction was undertaken by Alessandro de Verda in 1587 and completed by Sébastien Carlone in 1612, is one of the most important buildings of the Early Baroque in the Southeast Alps.

While the line of inner Austria was to endure most of the war against the Ottoman Empire, the Karlovac fortress in Croatia was founded and named after Charles II.

Charles is also known as a patron of arts and sciences. Roland de Lassus and Lodovico Zacconi was notably his protégés.

In 1580, he founded a stud farm in Lipica in Slovenia, thus playing an important role in the creation of the Lipizzan race.

In 1585, he founded the University of Graz, named after him Karl-Franzens-Universität .

Ascendance [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

Charles II is the third son of Ferdinand I ^is, Germanic emperor and Anne Jagellon (1503-1547), herself a daughter of Vladislas II, king of Bohemia and Hungary and his wife Anne de Foix.

Ascance de Charles 2 d’Austriche-Strie

Descendants [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

Charles II and Marie-Anne de Bavaria have fifteen children:

Ferdinand (1572-1572)
Anne of Austria (1573-1598) who married, in 1592, the king of Poland Sigismond III Vasa (1566-1632)
Marie-Christine (1574-1621) who married, in 1595, Sigismond Ier Báthori, Prince of Transylvania (1572-1613) and divorce in 1599
Catherine Renée (1576-1599)
Élisabeth (1577-1586)
Ferdinand II (1578-1637) who became a Germanic emperor under the title of Ferdinand II
Charles (1579-1580)
Gregoria Maximilienne, (1581-1597)
Éléonore (1582-1620), nun
Maximilien Ernest (1583-1616)
Marguerite (1584-1611) who married, in 1599, the King of Spain Philippe III (1578-1621)
Léopold V of Tyrol (1586-1632), Duke of Tyrol, Laïc bishop of Strasbourg and Passau who married, in 1626, Claude de Médicis (1604-1648)
Constance (1588-1631) who married, in 1605, the king of Poland Sigismond III Vasa (1566-1632) widower of his sister Anne
Marie-Madeleine (1589-1631) who married, in 1608, the Grand Duke of Tuscany Cosme II of Medici (1590-1621)
Charles (1590-1624) bishop of Breslau and Brixen, grand master of the Teutonic Order