Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor
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Rudolf II (July 18, 1552-January 20, 1612) of the Habsburg dynasty was king of Hungary (as Rudolf, 1572-1608), king of Bohemia (as Rudolf II, 1575-1608/1611), archduke of Austria (as Rudolf V, 1576-1608), and Holy Roman Emperor (as Rudolf II, 1576-1612).
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 patron of Renaissance art; and a devotee of occult arts and learning which helped seed the scientific revolution.
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[edit] Biography
Rudolf was born in Vienna on July 18, 1552. He was the eldest son and successor of Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor, King of Bohemia, King of Hungary; his mother was Maria of Spain, a daughter of Charles V and Isabella of Portugal.
Rudolf spent eight formative years (1563-1571) between the ages of 11 and 19 at his mother's brother (uncle) Phillip II's court in Spain. After his return to Vienna his father was concerned about Rudolf's aloof and stiff nature, typical of the more conservative Spanish court, instead of the more relaxed and open Bohemian 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, which was mainstream in the Renaissance period such as astrology and alchemy, as well as collecting, a patron of the arts, horses, clocks and a wide variety of personal hobbies. He suffered from periodic bouts of "melancholy" (depression), which was common in the Habsburg line, which became worse with age, manifested by a withdrawal from the world and its affairs into his private interests. Rudolf never married but had many mistresses and children with a retinue of 'imperial women'.[2]
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, but which was undermined by the realities of religious, political and intellectual disintegrations of the time.[1]
Although raised in his uncles 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 he could unify all of Christendom with a new Crusade, he entered a long and indecisive war with the Turks between 1593 and 1606, 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 the Hungarian affair to his younger brother Archduke Mathias, who by 1606 forged a difficult peace with the Hungarian rebels (Peace of Vienna), and the Turks (Peace of Zsitvatorok). Rudolf was angry with his brothers concessions, which he saw as giving away too much in order to further Mathias' hold on power, and 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 crown of Hungary, Austria and Moravia to Matthias. 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 military 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 would inherit five months later. In May 1618 at en event known as the Defenestrations of Prague, the Protestant Bohemians, in defense of the rights granted them in the Letter of Majesty, began the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648).
[edit] Patron of arts
Rudolf moved the Habsburg capital from Vienna to Prague in 1583. Rudolf loved paintings and collecting paintings and was often reported to sit and stare at a new work for hours on end in rapture.[2] He spared no expense acquiring great past masterworks such as those by Albrecht Durer and Pieter Brueghel the Elder. He also was patron to some of the best contemporary artists of the age, who mainly produced new works in the mannerism style, artists such as Bartholomaus Spranger, Hans Mont, Giuseppe Arcimboldo, Hans von Aachen and Adrian de Vries. Rudolf's galleries were the most impressive in Europe at the time, and the greatest collection of mannerism to this day.[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 created by some of the best craftsmen in Europe.
He kept a menagerie of exotic animals, botanical gardens, and Europe's largest and most unique "cabinet of curiosities" filled with items of the curious and exotic, such as saints relics, coconuts from India, gems, American Indian artifacts.[2]
He patronized natural philosophers such as the botanist Charles de l'Ecluse, and both Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler attended his court.
[edit] Occult sciences
Astronomy and alchemy were mainstream science in the Renaissance Prague and Rudolf was a firm devotee of both. His lifelong quest was to find the Philosophers Stone and Rudolf spared no expense in brining 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]
Rudolf gave Prague a mystical reputation that persists in part to this day, with Alchemists' Alley in the grounds of Prague Castle a popular visiting place.
[edit] See also
- Moldavian Magnate Wars for the background on southern wars (with Ottomans and its allies)
[edit] Notes
[edit] 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
- 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.
- 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. Biography, focusing on the many artists and "scientists" Rudolf patronized.
[edit] External links
- Rudolf II, from Encyclopedia Britannica, latest edition online, full-article.
- Rudolf II and Prague, 1997 official exhibition.
- Prague during the reign of Rudolf II, by Jacob Wisse, in Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000.
- Golem Stories, by Edward Einhorn, examines Rudolf II's association with the golem legend.
[edit] Ancestors
| Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor | Father: Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor |
Father's father: Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor |
Father's father's father: Philip I of Castile |
| Father's father's mother: Joanna of Castile |
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| Father's mother: Anna of Bohemia and Hungary |
Father's mother's father: Ladislaus II of Bohemia and Hungary |
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| Father's mother's mother: Anne de Foix |
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| Mother: Maria of Spain |
Mother's father: Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor |
Mother's father's father: Philip I of Castile |
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| Mother's father's mother: Joanna of Castile |
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| Mother's mother: Isabella of Portugal |
Mother's mother's father: Manuel I of Portugal |
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| Mother's mother's mother: Maria of Aragon |
| Preceded by Maximilian II |
King of Germany, Holy Roman Emperor, King of Bohemia, Margrave of Moravia, King of Hungary, King of Croatia and Slavonia and Archduke of Austria 1576–1608 |
Succeeded by Matthias |
| Preceded by Ferdinand II, Archduke of Further Austria |
ruler of Tirol and Further Austria 1595–1595 |
