1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Maximilian II. (emperor)

MAXIMILIAN II. (1527–1576), Roman emperor, was the eldest son of the emperor Ferdinand I. by his wife Anne, daughter of Ladislaus, king of Hungary and Bohemia, and was born in Vienna on the 31st of July 1527. Educated principally in Spain, he gained some experience of warfare during the campaign of Charles V. against France in 1544, and also during the war of the league of Schmalkalden, and soon began to take part in imperial business. Having in September 1548 married his cousin Maria, daughter of Charles V., he acted as the emperor’s representative in Spain from 1548 to 1550, returning to Germany in December 1550 in order to take part in the discussion over the imperial succession. Charles V. wished his son Philip (afterwards king of Spain) to succeed him as emperor, but his brother Ferdinand, who had already been designated as the next occupant of the imperial throne, and Maximilian objected to this proposal. At length a compromise was reached. Philip was to succeed Ferdinand, but during the former’s reign Maximilian, as king of 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 which had hitherto existed between the two branches of the Habsburg family; and the estrangement went so far that an illness which befell Maximilian in 1552 was attributed to poison given to him in the interests of his cousin and brother-in-law, Philip of Spain. About this time he took up his residence in Vienna, and was engaged mainly in the government of the Austrian dominions and in defending them against the Turks. The religious views of the king of Bohemia, as Maximilian had been called since his recognition as the future ruler of that country in 1549, 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 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 (1520–1569), a court preacher with strong leanings towards Lutheranism, and his religious attitude caused some uneasiness to his father. Fears were freely expressed that he would definitely leave the Catholic Church, and when 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 the services of the Catholic Church. This uneasiness having been dispelled, in November 1562 Maximilian was chosen king of the Romans, or German king, at Frankfort, 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 the Church, and his election was afterwards confirmed by the papacy. In September 1563 he was crowned king of Hungary, and on his father’s death, in July 1564, succeeded to the empire and to the kingdoms of Hungary and Bohemia.

The new emperor had already shown that he believed in 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. Amid general expectations on the part of the Protestants he met his first Diet at 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 Turkish War, which had just been renewed. Collecting a large and splendid army Maximilian marched to defend his territories; but no decisive engagement had taken place when a truce was made in 1568, and the emperor continued to pay tribute to the sultan for Hungary. 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 due to the fact that the death of Philip’s son, Don Carlos, had opened the way for the succession of Maximilian, or of one of his sons, to the Spanish throne. Evidence of this friendly feeling was given in 1570, when the emperor’s daughter, Anne, 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 at Spires and asked for aid to place his eastern borders in a state of defence, and also for power to repress 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 coreligionists in France and the Netherlands, and nothing was done in this direction, although some assistance was voted for the defence 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 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. His last important act was to make a bid for the throne of Poland, either for himself or for his son Ernest. In December 1575 he was elected by a powerful faction, but the diet which met at Regensburg was loath to assist; and on the 12th of October 1576 the emperor died, refusing on his deathbed to receive the last sacraments of the Church.

By his wife Maria he had a family of nine sons and six daughters. He was succeeded by his eldest surviving son, Rudolph, 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 the Habsburg territories or of the Netherlands, and a daughter, Elizabeth, married Charles IX. king of France.

The religious attitude of Maximilian has given rise to much discussion, and on this subject the writings of W. Maurenbrecher, W. Goetz and E. Reimann in the Historische Zeitschrift, Bände VII., XV., XXXII. and LXXVII. (Munich, 1870 fol.) should be consulted, and also O. H. Hopfen, Maximilian II. und der Kompromisskatholizismus (Munich, 1895); C. Haupt, Melanchthons und seiner Lehrer Einfluss auf Maximilian II. (Wittenberg, 1897); F. Walter, Die Wahl Maximilians II. (Heidelberg, 1892); W. Goetz, Maximilians II. Wahl zum römischen Könige (Würzburg, 1891), and T. J. Scherg, Über die religiöse Entwickelung Kaiser Maximilians II. bis zu seiner Wahl zum römischen Könige (Würzburg, 1903). For a more general account of his life and work see Briefe und Akten zur Geschichte Maximilians II., edited by W. E. Schwarz (Paderborn, 1889–1891); M. Koch, Quellen zur Geschichte des Kaisers Maximilian II. in Archiven gesammelt (Leipzig, 1857–1861); R. Holtzmann, Kaiser Maximilian II. bis zu seiner Thronbesteigung (Berlin, 1903); E. Wertheimer, Zur Geschichte der Türkenkriege Maximilians II. (Vienna, 1875); L. von Ranke, Über die Zeiten Ferdinands I. und Maximilians II. in Band VII. of his Sämmtliche Werke (Leipzig, 1874), and J. Janssen, Geschichte des deutschen Volkes seit dem Ausgang des Mittelalters, Bände IV. to VIII. (Freiburg, 1885–1894), English translation by M. A. Mitchell and A. M. Christie (London, 1896 fol.).