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Kunz Lochner, Nuremberg’s most celebrated armorer of the period, made several armors for both Ferdinand and his son Archduke Maximilian (1527–1576), including two matching armors produced about 1546 that are very similar to the one exhibited here.
- Breastplate
The Holy Roman Empire and the Habsburgs, 1400-1600....
- Radziwill
Pair of Tassets (Thigh Defenses) Belonging to an Armor for...
- Kunz Lochner
His patrons included the Holy Roman Emperor, the dukes of...
- Breastplate
- Overview
- Early years
- Ferdinand and Wallenstein
- Legacy
Ferdinand II (born July 9, 1578, Graz, Styria [now in Austria]—died February 15, 1637, Vienna) Holy Roman emperor (1619–37), archduke of Austria, king of Bohemia (1617–19, 1620–27), and king of Hungary (1618–25). He was the leading champion of the Roman Catholic Counter-Reformation and of absolutist rule during the Thirty Years’ War.
Ferdinand was born in Graz, the eldest son of the archduke Charles, the ruler of Inner Austria (Styria, Carinthia, and Carniola), and Maria, a daughter of Albrecht V, duke of Bavaria. From 1590 to 1595 he was educated at the University of Ingolstadt by Jesuits whose aim was to make him a strict, rigidly Catholic ruler. In 1596 he took over his hereditary lands and, after a pilgrimage to Loreto and Rome, set about suppressing Protestantism by forcing the great majority of his subjects to adopt the Roman Catholic faith. In 1600 he married Maria Anna of Bavaria, who bore him four children. He avoided committing himself in a quarrel between his cousins, the Holy Roman emperor Rudolf II and his brother Matthias, who eventually succeeded Rudolf as emperor. Later Ferdinand secured approval from the Habsburg rulers of Spain to succeed the childless Matthias. In return he promised in a secret treaty (1617) to cede to them Alsace and the imperial fiefs in Italy. In the same year, Ferdinand was recognized by the Bohemian Diet as king of Bohemia and in 1618 was elected king of Hungary. In 1619, however, the largely Protestant diet of Bohemia deposed him, electing Frederick V, elector of the Palatinate, as their king. This was, in effect, the beginning of the Thirty Years’ War. Though elected Holy Roman emperor on August 28, 1619, Ferdinand was able to maintain himself only with support from Spain, Poland, and various German princes. Aided by Maximilian I, duke of Bavaria, his troops annihilated the rebel army on the White Mountain, near Prague, on November 8, 1620. He confiscated the estates of the rebel magnates, reduced the Diet to impotence by a new constituent ordinance (1627), and forcibly catholicized Bohemia. The Protestants of Upper and Lower Austria were subjected to compulsory conversion.
Britannica Quiz
During the first decade of the Thirty Years’ War, Ferdinand strengthened his position by transferring the Palatinate’s electoral office to Maximilian of Bavaria. In addition, with the help of Spain and the league of Catholic princes of Germany, and through the victories of his generalissimo Albrecht von Wallenstein, he gained important successes ov...
In the prime of his life Ferdinand was described as a blue-eyed, somewhat corpulent, middle-sized man who wore Spanish court dress. A good-natured, benevolent, affable monarch, he was imbued with the belief in the splendour of the imperial crown and the greatness of his dynasty. Besides German he spoke Italian, French, and Spanish, was fond of music, and liked reading religious books, but his passion was hunting. Although he kept a frugal court, he was a bad financier who too generously gave away the greatest part of confiscated estates to his faithful followers. A very pious Catholic, he especially favoured the Jesuits. Yet, basing his policies chiefly on religious principles, he suffered from discrepancies between his religious goals and the maxims of a modern raison d’état. An indecisive man, he depended much on the influence of his counselors and his Jesuit confessors. Yet in the face of the shifting fortunes of war, he showed much steadfastness, although he often lacked political agility. A person of moderate talents and willpower, he nevertheless exerted a strong influence on the events of his time by his strict and uncompromising religious policy.
By promoting the Counter-Reformation, Ferdinand II set the course of Austrian Habsburg policy for the next century. By creating an independent Austrian court chancellery and by establishing in his will the principles of Austria’s indivisibility and of primogeniture in his family, he made an essential contribution to the country’s national integration. Yet by maintaining the country’s historical provinces and estates, after their subjugation, he preserved the principle of federalism in Austria. Ferdinand’s Roman Catholic contemporaries considered him a saintlike monarch; his Protestant opponents feared him as a tyrant. Roman Catholic historiography of the 19th century assigned him too high a place, while liberal historians were likely to underestimate his importance. Modern historians tend to view Ferdinand’s religious policy as determined by his time, to acknowledge his importance in molding Austria’s provinces into an integral whole, and to see in his imperial policy an attempt at creating a Roman Catholic German state, however inconsistently carried out.
The Armor of Emperor Ferdinand I is a suit of plate armor created by the Nuremberg armorer Kunz Lochner in 1549 for the future Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor.
- 170.2 cm (67.0 in)
- Kunz Lochner
- 1549
- Plate armor: steel, brass, leather
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This armor, however, did not belong to any ordinary cavalryman, but to Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II. Ferdinand ruled during the turmoil of the Thirty Years’ War (1618–48), which devastated much of central Europe.
Jun 30, 2022 · Archduke Ferdinand II put a great deal of effort into his collection of arms and armor, which included suits from not only his friends and family but also his enemies.
- Cleveland Museum of Art
Ferdinand II, (born July 9, 1578, Graz, Styria—died Feb. 15, 1637, Vienna), Holy Roman emperor (1619–37), archduke of Austria, king of Bohemia (1617–19, 1620–27) and king of Hungary (1618–25).
Jul 14, 2023 · Ferdinand II: The Counter-Reformation Emperor. In the 17th century, the Habsburg dynasty closely allied itself with the Catholic side. Ferdinand II was the most fervent defender of the Catholic faith.
