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Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor

Maximilian II
Nicolas Neufchâtel 002.jpg
Emperor Maximilian II
(by Nicolas Neufchâtel, c. 1566)
Holy Roman Emperor
Archduke of Austria
Reign 25 July 1564 – 12 October 1576
Predecessor Ferdinand I
Successor Rudolf II
King of Bohemia
Reign 20 September 1562 – 12 October 1576
Coronation 20 September 1562, Prague
Predecessor Ferdinand I
Successor Rudolf II
King of the Romans
(King of Germany)
Reign 28 November 1562 – 12 October 1576
Coronation 30 November 1562, Frankfurt
Predecessor Ferdinand I
Successor Rudolf II
King of Hungary and Croatia
contested by John II Sigismund (1564–70)
Reign 8 September 1563 – 12 October 1576
Coronation 8 September 1563, Pressburg
Predecessor Ferdinand I
Successor Rudolf II
Born 31 July 1527
Vienna, Archduchy of Austria
Died 12 October 1576(1576-10-12) (aged 49)
Imperial City of Regensburg
Burial Prague, St. Vitus Cathedral
Spouse Maria of Spain
Issue Anna, Queen of Spain
Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor
Archduke Ernest of Austria
Elizabeth, Queen of France
Matthias, Holy Roman Emperor
Archduke Maximilian of Austria
Archduke Albert of Austria
Archduke Wenceslaus of Austria
Archduchess Margaret of Austria
House Habsburg
Father Ferdinand I
Mother Anna of Bohemia and Hungary
Religion Roman Catholicism

Maximilian II (31 July 1527 – 12 October 1576), a member of the Austrian House of Habsburg, was Holy Roman Emperor from 1564 until his death. He was crowned King of Bohemia in Prague on 14 May 1562 and elected King of Germany (King of the Romans) on 24 November 1562. On 8 September 1563 he was crowned King of Hungary and Croatia in the Hungarian capital Pressburg (Pozsony in Hungarian; now Bratislava, Slovakia). On 25 July 1564 he succeeded his father Ferdinand I as ruler of the Holy Roman Empire.

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 Habsburg Spain cousins.

According to Fichtner, he failed to achieve his three major aims: rationalizing the government structure, unifying Christianity, and evicting the Turks from Hungary.

Born in Vienna, Austria, he was the eldest son of the Habsburg archduke Ferdinand I, younger brother of Emperor Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, and 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, laying the grounds for the global Habsburg Monarchy.


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