Ferdinand II, Archduke of Austria


Ferdinand II, Archduke of Austria was ruler of Further Austria and Imperial Count of Tyrol since 1564. The son of Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor, he first married Philippine Welser, and later Anna Caterina Gonzaga. Through his second marriage he was the father of Anna of Tyrol, the future Holy Roman Empress.

Biography

[Image:William Scrots 002.jpg|thumb|right|Archduke Ferdinand at a young age]
Archduke Ferdinand of Austria was the second son of Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor and Bohemia and Hungary">Kingdom of Bohemia">Bohemia and Hungary. He was a younger brother of Emperor Maximilian II.
He grew up in Innsbruck, where his father governed the Austrian hereditary lands on behalf of Ferdinand's uncle Charles V.
Ferdinand was said to be the favorite son of his father. He was described by a visiting dignitary to court as "handsome and friendlier" than his brother Maximilian.
Ferdinand and his siblings were raised very strictly and given a thorough education. Among his teachers were Kaspar Ursinus Velius and Georg Tannstätter. Ferdinand and his brother were educated in languages, and other young noble boys were invited to court to be educated alongside the two archdukes. They were not to speak to them in German, only in Latin, Czech or other foreign languages.
Ferdinand was also instructed in the Catholic religion and their God-given right to rule, and that this was a gift based on the condition that they were to fear and love God.
At the behest of his father, he was put in charge of the administration of Bohemia in 1547. He also led the campaign against the Turks in Hungary in 1556.
In 1557, he was secretly married to Philippine Welser, daughter of a patrician from Augsburg, with whom he had several children. The marriage was only accepted by Emperor Ferdinand I in 1559 under the condition of secrecy. The children were to receive the name "of Austria" but would only be entitled to inherit if the House of Habsburg became totally extinct in the male line, and thus the marriage had many qualities of a morganatic marriage. The sons born of this marriage received the title Margrave of Burgau, an ancient Habsburg possession in Further Austria. The younger of the sons, who survived their father, later received the princely title of Fürst zu Burgau.
After his father's death in 1564, Ferdinand became the ruler of Tyrol and other Further Austrian possessions under his father's will. However, he remained governor of Bohemia in Prague until 1567, according to the wishes of his brother Maximilian II.
In his own lands, Ferdinand made sure that the Catholic Counter-Reformation would prevail. He also was instrumental in promoting the Renaissance in central Europe and was an avid collector of art. He accommodated his world-famous collections in a museum built specifically for that purpose, making Ambras Castle the oldest museum in the world, and as the only Renaissance Kunstkammer of its kind to have been preserved at its original location, the Chamber of Art and Curiosities at Ambras Castle represents an unrivalled cultural monument. The collection was started during Ferdinand's time in Bohemia, and he subsequently moved it to Tyrol. In particular, the Chamber of Art and Curiosities, the gallery of portraits, and the collection of armor were very expensive, leading Ferdinand to incur a high level of debt. Part of the collections remained in Innsbruck, and part ultimately was moved to the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.
After the death of his wife Philippine in 1580, he married his niece, Anna Caterina Gonzaga, a daughter of William I, Duke of Mantua, in 1582.
Archduke Ferdinand died on 24 January 1595. Since his sons from the first marriage were not entitled to the inheritance, and the second produced only surviving daughters, Tyrol was reunified with the other Habsburg lands. His daughter from the Mantuan marriage to Anna Caterina became Empress Anna, consort of Mathias, Holy Roman Emperor, who received his Further Austrian inheritance.

Children

[Image:Portrait of Philippine Welser (1527-1580).jpg|thumb|Philippine Welser, Ferdinand's first wife]
He and his first wife Philippine Welser were parents of four children:
On 14 May 1582, Ferdinand married his niece Anna Caterina Gonzaga. She was a daughter of William I, Duke of Mantua, and Eleonora of Austria, younger sister of Ferdinand. They were parents to three daughters:
He had at least two illegitimate children:
With Anna von Obrizon:
  • Veronika von Villanders. Married Giovan Francesco di Gonzaga-Novellara, Lord of Campitello.
With Johanna Lydl von Mayenburg:
  • Hans Christoph von Hertenberg. Married Ursula Gienger.