Rodolphe II of the Holy roman Empire

Rodolphe II of Habsbourg (born the July 18th 1552 with Vienna - died the January 20th 1612 with Prague), Emperor of the Holy Empire of 1576 with 1612, king de Bohême and king de Hongrie, wire of Maximilien II, (Emperor of the Saint Worsens, king de Bohême and king de Hongrie) and of Marie of Spain, girl of Charles Quint.

Reaching the throne of Habsbourg, it replaces the tolerant policy of his father to the profit of the Protestantisme and helps with the Counter-Reformation. Although it is informed, it is unable to reign, and on the end of its life, it will be prone to accesses of madness, which will lead a certain number of family members to intervene in the imperial businesses. Sovereign introverted and melancholic person, poor political, poor combatant, admiror of the life and the women, guard of arts and sciences (Arcimboldo, Spranger, Tycho Brahé, Johannes Kepler) but also furiously enthusiast of esotericism - its entourage swarms alchemists and astrologers - Rodolphe II offer a multitude of faces.

Court of Rodolphe II

In the first years which followed its advent, Rodolphe II maintained the court imperial in Vienna and kept near him the artists who worked for his father. Installed to Prague as of the beginning of the year 1580, Rodolphe transferred the imperial residence in to it 1586. The development of the records aulic made this city a brilliant cosmopolitan capital of sciences and arts as well as a center of development and diffusion of the Scandinavian Maniérisme.

The Cabinet of curiosities of Rodoplhe II was famous in its time, and considered as more the good example of these “private museums” of all Europe. Its rich person collections are well-known for us thanks to a pictorial inventory drawn up about 1600 and composed of many miniatures (preserved today at Österreichische Nationalbibliothek of Vienna).

The Château of Prague owes him the construction of monumental Spanish Salle which has of Spanish neither the architect nor the decorators but whose qualifier comes from pompeuse and heavy the label of the imperial court that Habsbourg had inherited their passage on the throne of Spain.

The rise of Matthias

In 1595, his/her uncle, the archduke Ferdinand de Habsbourg dies without legitimate male heir. The Salic law wants that it is Rodolphe, oldest son of the older brother of Ferdinand which takes its succession but Rodolphe allows that it is his/her Matthias brother, husband of the only legitimate girl of Ferdinand which goes up on the throne of German Vorlande (: Vorderösterreich ), which includes the duchy of the Tyrol, the principality of Vorarlberg in Austria, the Sundgau in Alsace, margraviats of Burgau and Brisgau in Germany, the Argovie, cradle of Habsbourg in Switzerland, etc

After a revolt in June 1604 of Etienne II Bocskai and its Othoman allies, caused by the attempt at Rodolphe to impose the Catholicism in Hungary, the majority of the prerogatives pass to his/her brother Matthias. In 1608, this one forces Rodolphe to yield the Hungary, the Austria and the Moravie to him. Seeking to receive the support of the fields of Bohemia, Rodolphe publishes in 1609 a royal charter called the “ Majestät ”, guaranteeing a freedom of worship with noble and the cities.

Its efforts remain vain, and Rodolphe is forced to yield the Bohemia to his/her Matthias brother in 1611. Its turbulent reign will be a prelude to the Guerre Thirty Year old.

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