by Susan Flantzer
© Unofficial Royalty 2023

The Holy Roman Empire was a limited elective monarchy composed of hundreds of kingdoms, principalities, duchies, counties, prince-bishoprics, and Free Imperial Cities in central Europe. The Holy Roman Empire was not really holy since, after Holy Roman Emperor Charles V in 1530, no emperors were crowned by the pope or a bishop. It was not Roman but rather German because it was mainly in the regions of present-day Germany and Austria. It was an empire in name only – the territories it covered were mostly independent each with its own rulers. The Holy Roman Emperor directly ruled over only his family territories, and could not issue decrees and rule autonomously over the Holy Roman Empire. A Holy Roman Emperor was only as strong as his army and alliances, including marriage alliances, made him, and his power was severely restricted by the many sovereigns of the constituent monarchies of the Holy Roman Empire. From the 13th century, prince-electors, or electors for short, elected the Holy Roman Emperor from among the sovereigns of the constituent states.

Frequently but not always, it was common practice to elect the deceased Holy Roman Emperor’s heir. The Holy Roman Empire was an elective monarchy. No person had a legal right to the succession simply because he was related to the current Holy Roman Emperor. However, the Holy Roman Emperor could and often did, while still alive, have a relative (usually a son) elected to succeed him after his death. This elected heir apparent used the title King of the Romans.

Learn more at Unofficial Royalty: What was the Holy Roman Empire?

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Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor (reigned 1564 – 1576) was also King of Bohemia (reigned 1562 – 1576), King of Hungary and Croatia (reigned 1563 – 1576), Archduke of Austria (reigned 1564 – 1576), among many other titles. Born on July 31, 1527, in Vienna, Archduchy of Austria, now in Austria, Maximilian was the second of the fifteen children and the eldest of the four sons of Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor and Anna of Bohemia and Hungary. His paternal grandparents were Philip of Austria, Duke of Burgundy and Juana I, Queen of Castile and León. His maternal grandparents were King Vladislaus II of Bohemia and Hungary and his third wife Anne of Foix-Candale.

Maximilian had fourteen siblings, and all but two reached adulthood:

• Elizabeth of Austria, Queen of Poland (1526 – 1545), married King Sigismund II Augustus of Poland, no children
• Anna of Austria, Duchess of Bavaria (1528 – 1590), married Albrecht V, Duke of Bavaria, had seven children
• Ferdinand II, Archduke of Austria (1529 – 1595), married (1) Philippine Welser, had four children (2) his niece Anna Caterina Gonzaga, had three daughters
• Maria of Austria, Duchess of Jülich-Cleves-Berg (1531 – 1581), married to Wilhelm, Duke of Jülich-Cleves-Berg, had seven children
• Magdalena of Austria (1532 – 1590), a nun
• Catherine of Austria, Queen of Poland (1533 – 1572), married (1) Francesco III Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua, Marquess of Montferrat, no children (2) King Sigismund II Augustus of Poland, no children
• Eleanor of Austria, Duchess of Mantua (1534 – 1594), married Guglielmo Gonzaga I, Duke of Mantua, had three children
• Margarethe of Austria (1536 – 1567), a nun
• Johann of Austria (1538 – 1539), died in infancy
• Barbara of Austria, Duchess of Ferrara, Modena and Reggio (1539 – 1572), married Alfonso II d’Este, Duke of Ferrara, Modena and Reggio, no children
• Karl II, Archduke of Austria (1540 – 1590), his niece Maria Anna of Bavaria, had fifteen children
• Ursula of Austria (1541 – 1543), died in early childhood
• Helena of Austria (1543 – 1574), a nun
• Johanna of Austria, Grand Duchess of Tuscany (1547 – 1578), married Francesco I de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, had eight children, only two daughters survived childhood including Marie de’ Medici, 2nd wife of King Henri IV of France

At the time of Maximilian’s birth, his paternal uncle Charles V was the Holy Roman Emperor and King (Carlos I) of Spain, among many other titles. Charles was one of the most powerful ever monarchs and had a large number of titles due to his vast inheritance of the Burgundian, Spanish, and Austrian realms from his parents Philip of Austria, Duke of Burgundy and Archduke of Austria, the ruler of the vast and wealthy Burgundian State and the Austrian Habsburg realms, and Juana I, Queen of Castile and León, Queen of Aragon which were combined into the Kingdom of Spain under Charles.

Maximilian II spent his early childhood at his father’s court in Innsbruck, County of Tyrol, now in Italy. Among his teachers were humanist scholars Kaspar Ursinus Velius and Georg Tannstetter. While Maximilian and his family were Roman Catholic, some rulers of the constituent states of the Holy Roman Empire had converted to Lutheranism during the Reformation. He developed a relationship with the Lutheran Augustus, Elector of Saxony who spent some time at the court of Maximilian’s father in Vienna. Maximilian learned about Lutheranism and then corresponded with Augustus, Elector of Saxony after he left Vienna. At the age of seventeen, Maximilian began to gain some military experience during the Italian War of 1542 – 1546 which pitted Maximilian’s uncle Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and King Henry VIII of England against King François I of France and Sultan Suleiman I of the Ottoman Empire.

On September 13, 1548, Maximilian married his first cousin Infanta Maria of Spain, the daughter of his uncle Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, who was also King Carlos I of Spain and Isabella of Portugal. Maria and her siblings were raised in Spain and with this marriage, Charles V intended to strengthen the ties between the Austrian Habsburgs and the Spanish Habsburgs. While Maria’s father Holy Roman Emperor Charles V was occupied with the affairs of his other realms, Maria and Maximilian acted as regents of Spain from 1548 to 1551, during the absence of Maria’s brother, the future King Felipe II of Spain. In 1552, the couple moved to live at the court of Maximilian’s father in Vienna, Archduchy of Austria.

Maximilian and Maria had fifteen children:

• Archduchess Anna of Austria, Queen of Spain (1549 – 1580), married her maternal uncle King Felipe II of Spain (his fourth wife), had five children but only one survived childhood
• Archduke Ferdinand of Austria (1551 – 1552), died in infancy
• Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor (1552 – 1612), unmarried
• Archduke Ernst of Austria, Governor of the Low Countries (1553 – 1595), unmarried
• Archduchess Elisabeth of Austria, Queen of France (1554 – 1592), married King Charles IX of France, had one daughter who did not survive childhood
• Archduchess Marie of Austria (1555 – 1556), died in infancy
• Matthias, Holy Roman Emperor (1557 – 1619), married Anna of Tyrol, no children
• Archduke Maximilian of Austria (1558 – 1618), unmarried
• Albrecht VII, Archduke of Austria, Governor of the Low Countries (1559 – 1621), married his first cousin Isabella Clara Eugenia of Spain, no surviving children
• Archduke Wenceslaus of Austria (1561 – 1578), unmarried, died in his teens
• Archduke Friedrich of Austria (1562 – 1563), died in infancy
• Archduchess Marie of Austria (born and died 1564), died a month after her birth
• Archduke Charles of Austria (1565 – 1566), died in infancy
• Archduchess Margaret of Austria (1567 – 1633), refused to marry her uncle King Felipe II of Spain whose fourth wife (Margaret’s eldest sister Anna) had died, became a nun under the name of Sister Margaret of the Cross at the Monastery of Santa Clara de las Descalzas Reales in Madrid, Spain
• Archduchess Eleanor of Austria (1568 – 1580), died in childhood

Physically exhausted after forty years of ruling, Maximilian’s paternal uncle Charles abdicated in 1555 and retired to the peace of the Monastery of Yuste in Extremadura, Spain where he died in 1558. Charles’ younger brother, Maximilian’s father Ferdinand, who had already been given Charles’ Austrian lands in 1521, became the Holy Roman Emperor. The Spanish Empire, including the possessions in the Netherlands, Italy, and the New World, was inherited by Charles’ son and Maximilian’s first cousin who reigned as Felipe II, King of Spain. In December 1562, Ferdinand had his eldest son Maximilian elected King of the Romans, meaning that he would become Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor. In addition, Ferdinand passed the crown of Hungary to his son in 1563. Plagued by fever attacks during the last years of his life, Ferdinand died in Vienna, Archduchy of Austria, now in Austria, on July 25, 1564, aged 61. Maximilian was now Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor, King of Bohemia, King of Hungary and Croatia, and Archduke of Austria.

During his reign, Maximilian II had to deal with the ongoing Ottoman-Habsburg wars, conflicts with his Spanish Habsburg cousins, and the effects of the 1555 Peace of Augsburg. The Peace of Augsburg officially ended the religious struggle between Lutherans and Catholics, and made the legal division of Christianity permanent within the Holy Roman Empire, allowing the rulers of the constituent monarchies of the Holy Roman Empire to choose either Lutheranism or Roman Catholicism as the official religion of their state.

There has been much debate about the nature of Maximilian’s religious beliefs. There was a pro-Protestant contingent among the nobility at the court in Vienna. Johann Sebastian Pfauser, Maximilian’s court chaplain, had originally been Roman Catholic but converted to Lutheranism. Through his influence, Maximilian abandoned purely Catholic customs, read Protestant writings, and refused to receive Communion according to the Catholic rite. He once told his father that worshiping saints was meaningless and idolatrous. Maximilian’s wife Maria was a devout Catholic and frequently disagreed with her religiously ambiguous husband about his religious tolerance. However, Maximilian remained Roman Catholic and never converted to Lutheranism.

In 1572, Maximilian II passed the crown of Hungary to his son Rudolf, and in 1575, Rudolf was also granted the crown of Bohemia and the Habsburg hereditary territories. Rudolf was elected King of the Romans in 1575, ensuring that he would succeed his father as Holy Roman Emperor.

On August 27, 1576, after a family outing, Maximilian suffered a severe relapse of an illness that had been bothering him for a long time, with attacks of sharp gastrointestinal pain. Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor died, aged forty-nine, in the Imperial City of Regensburg, now in the German state of Bavaria, on October 12, 1576, while planning an invasion of Poland. On his deathbed, Maximilian refused to receive the Last Rites of the Roman Catholic Church. He was interred with his parents in St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague, Kingdom of Bohemia, now in the Czech Republic. After Maximilian’s death, his wife Maria of Spain remained in Vienna for six years and had great influence over her sons, Rudolf and Matthias who were both Holy Roman Emperors. Maria returned to Spain in 1582, where she died, aged seventy-four, on February 26, 1603, having survived her husband by twenty-seven years.

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Works Cited

• Flantzer, Susan. (2022) Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, King of Spain, Archduke of Austria, Lord of the Netherlands, Duke of Burgundy, Unofficial Royalty. Available at: https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/charles-v-holy-roman-emperor-carlos-i-king-of-spain-karl-i-archduke-of-austria-charles-ii-lord-of-the-netherlands-duke-of-burgundy/ (Accessed: 17 May 2023).
• Flantzer, S. (2023) Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor, King of Hungary, Croatia, and Bohemia, Archduke of Austria, Unofficial Royalty. Available at: https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/ferdinand-i-holy-roman-emperor-king-of-hungary-croatia-and-bohemia-archduke-of-austria/ (Accessed: 21 May 2023).
• Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor (2023) Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maximilian_II,_Holy_Roman_Emperor (Accessed: 21 May 2023).
• Maximilian II. (HRR) (2023) Wikipedia (German). Available at: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maximilian_II._(HRR) (Accessed: 21 May 2023).
• Wheatcroft, Andrew, 1995. The Habsburgs. London: Viking.
• Wilson, Peter, 2016. Heart of Europe: A History of the Holy Roman Empire. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.