Ferdinand I

Ferdinand I, king of Naples

Ferdinand I or Ferrante (fār-rän`tā), 1423–94, king of Naples (1458–94), illegitimate son and successor (in Naples) of Alfonso V of Aragón. His succession was challenged by Pope Calixtus III, but Pope Pius II made peace with him. Ferdinand promoted commerce, industry, and education, but exercised strict royal control. The great barons, provoked by his ruthless authoritarian policies, called in (1459) John of Anjou, son of René, the rival king of Naples. The barons were defeated (1462) at Troja, and John soon departed. Another conspiracy in 1485 was crushed. Ferdinand's son Alfonso (later Alfonso II) reconquered (1481) the port of Otranto from the Turks. Ferdinand was succeeded by Alfonso II (1494–95), Ferdinand II (1495–96), and Frederick (1496–1501), none of whom was able to defend the kingdom of Naples against France and Spain in the Italian Wars.

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Ferdinand I, king of the Two Sicilies

Ferdinand I, 1751–1825, king of the Two Sicilies (1816–25). He had previously been king of Naples (1759–99, 1799–1805, 1815–16) as Ferdinand IV and king of Sicily (1759–1816) as Ferdinand III. A Spanish Bourbon, Ferdinand succeeded (1759) to the two kingdoms when his father and predecessor became king of Spain as Charles III. His father's reforms were continued during Ferdinand's minority by the regent, Bernardo Tanucci, but after Ferdinand's marriage (1768) to Marie Caroline a reactionary regime was instituted under her influence. Sir John Acton was appointed prime minister. The execution (1793) of the queen's sister, Marie Antoinette of France, helped turn Ferdinand against France, and in 1798 he joined the Second Coalition. In Jan., 1799, the French took Naples shortly after the royal couple had fled to Sicily. The French-sponsored Parthenopean Republic was short-lived, and terror accompanied Ferdinand's return (June, 1799). Peace was made with France in 1801, but in 1805 Ferdinand joined the Third Coalition against Napoleon. The French reconquered Naples, and early in 1806 the royal couple again fled to Sicily, where Ferdinand ruled under English protection. In 1812 he bowed to local political pressure, made his son regent, and had him grant Sicily a constitution. After Naples was restored to him (1815), Ferdinand abolished Sicilian autonomy and proclaimed (1816) himself king of the Two Sicilies. His reactionary government provoked an insurrection in 1820, and he was forced to grant a constitution. He reestablished his despotism with Austrian aid in 1821 and once again instituted a fierce persecution of all liberals and Carbonari. He was succeeded by his son Francis I.

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Ferdinand I, Spanish king of Castile and León

Ferdinand I or Ferdinand the Great, d. 1065, Spanish king of Castile (1035–65) and León (1037–65). He inherited Castile from his father, Sancho III of Navarre, conquered León, and took parts of Navarre from his brother García. Ferdinand fought successfully against the Moors and reduced to vassalage the Moorish kings of Zaragoza, Badajoz, Seville, and Toledo. At the Council of Coyanza (1050) he confirmed the laws of Alfonso V and introduced church reforms. He divided his kingdom among his sons: Castile went to Sancho II, León to Alfonso VI, and Galicia to García.

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Ferdinand I, king of Aragón and Sicily

Ferdinand I, 1379?–1416, king of Aragón and Sicily and count of Barcelona (1412–16), second son of John I of Castile; nephew and successor of Martin of Aragón. In 1406, Ferdinand became regent of Castile during the minority of his nephew, John II. He captured (1410) Antequera from the Moors and claimed the vacant throne of Aragón in the same year. Finally chosen king in 1412, he defeated (1413) his chief rival for the throne and suppressed revolts in Sicily and Sardinia. In 1415 he met Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund at Perpignan and was obliged to agree to the deposition of Antipope Benedict XIII (see Luna, Pedro de). Ferdinand was succeeded by his son, Alfonso V.

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Ferdinand I, Holy Roman emperor

Ferdinand I, 1503–64, Holy Roman emperor (1558–64), king of Bohemia (1526–64) and of Hungary (1526–64), younger brother of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. Brought up in Spain, he was expected to succeed his grandfather, Ferdinand II of Aragón, who, instead, made Charles his heir. In 1521, Charles gave him the Austrian duchies of the Hapsburgs. In the same year Ferdinand married Anna, daughter of Uladislaus II, king of Hungary and Bohemia, in fulfillment of a treaty (1515) between his grandfather, Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I, and Uladislaus II. When Anna's brother Louis II, who succeeded to the thrones of Bohemia and Hungary on his father's death (1516), was killed at the battle of Mohacs (1526), Ferdinand claimed the succession. He was elected king of Bohemia, but in Hungary he met the rival claim of John I (John Zapolya), supported by Sultan Sulayman I. John's claims were inherited by his son John Sigismund (king as John II). The sporadic warfare in Hungary was indecisive, except that Ferdinand had to pay tribute to the sultan for the strip of NW Hungary that he was allowed to keep with the royal title. In Bohemia, Ferdinand laid the groundwork for Hapsburg absolutism by virtually abrogating (1547) the prerogatives of the diet and the towns; he also began the reconversion of the kingdom to Catholicism by calling in the Jesuits. In Germany, Ferdinand increasingly acted as agent of Charles V, who in 1531 had him elected king of the Romans, which insured Ferdinand's succession as Holy Roman emperor. He had to deal with the Peasants' War and with the rebellions stirred up by Ulrich I, dispossessed duke of Württemberg, where Ferdinand was unpopular as governor. Ulrich secured the aid of Philip of Hesse and defeated Ferdinand at Lauffen (1534). Ferdinand was obliged to restore the duchy to Ulrich. In the war against the Protestant Schmalkaldic League (1546–47), Ferdinand was an important figure. Though a devout Catholic, Ferdinand was less committed against the Reformation than Charles V. When Charles's triumph against the league was turned to defeat by the betrayal of Maurice, elector of Saxony, Ferdinand acted as mediator in making the Treaty of Passau (1552), and in 1555 he negotiated a religious truce at Augsburg (see Augsburg, Peace of). Charles had practically surrendered the government of the empire to Ferdinand by 1556, although formal abdication was not complete until 1558. At the end of his reign, Ferdinand still hoped that the reconvened Council of Trent would bring about a union of the churches. He was succeeded by his son, Maximilian II, who had been crowned king of Bohemia (1562) and king of Hungary (1563) and had been elected king of the Romans (1562) before Ferdinand's death.

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Ferdinand I, king of Portugal

Ferdinand I, 1345–83, king of Portugal (1367–83), son and successor of Peter I. His ambitions and his private life plunged the realm into disaster, although during his reign agricultural reform was achieved and Portuguese commercial power grew. Ferdinand's desire for the throne of Castile involved him in three wars with Castile. The first (1369–71) ended with Ferdinand's promise to marry Leonor, daughter of Henry II of Castile. Instead he fell in love with a Portuguese noblewoman, Leonor Teles, and after securing a dubious annulment of her earlier marriage, made her his queen. Ferdinand then allied (1372) himself with John of Gaunt and waged new war against Henry II, which led to a Castilian siege of Lisbon (1373) and a humiliating peace. After John I succeeded to the throne of Castile, Ferdinand, under the influence of his wife and her lover (the conde de Ourém), resumed the English alliance and engaged (1381–82) in a third humiliating war with Castile. It was concluded by the marriage of John with Ferdinand's daughter and heiress, Beatrice. Portugal would thus have gone to Castile on Ferdinand's death, but a national revolution gave the throne to Ferdinand's half brother, John I.

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Ferdinand I

Ferdinand I, engraving by Barthel Beham, 1531

(credit: Archiv fur Kunst und Geschichte, Berlin)

(born March 10, 1503, Alcalá de Henares, Spain—died July 25, 1564, Vienna, Hapsburg domain) Holy Roman emperor (1558–64). The brother of Emperor Charles V, he was Charles's deputy in the Habsburg German lands (1522–58). In 1526 he took possession of Bohemia without difficulty, but he faced rival claimants in Hungary and fought periodically against the Ottoman Empire, finally agreeing in 1562 to pay tribute to the Ottoman sultan for Austria's share of Hungary. Ferdinand helped Charles defeat the Protestant Schmalkaldic League, and he later compromised on the Protestant issue and signed the Peace of Augsburg (1555), ending the era of religious strife in Germany. Elected emperor after Charles's abdication, which separated the Habsburg domains into Spanish and Austrian parts, Ferdinand centralized the imperial administration.

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Ferdinand I

(born Jan. 2/12, 1751, Naples—died Jan. 4, 1825, Naples) King of the Two Sicilies (1816–25). He became king of Naples in 1759, as Ferdinand IV, when his father ascended the Spanish throne as Charles III. A weak ruler, he was greatly influenced by his wife, Maria Carolina of Austria (1752–1814). He engaged Naples in the Austro-English coalition against the French Revolution in 1793. The French then invaded Naples, and he fled to Sicily (1798–99, 1806–16). He returned to Naples in 1816 after the fall of Napoleon, as king of the united Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. His despotic rule led to an uprising in 1820, after which he was forced to grant a constitution. With Austria's aid, he overthrew the constitutional government in 1821.

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Ferdinand I

1. known as Ferdinand the Great. ?1016--65, king of Castile (1035--65) and Le?n (1037--65): achieved control of the Moorish kings of Saragossa, Seville, and Toledo

2. 1503--64, king of Hungary and Bohemia (1526--64); Holy Roman Emperor (1558--64), bringing years of religious warfare to an end

3. 1751--1825, king of the Two Sicilies (1816--25); king of Naples (1759--1806; 1815--25), as Ferdinand IV, being dispossessed by Napoleon (1806--15)

4. 1793--1875, king of Hungary (1830--48) and emperor of Austria (1835--48); abdicated after the Revolution of 1848 in favour of his nephew, Franz Josef I

5. 1861--1948, ruling prince of Bulgaria (1887--1908) and tsar from 1908 until his abdication in 1918

6. 1865--1927, king of Romania (1914--27); sided with the Allies in World War I