Ferdinand II

Ferdinand II, king consort of Portugal

Ferdinand II, 1816–85, king consort of Portugal (1837–53). The eldest son of Ferdinand, duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, he married Maria II (Maria da Glória) of Portugal in 1836. After her death (1853), he was regent for his son, Peter V, until the latter's majority (1855). However, he left the actual government to ministers, while he occupied himself with his art collection. In 1862 he was offered and refused the Greek crown, and in 1869 he declined the Spanish crown because the Spanish leader Juan Prim could not guarantee future Portuguese independence.

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Ferdinand II, king of the Two Sicilies

Ferdinand II, 1810–59, king of the Two Sicilies (1830–59), son and successor of Francis I. Although initially he sought to improve the wretched conditions of his kingdom, he soon relapsed into the repressive policies of his predecessors and became an absolute despot. Fear of revolution made him grant a constitution in 1848, but when disorders broke out in Sicily he ordered the bombardment of Messina (1848) and Palermo (1849)—an act that earned him the nickname "King Bomba." He soon revoked the constitution, becoming even more reactionary. Great Britain and France, in protest against his inhuman treatment of at least 15,000 political prisoners, withdrew their envoys (1856). He was opposed by conservatives as well as liberals. The political isolation brought about by Ferdinand facilitated the fall of the dynasty under his son and successor, Francis II.

Bibliography

See H. M. Acton, The Last Bourbons of Naples (1961).

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Ferdinand II, Spanish king of León

Ferdinand II, d. 1188, Spanish king of León (1157–88), son and successor of Alfonso VII. He invaded Castile and set up a protectorate during the minority (1158–66) of his nephew Alfonso VIII. He also fought the Moors in Estremadura. His son Alfonso IX succeeded him.

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Ferdinand II, king of Aragón

Ferdinand II or Ferdinand the Catholic, 1452–1516, king of Aragón (1479–1516), king of Castile and León (as Ferdinand V, 1474–1504), king of Sicily (1468–1516), and king of Naples (1504–16). His father, John II of Aragón, gave him Sicily during his lifetime and left him Aragón when he died. In 1469, Ferdinand married Isabella I of Castile, and in 1474 they assumed joint rule of Castile. Thus, all of Spain except for the Moorish kingdom of Granada became united. The royal couple, known as the Catholic kings, set out with energetic determination to complete the unification, and Granada fell to them at last in 1492.

In the same year Ferdinand and Isabella took the fateful step of expelling from their kingdoms all Jews who refused to accept Christianity. One of the effects of this measure was to deprive Spain of a valuable cultural and economic community. The expulsion of the Moors (1502) had less impact, for many more Moors than Jews chose to pretend to accept Christianity and remain in Spain. The Catholic kings also instituted the Inquisition in Spain to bolster religious and political unity.

Their reign was crucial in the history of the world as well as that of Spain. In 1492, Christopher Columbus, sailing under their auspices, discovered the New World, and in 1494, by the Treaty of Tordesillas (see Tordesillas, Treaty of), Spain and Portugal divided the non-Christian world between them. Ferdinand personally was more interested in Mediterranean affairs. He began Spain's struggle with France for control of Italy in the Italian Wars. His general Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba conquered Naples in 1504. Ferdinand joined the League of Cambrai (1508) against Venice and the Holy League (1511) against France. In 1512 he annexed most of Navarre, basing his claim on his marriage (1506) to Germaine de Foix.

After Isabella's death (1504) he retained control over Castile as regent for his daughter Joanna. Joanna's husband, Philip I, became king of Castile in 1506 but died the same year. For the rest of his life Ferdinand continued his regency over Castile, first in the name of Joanna, who became insane, and then for his grandson, later Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. When Ferdinand died, he left his grandson a united Spain, as well as Naples, Sicily, Sardinia, and an overseas empire.

During the reign of the Catholic kings the power of the throne grew. The nobles and the Cortes (parliament) were curbed, and the church was used as an instrument of political policy. Many of Ferdinand's policies had long-lasting effects, especially the expulsion of the Jews and the Muslims, many of whom settled in N Africa, the search for American gold, and the conversion of large agricultural areas into grazing lands for the benefit of the wool industry. Spain became an Atlantic power and revolutionized the commerce of Europe.

Bibliography

See W. H. Prescott, History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella (4 vol., 1838; abridged and ed. by C. H. Gardiner, 1963); J. H. Mariéjol, The Spain of Ferdinand and Isabella (1892, tr. 1961); R. B. Merriman, The Rise of the Spanish Empire (Vol. II, The Catholic Kings, 1918); J. H. Elliott, Imperial Spain: 1469–1716 (1963).

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Ferdinand II, Holy Roman emperor

Ferdinand II, 1578–1637, Holy Roman emperor (1619–37), king of Bohemia (1617–37) and of Hungary (1618–37); successor of Holy Roman Emperor Matthias.

Grandson of Ferdinand I, son of Archduke Charles of Styria, Ferdinand was educated by the Jesuits and supported the Counter Reformation. He was chosen successor to Matthias and became, before the emperor's death, king of Bohemia and Hungary. His Catholicism, however, alienated the Bohemian nobles, who rebelled (1618) and chose (1619) Frederick V (Frederick the Winter King), elector palatine, as their ruler. This began the Thirty Years War

General Character of the War

There were many territorial, dynastic, and religious issues that figured in the outbreak and conduct of the war.
..... . The Bohemians at first were successful and pressed upon Vienna, but Ferdinand, allied with Maximilian I of Bavaria and the Catholic League, won back Bohemia in 1620 in the battle of the White Mt. War continued in the Palatinate.

In Hungary, Gabriel Bethlen was successful in opposing Ferdinand in 1619 and 1620, but after the defeat of the Bohemians a peace was signed (1621). During the Danish phase (1625–29) of the Thirty Years War, Tilly, commander of the Catholic League, and Wallenstein, head of the imperial army, defeated the Danes, and a favorable peace was made with Denmark. Ferdinand, then at the height of his power, issued (1629) the Edict of Restitution, ordering the restoration of ecclesiastical property secularized after 1552. That further antagonized the Protestant princes, but they did not take up arms. At that time, however, Gustavus II

Military Achievements

Gustavus's excellent education, personal endowments, and early experience in affairs of state prepared him for
.....  (Gustavus Adolphus) of Sweden, a Protestant, came into the war.

Ferdinand in 1630 had dismissed Wallenstein under pressure from the princes of the empire, who felt the general was becoming too powerful. In 1632, however, after a series of defeats, Wallenstein was restored. He was later suspected of treason and dismissed. In 1634, Wallenstein was assassinated, almost certainly at the instigation of Ferdinand. The battle of Nördlingen marked the resurgence of the imperialists, but the war was wrecking Germany and the house of Hapsburg. The Peace of Prague (1635), the last important act of the irresolute Ferdinand, did not end the fighting. The war reached its unhappy conclusion in the reign of his son, Ferdinand III.

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Ferdinand II

(born July 9, 1578, Graz, Styria—died Feb. 15, 1637, Vienna) Holy Roman emperor (1619–37), archduke of Austria, king of Bohemia (1617–19, 1620–27) and king of Hungary (1618–25). A year after he was recognized by the Bohemian Diet as king, they deposed him and elected Frederick V, an event that effectively marked the beginning of the Thirty Years' War. After annihilating the rebel army in 1620, he greatly reduced the Diet's power. A rigidly Catholic ruler, he forcibly Catholicized Bohemia and suppressed Protestantism throughout his lands. He maintained much of his power through the victories of Albrecht W.E. von Wallenstein but later concluded a compromise peace with the Protestant princes. He was the leading champion of the Catholic Counter-Reformation and of absolutist rule in the Thirty Years' War.

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Ferdinand II

(born Jan. 12, 1810, Palermo, Sicily—died May 22, 1859, Caserta) King of the Two Sicilies (1830–59). He followed his father, Francis I, as king and initially instituted reforms, but his rule gradually became authoritarian, and he severely repressed a number of liberal and national revolts. His heavy bombardment of Sicilian cities in 1848 earned him the name “King Bomba.” His government's increasingly absolute character denied the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies a role in the Risorgimento and caused its collapse and incorporation into Italy in 1860.

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Ferdinand II

 known as Ferdinand the Catholic Spanish Fernando el Católico

(born March 10, 1452, Sos, Aragon—died Jan. 23, 1516) King of Aragon from 1479, king of Castile (as Ferdinand V) from 1474 (joint sovereign with Queen Isabella I until 1504), king of Sicily (as Ferdinand II, 1468–1516), and king of Naples (as Ferdinand III, 1503–16). The son of John II of Aragon (1398–1479), Ferdinand married Isabella of Castile in 1469 and fought to impose his authority over the nobles in the two kingdoms. As part of an effort to modernize Castile, they banned all religions other than Roman Catholicism, leading to the Spanish Inquisition (1478) and the expulsion of the Jews (1492). Conquest of Granada in 1492 made it possible to support Christopher Columbus's voyages to the New World. Ferdinand furthered his expansionary policies in the Mediterranean and in Africa. After the conquest of Naples in 1503, during the Italian Wars, Spain rivaled France as the most powerful state in Europe. By uniting the Spanish kingdoms into the nation of Spain, Ferdinand began Spain's entry into the modern period of imperial expansion.

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Ferdinand II

1578--1637, Holy Roman Emperor (1619--37); king of Bohemia (1617--19; 1620--37) and of Hungary (1617--37). His anti-Protestant policies led to the Thirty Years' War