Ferdinand I 1503-64
Holy Roman Emperor

Born in Alcal� de Henares, Spain, he was the second son of Philip I, the Handsome (briefly King of Castile), and younger brother (and successor) of Emperor Charles V. In 1521 Charles recognized Ferdinand as ruler of the family's hereditary possessions in Austria and in the same year Ferdinand married Anna, daughter of Ladislas II of Bohemia. He was elected King of Bohemia (1526), but failed to secure Hungary, where John Zapolya (1487-1540) was made king (1527), although an eventual compromise maintained the integrity of the Habsburg possessions in both nations. Left to rule the empire during Charles's frequent absences, Ferdinand was elected King of the Romans (1531) and recognized as the heir to the imperial throne (1551). The main threats to the empire were twofold: the external threat posed by the expansionist policy of the Ottoman Sultan S�leyman, the Magnificent, and the internal threat from the religious divisions between Catholics and Lutherans. Unable to prevent S�leyman's attacks on Hungary, the Imperial forces under Charles V successfully relieved Vienna (1529), but the Austrian lands were again threatened by the Turks (1532, 1541). Philip of Hesse, the political leader of the Lutheran princes, seized W�rttemberg from Habsburg control (1534), and Ferdinand supported the emperor (1546-47) in his campaign to crush the Protestant Schmalkaldic League. His appraisal of the religious situation was more realistic than his brother's and it was Ferdinand who was principally responsible for the religious compromise at Augsburg (1555) that brought the religious wars to an end. The abdication (1556) of Charles V became effective on his death in 1558, when Ferdinand succeeded as Holy Roman Emperor. An admirer of Erasmus (who dedicated the second edition of Handbook of the Christian Prince to Ferdinand), he strove to emulate the Erasmian virtues of compromise and reconciliation.