Ferdinand I
Ferdinand I.
Holy Roman Emperor · King of Bohemia · King of Hungary · Archduke of Austria
1503 – 1564
Biography
Younger brother of Charles V, raised in Spain but ceded the Austrian patrimony when the brothers divided their grandfathers' inheritance. His marriage to Anne of Bohemia and Hungary brought him those two crowns after the death of his brother-in-law at Mohács in 1526. When Charles V abdicated in 1556, Ferdinand took the imperial title and founded the Austrian Habsburg line that would reign in Vienna for the next 362 years.
Events
Between 1554 and 1556 Charles V, exhausted by four decades of universal war, partitioned the empire he had inherited intact. His son Philip received Spain, the Indies, the Italian possessions, and the Low Countries; his brother Ferdinand received Austria, Bohemia, Hungary, and ultimately the imperial title. The split divided the Habsburgs into Spanish and Austrian branches that would remain cousin powers for the next century and a half. Charles retired to a monastery in Yuste and died there in 1558.
Also there: Charles V, Philip II of Spain
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