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Dromo's Den
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[Up] [Dromo's Den] Matthias Biography MATTHIAS (1557–1619). Holy Roman Emperor from 1612 to 1619. He was born Feb. 24, 1557, a younger son of Maximilian II. In 1577 a Catholic party in the Belgian Netherlands offered him the governorship, which he accepted. He found his authority, however, hemmed in at all points and resigned in 1581. In 1593 his brother, the Emperor Rudolph II, appointed him Governor of the Archduchy of Austria. Matthias exerted himself to suppress Protestantism, in which he had the assistance of the celebrated prelate Khlesl (q.v.). In consequence of the incapacity of Rudolph, whose oppressive acts had excited a formidable insurrection in Hungary, Matthias was formally declared by the Austrian princes head of the house of Hapsburgs in 1606. He thereupon came to terms with the Hungarian Protestants, concluding with them the Treaty of Vienna. Two years later he extorted from Rudolph, by the Treaty of Lieben, June 25, 1608, the cession of Austria, Hungary, and Moravia, and in 1611 the crown of Bohemia, of which Rudolph had been deprived by his subjects, was given to Matthias. Rudolph died without issue in 1612, and Matthias was at once chosen his successor in the German Empire. A confederation of Protestant states, known as the Union, had been established in 1608 and a Roman Catholic League had been organized in 1609. Matthias attempted unsuccessfully to bring the latter, which was under Bavarian leadership, under Austrian influence. In 1617 Matthias, who was without heirs, was compelled to have his cousin, Ferdinand of Styria, crowned King of Bohemia, and the next year King of Hungary. The Bohemians revolted against Ferdinand, enraged by the severity of his religious persecutions; the insurrection at Prague, in 1618, gave the signal for the outbreak of the Thirty Years' War (q.v.), and the last days of Matthias were embittered by the failure of all his efforts to restore peace. He died March 20, 1619. Consult J. Heling, Die Wahl des römischen Königs Matthias (Belgrade, 1892). The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. XV (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 253. |