General Notes

Maximilian II, b.  July 31, 1527, d.  Oct.  12, 1576 was Holy Roman emperor
(1564-76) and king of Bohemia (1562-76) and Hungary (1563-76).  The nephew of
Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and the eldest son of Ferdinand I, Maximilian was
educated in Spain.  Before his succession was assured, he and his father had
to resolve a Habsburg family dispute over the order of succession.  It was
finally agreed that Maximilian rather than Charles's son, Philip II of Spain,
would succeed Ferdinand as emperor.

Maximilian disliked Spain and all it stood for;  he leaned toward Lutheranism
but agreed to remain a Roman Catholic in order to safeguard his succession.
As emperor he advocated compromise and kept a balance between the two
confessions.  He refused to invest Protestant administrators of bishoprics
with the fiefs that the Protestant princes of Germany tried to give them.  At
the same time, he allowed the nobility of the Austrian duchies and of his
kingdoms of Bohemia and Hungary freedom of worship.  This toleration was the
more necessary as he needed their support against the Turks, who continued to
threaten his empire.

Maximilian did not extend imperial authority nor was he successful against the
Turks but he maintained his crowns and possessions as well as peace in the
empire.  In 1573 he was offered the throne of Poland, but the proposal
collapsed because of some Polish opposition.  Maximilian was succeeded by his
son Rudolf II.