Margaret, the youngest daughter, after her father’s death, accompanied her mother to Spain.  Her sister Anne soon after died, and Philip II., her morose and debauched husband, having already buried four wives, and no one can tell how many guilty favorites, sought the hand of his young and fresh niece.  But Margaret wisely preferred the gloom of the cloister to the Babylonish glare of the palace.  She rejected the polluted and withered hand, and in solitude and silence, as a hooded nun, she remained immured in her cell for fifty-seven years.  Then her pure spirit passed from a joyless life on earth, we trust, to a happy home in heaven.

Rhodolph, the eldest son, succeeded his father, and in the subsequent pages we shall record his career.

Ernest, the second son, was a mild, bashful young man, of a temperament so singularly melancholy that he was rarely known to smile.  His brother Rhodolph gave him the appointment of Governor of Hungary.  He passed quietly down the stream of time until he was forty-two years of age, when he died of the stone, a disease which had long tortured him with excruciating pangs.

Matthias, the third son, became a restless, turbulent man, whose deeds we shall have occasion to record in connection with his brother Rhodolph, whom he sternly and successfully opposed.

Maximilian, the fourth son, when thirty years of age was elected King of Poland.  An opposition party chose John, son of the King of Sweden.  The rival candidates appealed to the cruel arbitration of the sword.  In a decisive battle Maximilian’s troops were defeated, and he was taken prisoner.  He was only released upon his giving the pledge that he renounced all his right to the throne.  He rambled about, now governing a province, and now fighting the Turks, until he died unmarried, sixty years of age.

Albert, the youngest son, was destined to the Church.  He was sent to Spain, and under the patronage of his royal uncle he soon rose to exalted ecclesiastical dignities.  He, however, eventually renounced these for more alluring temporal honors.  Surrendering his cardinal’s hat, and archiepiscopal robes, he espoused Isabella, daughter of Philip, and from the governorship of Portugal was promoted to the sovereignty of the Netherlands.  Here he encountered only opposition and war.  After a stormy and unsuccessful life, in which he was thwarted in all his plans, he died childless.

From this digression let us return to Rhodolph III., the heir to the titles and the sovereignties of his father the emperor.  It was indeed a splendid inheritance which fell to his lot.  He was the sole possessor of the archduchy of Austria, King of Bohemia and of Hungary, and Emperor of Germany.  He was but twenty-five years of age when he entered upon the undisputed possession of all these dignities.  His natural disposition was mild and amiable, his education had been carefully attended to, his moral character was good, a rare virtue in those days, and he had already evinced much industry, energy and talents for business.  His father had left the finances and the internal administration of all his realms in good condition; his moderation had greatly mitigated the religious animosities which disturbed other portions of Europe, and all obstacles to a peaceful and prosperous reign seemed to have been removed.