For several ages the archdukes of Austria had been endeavoring to unite the Austrian States with Hungary and Bohemia under one monarchy.  The union had been temporarily effected once or twice, but Ferdinand accomplished the permanent union, and may thus be considered as the founder of the Austrian monarchy essentially as it now exists.  As Archduke of Austria, he inherited the Austrian duchies.  By his marriage with Anne, daughter of Ladislaus, King of Hungary and Bohemia, he secured those crowns, which he made hereditary in his family.  He left three sons.  The eldest, Maximilian, inherited the archduchy of Austria and the crowns of Bohemia and Hungary, of course inheriting, with Hungary, prospective war with the Turks.  The second son, Ferdinand, had, as his legacy, the government and the revenues of the Tyrol.  The third son, Charles, received Styria.  There were nine daughters left, three of whom took the vail and the rest formed illustrious marriages.

Ferdinand appears to have been a sincere Catholic, though he saw the great corruptions of the Church and earnestly desired reform.  As he advanced in years he became more tolerant and gentle, and had his wise counsels been pursued Europe would have escaped inexpressible woes.  Still he clung to the Church, unwisely seeking unity of faith and discipline, which can hardly be attained in this world, rather than toleration with allowed diversity.

Maximilian II. was thirty-seven years of age on his accession to the throne.  Although he was educated in the court of Spain, which was the most bigoted and intolerant in Europe, yet he developed a character remarkable for mildness, affability and tolerance.  He was indebted for these attractive traits to his tutor, a man of enlarged and cultivated mind, and who had, like most men of his character at that time, a strong leaning towards Protestantism.  These principles took so firm a hold of his youthful mind that they could never be eradicated.  As he advanced in life he became more and more interested in the Protestant faith.  He received a clergyman of the reformed religion as his chaplain and private secretary, and partook of the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, from his hands, in both kinds.  Even while remaining in the Spanish court he entered into a correspondence with several of the most influential advocates of the Protestant faith.  Returning to Austria from Spain, he attended public worship in the chapels of the Protestants, and communed with them in the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper.  When some of his friends warned him that by pursuing such a course he could never hope to obtain the imperial crown of Germany, he replied: 

“I will sacrifice all worldly interests for the sake of my salvation.”

His father, the Emperor Ferdinand, was so much displeased with his son’s advocacy of the Protestant faith, that after many angry remonstrances he threatened to disinherit him if he did not renounce all connection with the reformers.  But Maximilian, true to his conscience, would not allow the apprehension of the loss of a crown to induce him to swerve from his faith.  Fully expecting to be thus cast off and banished from the kingdom, he wrote to the Protestant elector Palatine: