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Bohemia, and also chosen king of Rome. But his
attempt to bring the crown of Poland into his House
failed. Maximilian IL. was fond of peace, tolerant
in religion, and a just ruler. He died 1576 ; and of
his five sons, the eldest, Rudolf IL., became emperor.
Under him, the possessions of the Archduke Ferdi-
nand of Tyrol, who had married Philippine Welser
(q.v.), the beautiful daughter of an Awugsburg
burgher, reverted to the other two lines, Ferdinand’s
children not being considered noble. Rudolf IL
adhered to the old feudal usages, and was a
negligent sovereign, leaving everything to his
ministers and the Jesuits. His war with the Porte
and Transylvania brought him little credit ; and the
Protestants of Bohemia, oppressed by the Jesuits,
extorted from him a charter of religious liberty. At
last he was obliged, in 1608, to cede Hungary, and,
in 1611, Bohemia and A., to his brother Matthias
(q. v.). Matthias, who became emperor in 1612,
concluded a 20 years’ peace with the Turks, and
ceded (1617 and 1618) Bohemia and Hungary to his
cousin Ferdinand, son of the Archduke Karl of
Styria, third son of Maximilian IL Matthias lived
to see the outbreak of the Thirty Years’ War (q.v.),
and died March 20, 1619.
Bohemia refused to acknowledge his successor,
Ferdinand IL. (q.v.), to whom all the Austrian
possessions had “again reverted, and chose the
Elector Palatine, Frederic V., the head of the
Protestant union, as king. The States of A. and
the Hungarians were also refractory. Dut the
battle of Prague (1620) subjected Bohemia to Ferdi-
nand ; who formally set about rooting out Protes-
tantism in that country and in Moravia, annulled
their right of electing their king, and the patent of
religious freedom granted them by Rudolf IL, and
set up a Catholic reformation tribunal which drove
thousands into exile. The emperor also succeeded
in extorting acknowledgment of his sovereignty
from the States of A., among which Protestantism
predominated ; after which Protestantism was
rigorously prohibited. Hungary also was at last
compelled to yield, which had revolted under the
Prince of Transylvania. But this religious war
and persecution cost the House of A. the life-blood
of its possessions. Of 732 cities in Bohemia, only
130 were left; of 30,700 villages, only 6000 ; of
3 million inhabitants, only 780,000. Under Ferdi-
nand’s successor, the Emperor Ferdinand IIL. (1637
—1657), A. continued to be a theatre of war; and
at the peace of Westphalia (1648), had to cede Alsace
to France. Ferdinand IIL’s son and successor,
Leopold I., provoked the Hungarians to rebellion by
his severity. Tekeli (q.v.) received aid from the
Porte, and Kara Mustapha besieged Vienna (1683) ;
which was rescued only by an army of Poles and
Germans under John Sobieski hastening to its assist-
ance. The emperor’s generals now reduced the
whole of Hungary, which was declared a hereditary
kingdom in the male line (1687). Prince Eugene
compelled the Porte (1699) to restore the country
between the Danube and Theiss, and, in 1718, to
cede other important provinces to Hungary. The
struggle between Leopold and Louis XIV. of France
for the heirship to the king of Spain, led to the war of
the Spanish Succession (q.v.), during which Leopold
died, May 5, 1705. He was of sluggish phlegmatic
character, and wholly under the influence of the
Jesuits.
His eldest son and successor, the enlightened
Joseph L. (q. v.), continued the war. He died child-
less, April 17, 1711, and was succeeded by his
brother, Karl VI. The peace of Utrecht concluded
under his reign (1713) secured to A. the Netherlands,
Milan, Mantua, Naples, and Sicily. The monarchy
now embraced 190,000 square miles, with 29 million
inhabitants, and had a revenue of 14 million florins,
with an army of 130,000 men. Its strength, however,
was soon much exhausted by fresh wars with
France and Spain. At the peace of Vienna (1737),
Karl VI. had to give up Naples and Sicily to Don
Carlos of Spain, and part of Milan to the king of
Sardinia ; recelving only Parma and Piacenza
instead. He also lost at the peace of Belgrade
(1739) nearly all the fruits of Eugene’s conquests,
giving back to the Porte Belgrade, Servia, and the
parts of Wallachia and Bosnia that had belonged to
Austria. The emperor conceded all these points
with the view of securing adhesion to the Prag-
matic Sanction (q. v.), which conferred the succession
on his daughter, Maria Theresa.
With his death (October 20, 1740), the malé line
of the Hapsburgs was extinct, and Maria Theresa,
who was married to Franz Stephan, Duke of Lor-
raine, assumed the government. But counter-claims
were raised on all sides, and a violent war arose, in
which England alone sided with Maria. Frederic
II. of Prussia conquered Silesia. The Elector of
Bavaria took the title of Archduke of A., was
crowned king of Bohemia at Linz and Prague, and
elected emperor as Karl VIL (1742). The Hunga-
rians alone stood by their heroic queen; who, at the
peace of Breslau (1742) was forced to yield Silesia
to Prussia. Frederic renewed the war by coming
to the assistance of the emperor; but Karl dying
(1745), Maria Theresa’s husband was elected Ger-
man emperor as Franz L. A second treaty of
peace (1745) secured Silesia anew to Prussia; and at
the peace of Aix-la-chapelle (1'748), A. had to cede
Parma, Piacenza, and Guastalla to Don Philip of
Spain, and several districts of Milan to Sardinia.
These sacrifices secured the existence of the Austrian
monarchy; but Maria Theresa wished to recover
Silesia, and with this view, entered into alliance with
France, Russia, Saxony, and Sweden ; but after a
bloody Seven Years’ War (q.v.), Prussia retained
Silesia, and A. had spent her blood and treasure in
vain. At this time, paper-money first appeared in
A., under the name of state-bonds. At Franz's
death (1765), his son, Joseph IL, became German
emperor, and joint-regent with his mother of the
hereditary states. Collateral branches of the House
of A. were planted by the younger sons of Maria
Theresa, the Archduke Leopold in Tuscany, and the
Archduke Ferdinand, who married the heiress of
Este (see MopENA). Inthefirst partition of Poland
(1772), A. acquired Galicia and Lodomeria, and the
Bukowina was ceded by the Porte in 1777. At the
death of the empress in 1780, the monarchy had an
extent of 234,000 square miles, with a pop. of 24
millions, and a debt of 160 million florins. The
administration of Maria Theresa was distinguished
by unwonted unity and vigour, both in home and
foreign relations.
Her successor, Joseph IL., was an active reformer
in the spirit of the enlightened despotism of the
times; though often rash and violent in his mode of
proceeding. He introduced economy into every
department, remodelled the censorship of the press,
granted liberties and rights to Protestants, abolished
900 convents, and revised the school-system. His
protective system of duties, though exhibiting his
narrowness as a statesman, gave a start to native
manufactures. But his reforming zeal and passion
for uniformity excited opposition; the Netherlands
rose in insurrection, and other disturbances broke
out, which hastened his end (1790). He was suc-
ceeded in the government by his brother, the Grand
Duke of Tuscany—as German emperor, Leopold II.
__who succeeded in pacifying the Netherlands and
Hungary. Peace was concluded with Prussia and
Turkey (1790). The fate of his sister, Marie
573
