The Arrival of Habsburg Archduke Ferdinand of Tyrol to Bohemia and His Court

CHAPTER 4 The Arrival of Habsburg Archduke Ferdinand of Tyrol to Bohemia and His Court

Václav Bůžek

The ascent of the Habsburgs to the Bohemian throne in 1526 is an important moment in Bohemian, Habsburg, and Central European history. Czech historians in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries devoted special attention to the policies of Ferdinand I (1503–1564; King of Bohemia from 1526; Holy Roman Emperor from 1558), the first Habsburg ruler of Bohemia, who resided mostly in Vienna, not in Prague. Beginning in the 1970s, an international group of scholars have studied the reign of Rudolf II, who moved the imperial court to Prague in 1583. One of the off-shoots of both Rudolfine scholarship and new interest by Czech scholars in the nobility, which began in the late 1980s, is the study of residences and residential cities. In a 2006 book, Václav Bůžek combines these trends and explores a new area of research focusing on the court of Archduke Ferdinand of Tyrol (1529–1595) the second son of King Ferdinand I, who was sent by his father to reside in Bohemia after the failed uprising that took place during the Schmalkaldic War, 1546–1547. Bůžek argues that Archduke Ferdinand played an important role in the Habsburg plans to centralize power by successfully integrating members of the Bohemian nobility at his court in Prague and Innsbruck, taking them on trips abroad, and arranging marriages with members of other courts, such as Innsbruck, Vienna, Munich, Landshut, Mantua, and Ferrara. In this chapter, Bůžek discusses Archduke Ferdinand I’s arrival in Prague, his establishment of a court, and early relationships with members of the Bohemian nobility. Václav Bůžek (1959–) is Director of the Historical Institute of the Philo- sophical Faculty of the Southern Bohemian University in České Budějovice. He studied at the Philosophical Faculty of the Charles University in Pra- gue where he received the doctorate in 1982. He worked at the Institute for Czechoslovak and World History at the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences before moving on to a teaching position at the former Pedagogical Faculty of the Southern Bohemian University. He became the first Director of the Historical Institute (in 1991) and then served, 2004 to 2011, as Rector of the Southern Bohemian University. He returned to the Historical Institute in January 2011.

In addition to Ferdinand of Tyrol between Prague and Innsbruck, Bůžek is the author of a long list of works, including Úvěrové podnikání nižší šlechy v předbělohorských Čechách [Credit Trade of the Lower Nobility in Pre-White Mountain Bohemia] (Prague: Ústav československ7ch a světových dějin ČSAV, 1989); Nižší šlechta v politickém systému a kultuře předbělohorských Čech [Lower Nobility in the Political System and Culture of Pre-White Mountain Prague] (Prague: HÚ, 1996); co-author of Dvory velmožů s erbem růže. Všední a sváteční dny posledních Rožmberků a pánů z Hradce [The Courts of th Lords of the Rose. Everyday and Ceremonial Life of the Last Rosenbergs and Lords of Hradec] (Prague: Mladá fronta, 1997); and co-editor of a long list of con ference volumes in the series OH. He has also been active in collaboration with Austrian historians and is co-editor, along with Andrea Komlosy and František Svátek, of Kulturen an der Grenze. Waldviertel-Weinviertel- Südböhmen-Südmähren (Vienna: Promedia, 1995). Place of Original Publication and Permission: “Příchod místodržitele arcik- nížete Ferdinanda do Čech a jeho dvůr”[The Arrival of Viceroy Archduke Ferdinand to Bohemia and his Court,] chapter three of Ferdinand Tyrolský mezi Prahou a Innsbruckem. Šlechta z českých zemí na cestě ke dvorům prvních Habsburků [Ferdinand of Tyrol between Prague and Innsbruck, Nobility of the Czech Lands on the Path to the First Habsburg Courts,] MH 7(České Budějovice: HÚFFJUČB, 2006), 68–96). This chapter appears by permission of the author.

King Ferdinand I installed a Viceroy’s Office in the Lands of the Crown of Bohemia in October 1547.1 He then summoned his second-born son to fulfill the Viceroy’s duties—Archduke Ferdinand, born on 14 June 1529. Earlier in his reign the King had regularly named the highest Land officials to represent him temporarily in the Land during his absence. When in mid-January 1548 he issued instructions outlining the duties of the councilors of the appeal court, he stated clearly that his representative should be the Viceroy of the Kingdom of Bohemia.2 In King Ferdinand’s political strategy, Archduke Ferdinand’s

1 [196] See the letters of the Archduke Ferdinand written from Prague Castle on 17.10 and 31.10.1547 in which he speaks in the name of the king; SČ II (Prague: Královský český zemský výbor, 1880), 539–540; Josef Hirn, Erzherzog Ferdinand II. von Tirol. Geschichte seiner Regierung und seiner Länder, vol. I (Innsbruck: Wagner, 1885), 13. 2 [197] See Instrukcí dole psaným osobám, kteréž na apelacích na hradě Pražském sedají, which Ferdinand I published in Augsburg on 20.1.1548 (SČ II, 545–548, here 547) [. . .] Related to this, see Jaroslav Pánek, Stavovská opozice a její zápas s Habsburky 1547–1577. K politické krizi