Gold medal 40 ducat Maximilian II. 2009 Standard

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Maximilian II. Habsburg

Maximilian II (31 July 1527, Vienna - 12 October 1576, Reich) was a Roman Emperor, King of Bohemia (crowned 1562), King of Hungary (crowned 1563) and Archduke of Austria. He took over the government after the death of his father Ferdinand I on 27 July 1564.

Precisely because Maximilian had shown sympathy for non-Catholicism from his youth, his father Ferdinand and his brother, Emperor Charles V, decided to marry him to Charles's daughter, the Catholic Spanish Infanta Maria. The marriage to Maria of Spain produced 16 offspring. However, Maximilian II quickly realized that he would not gain much by joining the Protestants, so in February 1562 in Prague he took a solemn oath of allegiance to the Catholic Church in front of his relatives. He was titular king of Bohemia from 1549, and was crowned on 14 May 1562.

From 1566 to 1568, Maximilian fought a war with the Ottoman Empire. To defend Hungary, he organized a large expedition (more than 100,000 soldiers) and went with them to Hungary. However, the expedition ended in failure. Following the peace (1568), Maximilian was forced to pay the Turks an annual rent of 30,000 ducats.

The Bohemian Novoutraquists, who formed the majority of the population, the Lutherans and the Unity of the Brethren urged Maximilian to abolish the compact because it was outdated. Its conception suited only the Old Calvinists, who were few in number. The compact was abrogated by the Pope and replaced by a new document, the Bohemian Confession, in 1575. It was a compromise between the demands of all Protestant denominations represented in our territory and guaranteed extensive freedoms. Maximilian did not sign the Bohemian Confession, but promised to abide by it.

In 1575, Maximilian II was elected King of Poland by a part of the Polish Estates, as a counter-king against Stephen Bathory. Eventually, however, he had to leave Poland because he was not universally accepted. Maximilian II died while the Reichstag was debating the invasion of Poland in 1576. He was buried next to his parents in the Church of St. Vitus at Prague Castle.