Editing Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor (section)

==Ferdinand and the Augsburg Peace of 1555==
In the 1550s, Ferdinand managed to win some key victories on the imperial scene. Unlike his brother, he opposed [[Albert Alcibiades, Margrave of Brandenburg-Kulmbach]] and participated in his defeat.<ref>''Germany and the Holy Roman Empire'', Whaley</ref> This defeat, along with his German ways, made Ferdinand more popular than the emperor among Protestant princes. This allowed him to play a critical role in the settlement of the religious issue in the empire.

After decades of religious and political unrest in the German states, Charles V ordered a general [[Diet of Augsburg|Diet in Augsburg]] at which the various states would discuss the religious problem and its solution. Charles himself did not attend, and delegated authority to his brother, Ferdinand, to "act and settle" disputes of territory, religion and local power.<ref name="Holborn, p. 241">Holborn, p. 241.</ref> At the conference, which opened on 5 February, Ferdinand cajoled, persuaded and threatened the various representatives into agreement on three important principles promulgated on 25 September:

# The principle of ''{{lang|la|[[cuius regio, eius religio]]}}'' ("Whose realm, his religion") provided for internal religious unity within a state: the religion of the prince became the religion of the state and all its inhabitants. Those inhabitants who could not conform to the prince's religion were allowed to leave, an innovative idea in the sixteenth century. This principle was discussed at length by the various delegates, who finally reached agreement on the specifics of its wording after examining the problem and the proposed solution from every possible angle.
# The second principle, called the ''{{lang|la|[[reservatum ecclesiasticum]]}}'' (ecclesiastical reservation), covered the special status of the ecclesiastical state. If the prelate of an ecclesiastic state changed his religion, the men and women living in that state did not have to do so. Instead, the prelate was expected to resign from his post, although this was not spelled out in the agreement.
# The third principle, known as ''{{lang|la|[[Declaratio Ferdinandei]]}}'' (Ferdinand's Declaration), exempted [[Imperial Knight|knights]] and some of the [[Free imperial city|cities]] from the requirement of religious uniformity, if the reformed religion had been practised there since the mid-1520s, allowing for a few mixed cities and towns where Catholics and Lutherans had lived together. It also protected the authority of the princely families, the knights and some of the cities to determine what religious uniformity meant in their territories. Ferdinand inserted this at the last minute, on his own authority.<ref>For a general discussion of the impact of the Reformation on the Holy Roman Empire, see Holborn, chapters 6–9 (pp. 123–248).</ref>

===Problems with the Augsburg settlement===
[[File:Armor of Emperor Ferdinand I (1503–1564) MET DT773.jpg|thumb|''[[Armor of Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor]]'', created when he was still [[King of the Romans]] in 1549]]

After 1555, the Peace of Augsburg became the legitimating legal document governing the co-existence of the Lutheran and Catholic faiths in the German lands of the Holy Roman Empire, and it served to ameliorate many of the tensions between followers of the "Old Faith" ([[Catholicism]]) and the followers of Luther, but it had two fundamental flaws. First, Ferdinand had rushed the article on ''{{lang|la|[[reservatum ecclesiasticum]]}}'' through the debate; it had not undergone the scrutiny and discussion that attended the widespread acceptance and support of ''{{lang|la|cuius regio, eius religio}}''. Consequently, its wording did not cover all, or even most, potential legal scenarios. The ''{{lang|la|Declaratio Ferdinandei}}'' was not debated in plenary session at all; using his authority to "act and settle,"<ref name="Holborn, p. 241"/> Ferdinand had added it at the last minute, responding to lobbying by princely families and knights.<ref>Holborn, pp. 244–245.</ref>

While these specific failings came back to haunt the empire in subsequent decades, perhaps the greatest weakness of the Peace of Augsburg was its failure to take into account the growing diversity of religious expression emerging in the so-called evangelical and reformed traditions. Other confessions had acquired popular, if not legal, legitimacy in the intervening decades and by 1555, the reforms proposed by Luther were no longer the only possibilities of religious expression: [[Anabaptists]], such as the Frisian [[Menno Simons]] (1492–1559) and his followers; the followers of [[John Calvin]], who were particularly strong in the southwest and the northwest; and the followers of [[Huldrych Zwingli]] were excluded from considerations and protections under the Peace of Augsburg. According to the Augsburg agreement, their religious beliefs remained heretical.<ref name="Holborn, pp. 243–246">Holborn, pp. 243–246.</ref>

===Charles V's abdication===
In 1556, amid great pomp, and leaning on the shoulder of one of his favourites (the 24-year-old [[William the Silent]]),<ref>[[Lisa Jardine]], ''The Awful End of William the Silent: The First Assassination of a Head of State with A Handgun'', London, HarperCollins, 2005, {{ISBN|0007192576}}, Chapter 1; Richard Bruce Wernham, ''The New Cambridge Modern History: The Counter Reformation and Price Revolution 1559–1610'', (vol. 3), 1979, pp. 338–345.</ref> Charles gave away his lands and his offices. The [[Spanish Empire]], which included Spain, the [[Habsburg Netherlands]], [[Kingdom of Naples]], [[Duchy of Milan]] and Spain's possessions in the [[Spanish colonization of the Americas|Americas]], went to his son, [[Philip II of Spain|Philip]]. Ferdinand became [[suo jure]] monarch in Austria and succeeded Charles as Holy Roman Emperor.<ref>Holborn, pp. 249–250; Wernham, pp. 338–345.</ref> This course of events had been guaranteed already on 5 January 1531 when Ferdinand had been elected the [[King of the Romans]] and so the legitimate successor of the reigning emperor.

[[File:CoA of later Ferdinand I Holy Roman Emperor as King of the Romans 1536 Hofburg Wien Austria.jpg|thumb|Coat of arms of Ferdinand I as King of the Romans, 1536, Hofburg palace, Vienna]]

Charles's choices were appropriate. Philip was culturally Spanish: he was born in [[Valladolid]] and raised in the Spanish court, his native tongue was Spanish, and he preferred to live in Spain. Ferdinand was familiar with, and to, the other princes of the Holy Roman Empire. Although he too had been born in Spain, he had administered his brother's affairs in the empire since 1531.<ref name="Holborn, pp. 243–246"/> Some historians maintain Ferdinand had also been touched by the reformed philosophies, and was probably the closest the Holy Roman Empire ever came to a Protestant emperor; he remained nominally a Catholic throughout his life, although reportedly he refused last rites on his deathbed.<ref>See Parker ''Emperor: A new life of Charles V'', 2019, pp. 20–50.</ref> Other historians maintain he was as Catholic as his brother, but tended to see religion as outside the political sphere.<ref>Holborn, pp. 250–251.</ref>

Charles' abdication had far-reaching consequences in Imperial diplomatic relations with France and the Netherlands, particularly in his allotment of the Spanish kingdom to Philip. In France, the kings and their ministers grew increasingly uneasy about Habsburg encirclement and sought allies against Habsburg hegemony from among the border German territories, and even from some of the Protestant kings. In the Netherlands, Philip's ascension in Spain raised particular problems; for the sake of harmony, order, and prosperity Charles had not blocked the Reformation, and had tolerated a high level of local autonomy. An ardent Catholic and rigidly autocratic prince, Philip pursued an aggressive political, economic and religious policy toward the Dutch, resulting in a [[Dutch Revolt|Dutch rebellion]] shortly after he became king. Philip's militant response meant the occupation of much of the upper provinces by troops of, or hired by, [[Habsburg Spain]] and the constant ebb and flow of Spanish men and provisions on the so-called [[Spanish Road]] from northern Italy, through the [[Franche-Comté]], to and from Flanders.<ref>Parker, p. 35.</ref>