FERDINANDO I of Habsburg, EMPEROR. — Son of Archduke Filippo II the Handsome of Austria and Giovanna the Mad, b. at Alcalá (New Castile) on 10 March 1503, d. at Vienna on 25 July 1564. In 1521 he received from his brother Carlo V the Austrian hereditary lands, succeeding in suppressing the peasants’ revolt in Tyrol, Austria, and Styria. In 1521 he had married Anna, sister of Lodovico II, king of Bohemia and Hungary. When his brother-in-law died at Mohács (1526), he claimed the succession to the two kingdoms: he was recognized in Bohemia but not in Hungary, where the majority elected king the voivode of Transylvania, Giovanni Szapolyai, supported by Solimano II, who subsequently besieged Vienna itself (1529). The Turkish danger and the Lutheran schism were the fundamental problems of the kingdom of F.
He presided over various diets in Germany, where he sought to reconcile Catholics and Protestants. In 1531 he was elected King of the Romans. In 1552 he concluded the Treaty of Passau with the Protestants, and, three years later, the Religious Peace of Augsburg, where, among other things, he attempted, through the «reservatum», to save the principal ecclesiastical offices. After the abdication of Carlo V, on 14 March 1558 he was appointed emperor. When the Council of Trent was reopened by Pio IV in 1562, F., prompted by the situation in Germany, presented his own reform plan, in which he requested, among other things, the abolition of celibacy for priests and, for the laity, Communion sub utque specie. Personally devoted to the Church, he was a tolerant, just, peaceful prince, well regarded by his subjects despite religious differences.