., emperor of Germany (1556-64), born at Alcala, in
Spain, son of Philip I., married Anna, a Bohemian princess, in 1521; was
elected king of the Romans (1531), added Bohemia and Hungary to his
domains (1503-1564).

FERDINAND II., emperor of Germany (1619-37), grandson of the
preceding and son of Charles, younger brother of Maximilian II., born at
Graetz; his detestation of the Protestants, early instilled into him by
his mother and the Jesuits, under whom he was educated, was the ruling
passion of his life, and involved the empire in constant warfare during
his reign; an attempt on the part of Bohemia, restless under religious
and political grievances, to break away from his rule, brought about the
Thirty Years' War; by ruthless persecutions he re-established Catholicism
in Bohemia, and reduced the country to subjection; but the war spread
into Hungary and Germany, where Ferdinand was opposed by a confederacy of
the Protestant States of Lower Saxony and Denmark, and in which the
Protestant cause was in the end successfully sustained by the Swedish
hero, GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS (q. v.), who had opposed to him the imperial
generals TILLY and WALLENSTEIN (q. v.); his reign is regarded as one of
disaster, bloodshed, and desolation to his empire, and his connivance at
the assassination of Wallenstein will be forever remembered to his
discredit (1578-1637).

FERDINAND III., emperor of Germany (1637-57), son of the preceding,
born at Graetz; more tolerant in his views, would gladly have brought the
war to a close, but found himself compelled to face the Swedes reinforced
by the French; in 1648 the desolating struggle was terminated by the
Peace of Westphalia; the rest of his reign passed in tranquillity
(1608-1657).

FERDINAND I., king of the Two Sicilies, third son of Charles III. of
Spain, succeeded his father on the Neapolitan throne (1759), married
Maria Caroline, daughter of Maria-Theresa; joined the Allies in the
struggle against Napoleon, and in 1806 was driven from his throne by the
French, but was reinstated at the Congress of Vienna; in 1816 he
constituted his two States (Sicily and Naples) into the kingdom of the
Two Sicilies, and in the last four years of his reign ruled, with the aid
of Austria, as a despot, and having broken a pledge to his people, was
compelled ere his return to grant a popular constitution (1751-1825).

FERDINAND II., king of the Two Sicilies, grandson of the preceding
and son of Francis