n.
born July 9, 1578, Graz, Styria
died Feb. 15, 1637, Vienna
Holy Roman emperor (161937), archduke of Austria, king of Bohemia (161719, 162027) and king of Hungary (161825).
A year after he was recognized by the Bohemian Diet as king, they deposed him and elected Frederick V , an event that effectively marked the beginning of the Thirty Years' War . After annihilating the rebel army in 1620, he greatly reduced the Diet's power. A rigidly Catholic ruler, he forcibly Catholicized Bohemia and suppressed Protestantism throughout his lands. He maintained much of his power through the victories of Albrecht W.E. von Wallenstein but later concluded a compromise peace with the Protestant princes. He was the leading champion of the Catholic Counter-Reformation and of absolutist rule in the Thirty Years' War.