FERDINAND III. 



FERDINAND VII. 



- - 



intcn led to carry oa the same sweeping measures throughout Ger- 

 many, but here he adopted a more cautious plan. He began by 

 g tlie Lutherans from the C'alvinisto, and be called for the 

 execution of a former act whieh allowed to the Lutherans only the 

 free exerci*> of their religion, but condemned the Calvinists to 

 postacy or exile. He also insisted on the restitution of such eocle- 

 nsstical proprrty as the Protestants had seised since the treaty of 

 Pa-sau in 1532. The Protestant princes were compelled in many 

 raars to give up the lands and revenues which they had seized to the 

 monastic and collegiate bodies, their former owners. But the Roman 

 Catholic princes prevented the entire execution of the decree. They 

 had thenm-lve-, in the general confusion which followed the reforma- 

 tion, seized upon ecclesiastical proprrty, which they did not wish to 

 restore, and they moreover felt jealous of the threatening power of 

 the house of Austria, allied as it was to the Spanish branch of the 

 same bouse. Tbey feared also that they might be made as completely 

 dependant upon the emperor as the grandees of Spain hod become 

 upon their king. In this feeling they secretly encouraged their Pro- 

 testant countrymen in resisting the further execution of the decree. 

 The diet at Katisl on, on Ferdinand's request that his son Maximilian 

 might be elected King of the Romans, replied by insisting that the 

 emperor should reduce his army and dismiss Widdstein, who had 

 rendered himself hateful by the disorders of his troops. Soon after- 

 wards Gustavus Adolphus lauded in Pomerania, and put himself at 

 the head of the Protestant party in Germany. The events of the 

 memorable campaigns that followed are well known from Schiller's 

 'Thirty Years' War, 1 and other historians. [GcsTAVUs ADOU'urs.] 

 The Protestant cause triumphed in Germany until Gu.stavus fell at 

 the battle of Lutzen, 1632, after which the Swedes and German Pro- 

 te*tant* continued the war ; but the victory of N; ordhngeu, gained by 

 Ferdinand, eldest son of tbe emperor, had the effect of detaching the 

 Elector of Saxony from the Swedes, an example followed by almost 

 all the other German stites. Ferdinand died in February 1637, after 

 having witnessed the election and coronation of his son Ferdinand as 

 King of the Romans. 



Ferdinand II. reigned in very troubled times; his bigotry and 

 ruthless intolerance were the cause of most of his troubles, but he 

 wa not deficient in abilities or perseverance. His connivance at the 

 aaaassintion of his best general \Valdstein, whose ambition and arro- 

 gance bad made him suspected and feared, is an everlasting blot on 

 bis memory, but it was only accordant with the general tenor of hia 

 character. 



Kl.RIiIXAND III., son of Ferdinand II., had to continue the war 

 against the Swedes, who had been joined by the French, for several 

 years more, until the peace of Westphalia, 1618, put an end to the 

 desolating struggle. Tliis celebrated treaty forma an important epoch 

 in the hi-tory of Germany and of Europe. Tbe remainder of the 

 reign of Ferdinand 111. was passed in tranquillity. He died in 1657, 

 leaving behind him tbe character of a prudent, temperate, and a brave 

 princ.". Ho was succeeded by his son, Leopold I. 



FKRDINAND, or FERNANDO I., styled the Groat, tho son of 

 Sancbo, called Mayor, king of Navarra and Castile, succeeded his 

 father in 1035, and having defeated and killed Vcreinund, king of 

 Leon, in 1038, succeeded him as king of Leon and of Asturiaa. 

 Davarra became the appanage of Ferdinand's brother Garcia. Ferdi- 

 nand, called the Great, made war against the Moors, whom he drove 

 away from the northern part of Portugal as far a) tho Mondego. He 

 died in 1065, leaving throe sons Sanctius, to whom ho gave Castile ; 

 Alfonso, who In I Leon ; and Garcia, who retained Gallicia, 



FERDINAND II., second son of Alonso V1IL of Castile and Leon, 

 succeeded his father in the latter kingdom. only in 1157. He woi 

 engaged in war* with Alfonso Henrique, king of Portugal, and also 

 with hi* own nephew, Alonso of Castilo. Ho died in 1187. 



I 'IX AND III., called 'the Saint, 1 son of Alonso IX., king of 

 Leon, and of Berengaria of Castile, inherited both crowns aft^-r tho 

 death of his parent*. Ferdinand was successful in hit wars against 

 the Moors beyond any of bis predecessors : he took from thorn Badajoz 

 and Merida in 1230, Cordova in 1236, and Jacu, Seville, and Murcia in 

 1243. He was making preparations for carrying the war into Africa 

 when be died, in idinand collected tbe laws of his prede- 



cessors into a code ; ha established the council of Castile ; he clearec 

 his statce from robbers, and checked the arbitrary seta of the nobles. 

 He was ono of the mutt illustrious sov, reigns of tbe old Spanish 

 monarch?. Hi. >n, Alonso X., called 'the Wise,' succeeded him. 



IXANH IV. succeeded his father, Sancbo IV., in 1295, whiL 

 yet a minor. Hi- r. i ., wa< engnxwed chiefly by wars with tho 

 die.! in 1312, and was succeeded by his son, Alonso XI. 



' V. of Castile and II. of Aragun, son of John II. o 

 narried in 1469 Isabella, daughter of John II. of Castilo, aud 

 ^tbaA erown, by whom ho had several daughters, one of whom 

 Biamaouel, ktaf of Portugal ; another, Catherine, was tnar 

 Henry \ III. of England, and the other, Joanna, married Philip 

 archduke of Au.tria, son of the Emperor Maximilian I. F.rdiuaui 

 KQOOMded to tlie erown. of Aragou and of Sicily by tho death 

 father, and hi. wif l.ibclla had already succeeded in her owu right, 

 and with to. unction of the Cortes, to tho throne of Ca,tilo by the 

 death of hw brother. Henry 1 V .. in 1 472. Thus were the two great 

 division' of Spain umt^l, thong), the two kingdoms remained under 



A: 



separate administrations. Castile was still governed in the name of 

 lie queen until the death of Isabella in 1501, followed by that of the 

 Archduke Pliilip in 1506, when Ferdinand, owing to the insaiii 

 lis daughter Joanna, assumed the government of Castile, which he 

 retained till his death, when his grandson, Charles V., succeeded to 

 ho whole inheritance. 



Ferdinand took from the Moon the kingdom of Granada, their last 

 XMaemion in Spain, in 1492, after a war of several yeara ; at thu same 

 ime Columbus was discovering for him the New World, where the 

 Spaniards soon after made immense conquests. Ferdinand's general, 

 Jonzalo of Cordova, conquered for him the kingdom of Naples, p.u-tly 

 jy force, and partly by treachery. By similar ineaua IVrdm.u, 

 [tiered Navarre, which he added to his other dominions. He was the 

 most powerful monarch of bis time, and was also the cleverest ; but 

 lis abilities were disgraced by a total want of faith, and a recklessness 

 >f principle of which he made no scruple of boasting. He was styled 

 the Catholic ' a title which the kings of Spain have continued to 

 assume ever since, in consequence of his having cleared the soil of 

 Spain of the Mohammedans. He was also colled ' tbe Prudent,' and 

 the Wise.' He was ably assisted by his minister, Ximenes [CiaicKBos], 

 who emancipated the crown from the power of the feudal nobles by 

 aiding troops at the expense of the state, and by favouring tbe privi- 

 eges of the municipal towns. Ferdinand established the Inquisition 

 n Spain, which fearful tribunal continued till 1820, when it was finally 

 abolished. Acting from the same intolerant principle, he drove away 

 the Jews from Spain ; but he also established a sovere system of police 

 throughout his dominions by means of the association called the .Santa 

 tlermaudud, which did summary justice upon all offenders without 

 distinction of ranks. Ho also forbade any papal bull to be promul- 

 gated without the previous sanction of the royal council. He may be 

 considered as the restorer, if not the founder, of the Spanish monarchy. 

 I'erdinand died in January 1516, at sixty-three years of age, 



FERDINAND VL, eldest son of Philip V. of Bourbon, king of 

 Spain, succeeded bis father in 1746. He made several useful reforms 

 in tbe administration, and gave encouragement to commerce and 

 manufactures. He had the character of a good and prudent prince, 

 willing to administer impartial justice, and to redress the grievances 

 of his subjects. He died without issue in August 1759, and was 

 succeeded by his brother Don Carlos, king of the Two Sicilies, who 



turned the title of Charles III. of Spain. 



FERDINAND VIL, eldest son of Charles IV., king of Spain, nn 1 

 of Maria Louisa of Parma, wai born on the 1 4th of October 

 When six years of age, he was proclaimed Prince of Asturiaa. At 

 that time Godoy, afterwards called the Prince of Peace, was the 

 favourite minister and ruler at the Spanish court. Both ho and tlie 

 queen kept young Ferdinand, who was of a sickly constitution, in a 

 state of thraldom and seclusion little suited to the heir-apparent of 

 the throne. He had however some well-informed preceptors ; among 

 others the canon K.-coi<|uix, who figured afterwards in the p< 

 events of his reign. In 1802 Ferdinand married his first r 

 Maria Antoinette, daughter of Ferdinand IV., king of the Two 

 Sicilies, a princess of a superior mind, who endeavoured t. > i 

 her husband to his proper sphere and influence at court; in attempting 

 which she drew upon herself the dislike of the queen and of the 

 favourite, and from that time both she and her husband were kept 

 in a state of retirement and humiliation. She died suddenly in May 

 1806, under suspicious circumstances, and left no issue. 



In the meantime the administration of Spain was in n wretched 

 state ; everything was done through bribery or favour; the monarchy 

 was sinking lower and lower iu the estimation of Europe, having 

 become a mere dependent of France, and the people were highly 

 dissatisfied. Some friends of Ferdinand, and among others his pre- 

 ceptor Escoiquiz, formed a plan for overthrowing the fav. 

 Godoy. Being in want of powerful support, they unwarily advised 

 Ferdinand to address himself to the Kmperor Napoleon, to whom the 

 prince wrote a letter, dated llth of October 1807, in which he com- 

 plained of Godoy 's influence and the state of thraldom in which both 

 the king his father aud himself were kept, and expressed a desire to 

 form a connection with a princess of Napoloon's family, and to pla<- 

 himself under his protection. A memorial was at the same tim>- 

 penned by Kacoiquiz, and copied by Ferdinand with his own liaml, 

 pointing out in vivid language the mal-administratiou of the king- 

 dom, and asking, as the first remedy, the dismissal of the lav 

 Ferdinand was to have read this memorial to tlie king his father, but 

 Godoy being apprised of the plot, hastened to Charles, and told him 

 that bis son waa conspiring both against his crown and In 

 Upon this Ferdinand was arrested, his papers were seized, and after 

 some days of close confinement he was frightened into an acknow- 

 ledgment of what there appears reason to believe he really \\.i- 

 cent a conspiracy to dethrone his own father. This scandal' n 

 atl.iii- caused great excitement in the country, anil tli. 

 geni-ral, who disliked (l.iduy, took the part of the young pi-mce, win 

 from hU infancy had been the victim of court intrigues. 

 French troops had entered Spain under the pretence of IM.K 

 against Portugal had taken possession by surprise of several fortresses, 

 poleon's further in.> nlious becoming more alarming, the com I. 

 decided upon abandoning Spain aud retiring to Mexico. The 17th 

 of March 1808 was fixed for the departure, when a revolt broke our 



