Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor

Ferdinand II was Holy Roman Emperor and King of Bohemia, Hungary and Croatia from 1619 until his death in 1637. He was the son of Archduke Charles II of Inner Austria and Maria of Bavaria, devout Catholics who sent him at age eleven to study at the Jesuit college in Ingolstadt to isolate him from the region's Lutheran nobles. His father died a few months later, and Ferdinand inherited Inner Austria, Styria, Carinthia, Carniola and smaller provinces, though his cousin Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor, then head of the Habsburg family, appointed regents to administer them.