Maximilian II
Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire and ruler of the Habsburg Monarchy (1564–1576)
Born in Vienna on 31 July 1527
Died in Regensburg (Germany) on 12 October 1576
Motto: ‘Providebit Deus – God will provide’
Maximilian II stands out among the otherwise strictly Catholic Habsburgs: he was sympathetic to Protestantism – a particularly sensitive matter at the time of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation. He thus aroused the disfavour of his relatives, above all his father, Emperor Ferdinand I. In 1562 he finally yielded to public pressure and pledged to remain a Catholic.
