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Ferdinand Encyclopedia Britannica

FERDINAND. The name of Ferdinand (the Italian Ferdinαηdo or Ferrante, Spanish Fernando or Hernando, Arabian Ferdeland), which is supposed to be of Gothic origin and to be allied to the German verdienend (meritorious), has been borne by a considerable number of European sovereigns, the more important of whom are noticed below in the following order—first, the emperors, and then the kings of Naples, Portugal, and Spain, the grand-dukes of Tuscany, and the duke of Brunswick....

9th ed. Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. 9, p. 77
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Ferdinand i Encyclopedia Britannica

FERDINAND I. (1793-1875), emperor of Austria, the eldest son of the emperor Francis I. by his second wife Maria Theresa, daughter of Charles VI., was born in Vienna, April 19, 1793. He inherited a constitution so weak as to unfit him for the duties of his station, but his amiable and benevolent disposition secured him general respect, and acquired for him the surname of the Good. On the 2d February 1831 he married Princess Anne Caroline, third daughter of Victor Emmanuel of Sardinia, but the marriage was without issue. He was crowned nominal sovereign of Hungary under the title of Ferdinand V. in 1830, succeeded his father as emperor of Austria on the 2d March 1835, and received the crown of Bohemia in 1836, and that of Lombardy in 1839. During his whole reign the government of Austria was virtually in the hands of Prince Metternich, who continued the conservative policy of Francis I. The revolution of the 13th March 1848 compelled Metternich to resign office, and, the constitution not meeting with the approval of the revolutionists, Ferdinand fled to Innsbruck. At the urgent request of all parties he shortly afterwards returned to Vienna, but on a renewal of the outbreak he left the capital for Olmiitz in Moravia, where, feeling himself unfit to cope with the difficulties of government, he was persuaded to abdicate in favour .of his nephew Francis Joseph, 2d December 1848. He spent the remainder of his life in retirement, chiefly at Prague in Bohemia, where he died 29th June 1875....

FERDINAND I. (1423-1494), king of Naples, the illegitimate son of Alphonso V. of Aragon and I. of Sicily and Naples, was born in 1423. In accordance with his father’s will, he succeeded him on the throne of Naples in 1458, but Pope Calixtus III. having refused to recognize him, John of Anjou, desirous to turn to advantage the opportunity of regaining the throne of his ancestors, invaded the country, and inflicted on him a severe defeat, July 7, 1460. Ferdinand fled to Naples accompanied by only twenty cavaliers, but having by certain concessions obtained recognition from Pius II., who about this time succeeded Calixtus on the papal throne, he received through him the aid of the Albanian chief Scanderbeg, and defeated John of Anjou at Troja with great loss, August 18, 1462. In 1480 the Turks captured Otranto from Ferdinand, and massacred the majority of the inhabitants, but in the following year it was retaken. The only other event of importance during his reign was an abortive attempt at revolt on the part of the nobles in 1485, many of whom, notwithstanding that he promised them a general amnesty, were afterwards treacherously murdered by his commands. On account of his refusing to pay to Innocent VIII. the censustax promised by him to Pius IL, he was in 1489 excommunicated, but he subsequently gained the favour of Alexander VI. He died 25th January 1494, while Charles VIII. of France was preparing to invade his dominions. Though cruel in the infliction of punishment, and ready without scruple to break his promises when it suited him. Ferdinand generally dealt out to his subjects even-handed justice, favoured the spread of knowledge, and greatly increased the industrial and commercial prosperity of his kingdom.

FERDINAND I. of Portugal (1345-1383), sometimes referred to as el Gentil (the Gentleman), son of Pedro I. of Portugal (who is not to be confounded with his Castilian contemporary Pedro the Cruel), succeeded his father in 1367. On the death of Pedro of Castile in 1369, Ferdinand, as great-grandson of Sancho IV. by the female line, laid claim to the vacant throne, for which the kings of Aragon and Navarre, and afterwards the duke of Lancaster (married in 1370 to Constance, the eldest daughter of Pedro), also became competitors. Meanwhile Henry of Trastamara, the brother (illegitimate) and conqueror of Pedro, had assumed the crown and taken the field. After one or two indecisive campaigns, all parties were ready to accept the mediation of Pope Gregory XI. The conditions of the treaty, ratified in 1371, included a marriage between Ferdinand and Leonora of Castile. But before the union could take place the former had suddenly become passionately attached to Leonora Tellez, the wife of one of his own courtiers, and having procured a dissolution of her previous marriage, he lost no time in making her his queen. This strange conduct, although it raised a serious insurrection in Portugal, did not at once result in a war with Henry; but the outward concord was soon disturbed by the intrigues of the duke of Lancaster, who prevailed on Ferdinand to enter into a secret treaty for the expulsion of Henry from his throne. The war which followed was unsuccessful; and peace was again made in 1373. On the death of Henry in 1379, the duke of Lancaster once more put forward his claims, and again found an ally in Portugal; but, according to the Continental annalists, the English proved as offensive to their companions in arms as to their enemies in the field; and Ferdinand made a peace for himself at Badajoz in 1382, it being stipulated that Beatrix, the heiress of Ferdinand, should marry King John of Castile, and thus secure the ultimate union of the crowns. On the death of Ferdinand at Lisbon in the following year (22d October 1383), leaving no male issue, the direct Burgundian line, which had been in possession of the throne since the days of Count Henry (about 1112), became extinct. The stipulations of the treaty of Badajoz were set aside, and John, grand-master of the order of Aviz, Ferdinand’s illegitimate brother, was proclaimed. This led to a war which lasted for several years.

FERDINAND I. of Aragon aħd Sicily (1379-1416), surnamed the Just, the younger son of John I. of Castile and Leonora of Aragon, was born in 1379. On the death of his elder brother Henry III. in 1406, he refused the crown of Castile which the nobles had offered, but in accordance with his brother’s will undertook the office of regent during the minority of his nephew John II. In this capacity he distinguished himself by his prudent administration of home affairs, and by his victories over the Moors by land and sea. He took the title de Antequera on the surrender of that fortress after a siege of five months (1410). On the death of his maternal uncle, King Martin of Aragon and Sicily, his claims to the throne, though not derived from the usual laws of descent, were taken up and keenly pressed by a powerful party in the state. The question of the succession was ultimately referred to a committee of nine judges equally representing Catalonia, Valencia, and Aragon; and the result was his election by a majority (1412). After he had defeated, at Balaguer, Count Jayme of Urgel, the last and most formidable of his rivals, he was formally crowned at Saragossa in 1414.

From the year 1378 Europe had been scandalized by the spectacle of the papal schism; and since 1410 three rival popes had been claiming the obedience of the faithful. At the council of Constance in 1414, Ferdinand of Aragon was a prominent supporter of the Spaniard, Benedict XIII. (Peter de Luna), who had been deposed at Pisa in 1408. The deposition of John XXIII., and the abdication of Gregory XII. in 1415, having paved the way for peace, Ferdinand consented to be present at the meeting of Sigismund with the ambassadors of France, Castile, and Navarre in Perpignan; and after long temporizing he ultimately agreed, for the sake of the unity of the church, to withdraw his obedience from Luna. He died in the following year at Ygualada (2d April 1416), and was succeeded by his son Alphonso V., the conqueror of Naples.

See Zurita, Anales de la Corona de Aragon, xi., xii..∙ Mariana, Hist. Gen. xix. 15—xx. 8.

FERDINAND I. (c⅛. 1000-1065), surnamed the Great, first sovereign of independent Castile, was the second son of Sancho III. (el Mayor) of Navarre, who about 1026 compelled Bermudo III. of Leon, the last direct descendant of Pelayo in the male line, to surrender his rights over Castile, and also to give his sister Sancha in marriage to Ferdinand, then regent of that province. Sancho, towards the close of his energetic life, divided his extensive dominions among his four sons, Castile being the portion allotted to the second (1035). Bermudo of Leon, shortly after Sancho’s death, sought to recover his lost possessions, but was defeated and slain in the attempt at Lantada near Rio Carrion (1038). Ferdinand, now king of Leon as well as of Castile, by a conciliatory yet firm policy, soon established his authority over his conquered subjects; and when in 1053 his dominions were invaded by his brother Garcia III. of Navarre, the attack issued in the death of the latter on the battlefield of Λtapuerca near Burgos, and the annexation of a large portion of his dominions. At an early period of his reign Ferdinand began to direct his arms against the Moors; and by a series of successful campaigns he extended the Christian frontier from the Douro to the Mondego, and reduced to vassalage the emirs of Toledo, Saragossa, and Seville. Even the Arab chronicles mention his victories from Badajoz in Estremadura to Albarracin in Aragon (Gayangos, Mohammedan Dynasties in Spain, vol. it). He had set out on an expedition against Valencia when he was seized with a mortal illness which compelled him to retire to his capital (Leon), where, after having divided his dominions among his three sons, he died on the 27th of December 1065. Ferdinand appears to have laid claim to the title of “emperor” of Spain; and Mariana alleges that at a council held at Florence in 1055 the emperor Henry III. lodged a formal complaint against this infringement of his rights of suzerainty, that this complaint was sustained by Pope Victor IL, but that at a conference afterwards held at Toulouse a decision favourable to Ferdinand’s imperial rights, so far as they related to the territories which had been conquered from the Moors, was given, chiefly in consequence of the representations made by the famous Cid, Ruy Diaz de Bi var. Though this statement can only be received with reserve, it is certain that both in virtue of the ascendency he won for himself in Christian Spain, and also in virtue of his very considerable successes over the Moors, Ferdinand I. is fully entitled to the rank which tradition has assigned to him among the greater Spanish sovereigns.

See Mariana’s Historia General de Espana, IX. i.-vi.

FERDINAND I. and IL, grand-dukes of Tuscany. See Medici.

9th ed. Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. 9, p. 78
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Ferdinand ii Encyclopedia Britannica

FERDINAND II. (1578-1637), emperor, was the grandson of the preceding and the son of Charles duke of Styria and of Mary of Bavaria, and was born at Gratz, 9th July 1578. He was educated by the Jesuits, and having imbibed strong anti-Protestant sentiments is said to have taken a solemn vow before the altar that, on receiving the imperial crown, promised him by his cousin Matthias IL, he would at whatever cost re-establish the Roman Catholic religion throughout all his states. In 1618 Matthias abdicated the thrones of Bohemia and Hungary in his favour, and on the death of Matthias in 1619 he laid claim to the imperial crown. His keen Roman Catholic sympathies, allied to a character gloomy, fanatical, and cruel, had already led him to disregard the guarantees of toleration by which his election to the thrones of Bohemia and Hungary had been acceded to; and on that account the Bohemians, shortly after the death of Matthias, rose in revolt, and under the leadership of Count Thurn besieged him in Vienna, until the arrival of an army under General Bouquoi forced them to retreat, and enabled him to proceed to Frankfort to receive the imperial crown. The Bohemians, notwithstanding their defeat, chose as their king the elector-palatine Frederick V., son-in-law of James I. of England, and with the assistance of Bethlen Gabor, prince of Transylvania, who revolted against Ferdinand in Hungary, virtually inaugurated the long struggle for religious liberty known as the Thirty Years’ War. Ferdinand, however, with the support of the Catholic league and the alliance of John George I., elector of Saxony, was able completely to subdue them after a short campaign, and having totally defeated them near Prague, November 8, 1620, he deprived them of their constitutional rights, banished the ...

See Khevenhiiller, Annales Ferdinandi II.; the various histories of the Thirty Years’ War; Ranke, Die Rom. Päpste, vol. ii.; and Hurter, Geschichte Ferdinands II. This last is written from a Roman catholic standpoint.

FERDINAND II., king of Naples, grandson of the preceding, and son of Alphonso II., was born probably in 1468. Alphonso finding his tenure of the throne uncertain on account of the general dissatisfaction of his subjects, abdicated in his son’s favour in 1495, but notwithstanding this the treason of a party in Naples rendered it impossible to defend the city against the approach of Charles VIII. Ferdinand fled to Ischia; but when the French left Naples, the Neapolitans, irritated by their conduct during the occupation of the city, recalled him; and with the aid of the great general of Ferdinand V. of Spain, Gonzalo de Cordova, he was able completely to rid his state of its invaders shortly before his death on the 7th October 1496.

FERDINAND II. (1810-1859), king of the Two Sicilies, grandson of the preceding, and son of Francis I., was born at Palermo, January 12, 1810. On succeeding his father in 1830, he published an edict in which he promised to “give his most anxious attention to the impartial administration of justice,” to reform the finances, and to “use every effort to heal the wounds which had afflicted the kingdom for so many years;” but these promises seem to have been meant only to lull discontent to sleep, for while the existing burden of taxation was only slightly lightened, corruption began gradually to invade all departments of the administration, and an absolutism was finally established harsher than that of all his predecessors, and supported by even more extensive and arbitrary arrests. Ferdinand, was naturally shrewd, but badly educated, grossly superstitious, and possessed of inordinate self-esteem. Though he kept the machinery of his kingdom in a high state of efficiency, he made little account of the wishes or welfare of his subjects, and did not deem it of much importance to be on good terms either with them or with foreign states. In 1832 he married Christina, daughter of Victor Emmanuel, and shortly after her death in 1836 he took fora second wife Maria Theresa, daughter of Archduke Charles of Austria. After his Austrian alliance the bonds of despotism were more closely tightened, and the increasing discontent of his subjects was manifested by abortive attempts at insurrection in 1837, 1841, 1844, and 1847, and in 1848 by a general rising in Sicily, on account of which the king judged it prudent to promise a constitution. A dispute, however, arose as to the nature of the oath which should be taken by the members of the chamber of deputies, and as neither the king nor the deputies would yield, serious disturbances began to occur in the streets of Naples; and the king, making these the excuse for withdrawing his promise, on the 13th March 1849 dissolved the national parliament. The efforts at revolt were renewed in Sicily, but were speedily quelled, chiefly by the bombardment of tho principal cities of the state, an expedient which won for Ferdinand the epithet of “Bomba.” During the last years of his reign espionage and arbitrary arrests prevented all serious manifestations of insubordination among his subjects. In 1851 the political prisoners of Naples were calculated by Mr Gladstone to number 13,000, and so great was the scandal created by the rule of terror which prevailed that in 1856 France and England, though vainly, made diplomatic representations to induce a mitigation of its rigour and the proclamation of a general amnesty. An attempt was made to assassinate Ferdinand in 1857. He died May 22, 1859.

See Correspondence respecting the Affairs of Naples and Sicily, 1848-49, presented to both Houses of Parliament by command of Her Majesty, 4th. May 1849; Two Letters to the Earl of Aberdeen, by Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone, 1st. ed. 1851 (an edition published in 1852, and the subsequent editions, contain an Examination of the Official Reply of the Neapolitan Government) ; supplementary chapter to the English translation of Coletta’s History of Naples; and Dawburn, Naples and King Ferdinand, 1858.

FERDINAND II. of Aragon and Sicily. See Ferdinand V. of Castile.

FERDINAND II. (1136-1188), younger son of Alphonso VIII. (el Emperador), became king of Leon on the death of his father in 1157. The history of his reign of thirty-one years is obscure. A dispute that arose between him and some of his powerful nobles gave his brother Sancho III. of Castile a pretext for invading his territory (1158), but the timely submission of Ferdinand averted serious disaster. The death of Sancho shortly afterwards led to a military occupation of Castile by Ferdinand, professedly in the interests of his nephew Alphonso III.; and this occupation lasted till the marriage of Alphonso to Leonora, daughter of Henry II. of England, in 1170. Meanwhile Ferdinand, having repudiated his wife Dona Urraca, had become involved in a war with his father-in-law Alphonso I. of Portugal, which resulted in the defeat and capture of the latter at Badajoz in 1169. The later years of the reign of Ferdinand II. were distinguished by sundry successes over the Moors, especially by a brilliant victory at Santarem (civ. 1181); and also by the incorporation of the great military order of Alcantara, which received its first regular charter from Pope Alexander III. in 1177. He died at Benavente (Leon) in 1188, and was succeeded by his son Alphonso IX.

Mariana, Hist. Gen. de Espana, XI. v., viii., xiii.,xvi.; Gayangos, Mohammedan Dynasties, ii. 522.

9th ed. Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. 9, p. 77
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Ferdinand iii Encyclopedia Britannica

FERDINAND III. (1608-1657), emperor, the son of the preceding, was born at Gratz, 11th July 1608. He became king of Bohemia in 1625, king of Hungary in 1627, king of the Romans in 1636, and succeeded his father as emperor in 1637. Milder in disposition, less fanatical in his opinions, and somewhat dispirited on account of the repeated defeats inflicted on the German arms by Duke Bernhard and General Baner, he was at an early period of his reign strongly desirous of obtaining peace even at the cost of liberal concessions to the Protestants; but the determination of France and Sweden to humiliate the imperial power prevented negotiations being entered into until 1643. Between that date and 1648 fruitless conferences continued to be held, the war meanwhile raging intermittently and with somewhat spent fury. In 1647, however, Ferdinand had guaranteed religious toleration to Hungary, and finally, on October 24, 1648, the Peace of westphalia was signed, by which was brought to a close a war that, besides the evils inflicted by it on other countries, had desolated the whole of Germany, paralysed its trade, and destroyed more than half its population. By this treaty religious liberty was secured to Germany, although not to Bohemia; France obtained part of Alsace and Lorraine, and the son of Frederick V. got the Upper Palatinate; while Sweden obtained Western Pomerania, and became a member of the German diet. The unity of Germany was at the same time so broken up by concessions granted to the independent princes that with the death of Ferdinand III. the German kingdom may be said to have ceased to exist, until re-established by William I. after the Franco-Prussian war. During the peace negotiations of Westphalia, Ferdinand IV., eldest son of Ferdinand III., was chosen king of ...

FERDINAND III. of Naples. See Ferdinand V. of Spain.

FERDINAND III. (1200-1252), usually known as Saint Ferdinand, was the son of Alphonso IX. of Leon, and of Berenguela, sister of Henry I. of Castile. On the death of Henry without issue in 1217, the just title of Blanche, the elder of the surviving sisters, was set aside and Berenguela procured the proclamation of Ferdinand. He rapidly secured the homage of the towns and the submission of the nobles, especially of the brothers Alvaro and Fernando de Lara. On the death of his father in 1230 he ultimately, though not without dispute, became king of Leon as well as of Castile, thus finally uniting the two kingdoms under one crown. Following up the advantage which had been gained for the Christian arms by his father and the allied kings in the great battle at Las Navas de Tolosa in 1212, he devoted all his energies to the prosecution of the Moorish war. Among his conquests may be mentioned those of Ubeda in 1234, of Cordova in 1236, of Jaen in 1245, and of Seville in 1248. He was planning an invasion of Africa when he died at Seville on the 30th of May 1252, leaving his kingdom to his eldest son Alphonso X. (Alonso el Sabio).

Though not canonized till centuries afterwards (by Clement X. in 1671), he came to be popularly known as el Santo from a very early period. Distinguished though he was for great military talent, he was still more remarkable for his religious zeal. Like his younger cousin Saint Louis of France, he was supremely a champion of the Catholic faith. It was not on the field of battle alone that his ardour was displayed. His Spanish panegyrists never fail to relate how it was his wont to assist in carrying wood for burning the followers of the Albigensian heresy, and how sometimes with his own royal hands he applied the torch to the pile. While as a crusader he is hardly eclipsed by Louis, he contrasts very favourably with him as a sincere friend of learning. He was the original founder (1243) of the university of Salamanca, which his son and successor did so much to foster and encourage. He it was also who caused to be translated into the vulgar tongue the Fuero Juzgo (Forum Judicum) or code of Visigothic laws, which as collected and translated at his instance has the double interest of being one of the oldest extant specimens of Castilian prose, and also of being the foundation of Las Siete Partidas, the code for Christian Spain, which was finally drawn up by Alphonso the Wise.

His body now lies in the Capilla Real of Seville Cathedral, where it is exhibited as a relic on certain annual occasions (in May, August, and November). His day in the Spanish calendar is May 30.

See Mariana, Hist. Gem, XII. vii.—XIII. viii; and compare Conde, Dominαcion de los Arabes en Espana, IV. iii.-vi.

FERDINAND III. (1769-1824), grand-duke of Tuscany, and archduke of Austria, second son of the emperor Leopold IL, was born on the 6th May 1769. On his father becoming emperor in 1790, he succeeded him as grand-duke of Tuscany. Ferdinand was the first sovereign to enter into diplomatic relations with the French republic; and although afterwards compelled by England and Russia to join the coalition against France, he concluded peace with that power in 1795, and by observing a strict neutrality saved his dominions from invasion by Napoleon till 1799, when he was compelled to vacate his throne, and a provisional republican government was established at Florence. Shortly afterwards the French arms suffered severe reverses in Italy, and Ferdinand was restored to his territories, but in 1801 Tuscany was converted into the kingdom of Etruria, and he was again compelled to return to Vienna. In lieu of the sovereignty of Tuscany, he obtained in 1802 the electorship of Salzburg, which he exchanged in 1805 for that of Würzburg. In 1806 he was admitted as grand-duke of Würzburg to the confederation of the Rhine. He was restored to the throne of Tuscany after the abdication of Napoleon in 1814, but had again to vacate it for a short time in 1815, when Murat proclaimed war against Austria. The final overthrow of the French supremacy at the battle of Waterloo secured him, however, in the undisturbed possession of his kingdom during the remainder of his life. The mild and righteous rule of Ferdinand, his solicitude for the welfare of his subjects, his enlightened patronage of art and science, his encouragement of commerce, and his sympathy with freedom render him an honourable and striking exception to the generality of Italian princes. He died on the 18th of June 1824.

9th ed. Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. 9, p. 78
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Ferdinand iv Encyclopedia Britannica

FERDINAND IV. (1751-1825)’of Naples, HL of Sicily, and I. of the Two Sicilies, third son of Don Carlos, king of Naples (afterwardsCharles III. of Spain), was born in Naples, January 12, 1751. When his father ascended the Spanish throne in 1759, Ferdinand, in accordance with the treaties which forbade the union of the two crowns, succeeded him on the throne of Naples, under a regency of which Bernardo Tanucci was the chief. On account of the ambitious purposes of Tanucci, who wished to retain the government of the kingdom as much as possible in his own hands, the education of the young king was very much neglected, while no restraint was put upon his love of pleasure, or his excessive preference for athletic exercises and outdoor sports. His minority ended on the 12th January 1767, and in 1768 he married Maria Caroline, daughter of the empress Maria Theresa. According to the marriage contract tho queen after the birth of her first son was to have a voice in the councils of state; and she was not backward to make use of this opportunity of political influence. Beautiful, clever, and ambitious, and inheriting many of the masculine characteristics of her mother, she soon ousted Tanucci both from the favour of the king and from all but nominal authority in the state; and when he systematically attempted to frustrate her purposes, he was finally in 1777 dismissed from his office. The Englishman Sir John Acton was shortly after this appointed admiral of the Neapolitan fleet, and succeeded so completely in winning the favour of both queen and court, that he was speedily promoted to be minister of war, and then of foreign affairs. Under his influence Spain lost her ascendency in Neapolitan politics, and an intimate connexion was formed with Austria and England. In 1793 ...

9th ed. Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. 9, p. 78
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Ferdinand v Encyclopedia Britannica

FERDINAND V. of Castile, III. of Naples, II. of Aragon and Sicily, surnamed el Ccdolico (1452-1516), the younger son of John II. of Navarre and Aragon by his second wife Juana Henriquez of Castile, was born at Sos in Aragon on the 10th of March 1452. On the death of his elder brother Carlos in 1461, he was recognized by the Aragonese as heir-apparent to the crown, but the Catalans, rendered indignant by the cruelty and perfidy with which Carlos had been treated, refused to recognize any further claim on their allegiance, and rose in rebellion against King John. Ferdinand accompanied his father in the campaigns which followed, and gave early promise of distinction. In 1466 his father formally associated him with himself in the government of Aragon, and in 1458 declared him king of Sicily. In October 1469 he was married at Valladolid, in circumstances of unusual secrecy, to Isabella, sister of Henry IV. of Castile, and heiress to that throne. On the death of Henry IV. in 1474, Ferdinand and Isabella were recognized by the nobles in the junta of Segovia as joint-sovereigns of Castile; but a powerful party, including the marquis of Villena, the grand-master of Calatrava, the archbishop of Toledo, and numerous other notables, as well as some of the burghs, declared in favour of Juana “la Beltraneja” (i.e., daughter of Beltran), whom Henry had shortly before his death recognized as his own child, and by his will designated as his successor. Juana had also the support of Alphonso V. of Portugal (to whom she was betrothed in 1470) and of Louis XI. of France. The result was a civil war which continued with varying fortunes until victory finally declared for the Catholic sovereigns, and the peace of Lisbon was signed in 1479. In the same year, a few months previously, ...

9th ed. Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. 9, p. 81
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Ferdinand vi Encyclopedia Britannica

FERDINAND VI. (1713-1759), king of Spain, sometimes called the Sage, the younger son of Philip V. and Maria Louisa of Savoy, was born at Madrid, September 23, 1713. On the death of his elder brother Louis in 172 5, Ferdinand was proclaimed prince of the Asturias; and in 1729 he was betrothed to Barbara, daughter of J ohn V. of Portugal. He succeeded his father on July 9,1746. Since 1739 Spain had been involved in protracted war, first with England in consequence of disputes relative to British interests in the West Indies, and afterwards, since 1740, with Austria on the accession of Maria Theresa. It was Ferdinand’s first endeavour on coming to the throne to secure peace for his exhausted country, and one of the earliest acts of his government was to order the withdrawal of the Spanish troops from Italy (August 1746). Soon afterwards negotiations were opened for peace with England; and these, though frequently interrupted, ultimately resulted in the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, which terminated the war of the Austrian succession, thus restoring peace to Europe (October 1748). Weak in health and despondent in temperament, Ferdinand had no inclination thenceforward to take an active part in European affairs, and the management of the public business he abandoned almost entirely to his ministers Ensenada, Carvajal, and Wall. These, however, always found it necessary to take into their counsels the queen, to whom Ferdinand was much attached, the royal confessor Rabago, and the singer Farinelli, whose musical powers had given him extraordinary influence. During this reign the condition of Spanish finance was much improved; agriculture, commerce, and the arts were encouraged; by a concordat with Pope Benedict XIV., in 1753, many abuses of ecclesiastical patronage were ...

9th ed. Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. 9, p. 82
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Ferdinand vii Encyclopedia Britannica

FERDINAND VII. (1784-1833), king of Spain, the eldest son of Charles IV, and of Maria Louisa of Parma, was born at San Ildefonso, October 14, 1784, and became prince of the Asturias on the accession of his father in 1788. The year of his birth had also been the year of Godoy’s arrival at court (see Alcudia) ; and the sinister influences of the royal favourite soon began to manifest themselves there. Ferdinand from a very early age learned to dislike Godoy, and he found many to sympathize with him in his not unnatural aversion. In 1802 he was married to Maria Antonietta, daughter of the king of Naples, and she, along with his former tutor Escoiquiz, the dukes of San Carlos, del Infantado, and others, fostered in him the spirit of resistance to the ascendency of “the Prince of the Peace.” Soon after her death in 1806 (attributed by him, though without sufficient evidence, to foul play), and the forcible removal of Escoiquiz, the court became openly divided into two hostile factions; but though Godoy had the entire confidence of the king and queen, Ferdinand had the almost undivided sympathies of. the people. On the 30th of October 1807, he was suddenly laid under arrest on a charge of conspiracy against the crown and life of his father; but no documentary evidence against him could be produced, except a draft memorial, apparently intended for presentation to the king, in which the conduct of Godoy was bitterly complained of, and a letter to Napoleon appealing for protection, and expressing a desire to enter into a matrimonial connexion with the Bonaparte family. When it was found that the French ambassador had been cognisant of these intrigues, the matter was hushed up and Ferdinand pardoned; but meanwhile the rapid movement of events, political and military, had ...

The decisive victory of Wellington at Vittoria (21st June 1813), followed up by the invasion of France, induced Napoleon to treat with his captive on terms more nearly approaching those of equality (November 1813), and ultimately the title of Ferdinand and his dynasty to the throne of Spain was recognized on his agreeing to sign a convention in which it was undertaken on his part to expel the English from the Peninsula, to pardon all those who had given their obedience to Joseph Bonaparte, and to restore the harmonious relations of the two kingdoms as these had subsisted prior to 1792. On his return to Spain in March 1814, the cortes declined to recognize him until he should have sworn to the constitution which had been promulgated at Cadiz in 1812; but, listening to the counsels of the “servile” party, he first evaded and afterwards rejected this demand. On the 4th of May he, by the decree of Valencia, annulled the constitution of 1812 and all enactments made by the cortes in his absence; on the 30th of the same month he issued his decree of proscription and perpetual exile against the afrancesados or those who had given obedience to Joseph Bonaparte; on the 21st of July he re-established the Inquisition, with all the powers it had possessed under Torquemada, and began a hot crusade against “liberalism” or “constitutionalism,” in which no weapon of confiscation, or imprisonment, or banishment, or execution, which despotism could wield was' left unemployed. This policy of the absolutist “camarilla” was for some time interrupted by a revolutionary party headed by Quiroga and Riego at Cabezas de San Juan near Cadiz, which, on the 1st of January 1820, caused the constitution of 1812 to be again proclaimed. *Thθ insurrection gaining daily in strength, the king was compelled to make concession after concession, until at length on the 9th of March he solemnly professed his entire acceptance of the popular constitution, abolished the Inquisition, banished the Jesuits, and restored the freedom of the press. The cortes reassembled, and the citizens who had been banished reappeared. But very soon the king began to show how insincere his submission had been.. Sometimes secretly, sometimes openly, he did all in his power to encourage the opposition, until at last, in July 1822, the royal guard broke out into open revolt with cries for “the absolute king.” For the time they were repressed by the constitutionalists; but meanwhile the state of the Peninsula had attracted the attention of the Holy Alliance, and at the congress of Verona (August 25 to December 14, 1822) it was agreed to send a French army into Spain, “to deliver Ferdinand from slavery.” Madrid was entered on May 23, 1823; the cortes withdrew to Seville, where Ferdinand was declared incapable of governing, and a regency was appointed (11 th June). Driven by the invaders to Cadiz, and there compelled to surrender, the cortes yielded up their authority into the hands of Ferdinand, who in his turn promised a general amnesty to all who had been concerned in the revolutionary proceedings. This promise he broke the very next day, annulling every act of his government since 7th March 1820. Another period of proscriptions, banishments, and fusillades now set in. Enactments of the most tyrannical description were unscrupulously made with the avowed purpose of stamping out the last spark of constitutionalism. Numbers were put to death for the most trivial offences, and it has been estimated that some 20,000 families were compelled to leave their country. Louis XVIII. offered counsels of moderation; he reminded Ferdinand that “Christian princes ought not to rule by means of proscriptions,” and that “a blind despotism, far from consolidating the power of sovereigns, weakens it but his remonstrances were in vain. His successor Charles X. used similar language; but Ferdinand’s reply was that he was not able to control the reactionary party which had restored him to power. During the later years of his life he took little or no interest in public affairs; and the absolutists began to turn their attention to the question of the succession. A scheme was matured for inducing the king to abdicate in favour of his brother Don Carlos; but on the death of his third wife Maria Amalia of Saxony in May 1829 without issue, Ferdinand filled the “apostolicals” with consternation and the liberals with new hope by contracting a fourth marriage with Maria Cristina of Naples (December 1829). In March 1830 the king decreed the abrogation of the Salic law,—a measure which excited the Carlists first to intrigue and afterwards to open insurrection on the birth of a daughter in October. In 1832 Ferdinand was seized with a threatening illness, and wavered from his formerly expressed will with regard to the succession; but ultimately, in June 1833, his daughter (Isabella II.) was declared his successor, Cristina was nominated as regent, and Don Carlos with many of his followers was ordered to leave the kingdom. The death of Ferdinand at Madrid, September 29, 1833, was the signal for the outbreak of a long and bloody civil war.

Ferdinand’s selfishness, hypocrisy, mendacity, incapacity to understand even the idea of patriotism, have sometimes suggested a comparison with Charles I. of England. But such a comparison is unjust to Charles. Ferdinand was a Spanish Bourbon, and in him the characteristic qualities of that house reached their final perfection—“imbecility, dissoluteness, ferocity, mutual hate, intellect never reaching higher than cunning, with a religion that was the fetichism of a savage rather than the creed of a rational being.” His reign was a disastrous one for Spain. Its results may be summed up as follows :—lose of her American possessions—New Granada, New Spain (Mexico), Rio de la Plata, Chili, Venezuela, Guatemala, and Peru; hopeless financial embarrassment; thousands of her best citizens put to death for political opinions; myriads banished; and a quarter of a million slain in unnecessary wars.

9th ed. Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. 9, p. 83
[1,653 words — estimated reading time: 10 minutes]

Ferdinande Encyclopedia Britannica

FERDINANDE (1503-1564), emperor, was the son of Philip of Austria and Joanna daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, and was born at Alcala in Spain 10th March 1503. In 1521 he married princess Anna of Hungary, and on the death in 1526 of her only brother the boy-king Louis of Bohemia and Hungary he was elected king of Bohemia, but in Hungary his claims were opposed by John Zapolya, palatine of Transylvania. Zapolya suffered a severe defeat from the imperial troops near Tokay; but after receiving the aid of the Turks he managed to carry on the struggle with varying success until 1538, when the exhausted resources of both rival parties led to a compromise, by which it was agreed that a half of the kingdom should be assigned to each, and that on the death of John the half over which he ruled should revert to Ferdinand. But on the death of John in 1540 the Turks supported the cause of his infant son John Sigismund, and in 1547 Ferdinand was compelled to purchase peace at the price of a yearly tribute. The war was again renewed in 1552, and at its termination the Turks were allowed to retain possession of a part of Hungary in trust for Sigismund. In 1521 Ferdinand had been chosen president of the council of regency appointed to govern Germany during the absence in Spain of his brother the emperor Charles V., and in 1531 he was, through the influence of his brother, elected king of the Romans, in which capacity he acted the part of mediator between the emperor and the German princes, and in 1552 negotiated a treaty between him and the elector Maurice of Saxony. On the abdication of Charles in 1556 Ferdinand was elected emperor. Pope Paul IV. refused ecclesiastical recognition to the election on the ground that it was made without the consent of the papal see, but ...

9th ed. Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. 9, p. 77
[484 words — estimated reading time: 3 minutes]