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 ...the Romans, but he died in 1654. Ferdinand III. died, April 2, 1657, shortly after concluding a treaty with the Poles against Sweden. See Koch, Geschichte des Deutschen Reichs unter Ferdinand III., 1865.
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.
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