RUDOLF II

RUDOLF II. (1552-1612), German Emperor, son of Maximilian II., born at Vienna; became king of Hungary in 1573, and of Bohemia three years later; ascended the imperial throne in 1576; indolent and incapable, he left the empire to the care of worthless ministers; disorder and foreign invasion speedily followed; persecution inflamed the Protestants; by 1611 his brother Matthias, supported by other kinsmen, had wrested Hungary and Bohemia from him; had a taste for astrology and alchemy, and patronised Kepler and Tycho Brahé.