Albert VII of Austria
(also Albert the Pious; 1559–1621), governor-general and then sovereign ruler of the Netherlands.Son of Emperor Maximilian II and Maria (daughter of Emperor Charles V and Isabella of Portugal), ...
Antonio Moro
(c.1516/20–1576/7),Dutch portrait painter usually known by the Spanish version of his name, born in Utrecht, where he trained in the studio of Jan van Scorel. His access to the ...
Charles IX
(1550–74),King of France, was the second son of King Henri II and Catherine de Médicis; before his accession he was known as duke of Orléans. In 1560, aged 10 ...
Diet
(from medieval Latin, ‘a meeting for a single day’)A meeting of estates or representatives, or even a legislative assembly. The representatives of the German States in the Holy Roman Empire (and the ...
Ferdinand I
(1503–1564), King of Hungary and Bohemia, later Holy Roman Emperor.Ferdinand laid both the administrative and territorial foundations of the Habsburg empire in central and east central Europe. Born ...
German gardens
The Renaissance garden in Germany is confined to the few years between 1590 and the outbreak of the Thirty Years War in 1618; it was stimulated during this period both ...
Girolamo Mercuriale
(1530–1603),Italian physician, born in Forlì. He studied medicine in Bologna and Pavia, and then worked as a physician in Rome. He subsequently taught at Padua and, after a period ...
Heidelberg Catechism
(1562), the Protestant confession of faith prepared at the behest of the Elector Friedrich III by Zacharias Ursinus and Kaspar Olevian (1536–87) and published on 19 January 1563. Later in ...
Jacopo Strada
(c.1515–1588),Italian artist and antiquarian. He was born into a Netherlandish family in Mantua and moved in the late 1540s to Augsburg, where he lived in the house of Johan ...
Jan Joriszoon van der Schardt
(c.1530–after 1581),Netherlandish sculptor, born in Nijmegen. He lived in Italy in the 1560s, and in 1569 entered the service of Maximilian II in Vienna. In the early 1570s he ...
Joachim Camerarius
(1500–74),German humanist, born in Bamberg and educated at Leipzig, where he studied Greek. He moved to Wittenberg, where he became the friend and biographer of Melanchthon. In 1524 he ...
Johann Friedrich II
(1529–95),Duke of Saxony, born in Torgau on 8 January 1529, the eldest son of Johann Friedrich I, elector of Saxony. During his father's imprisonment (1547–52) he administered the remaining ...
Joseph Nasi
(c.1520–1579),Portuguese banker and statesman. He was born into a marrano family, and as a young man left Portugal for Antwerp, where he founded a bank. He subsequently lived in ...
Matthias
(1557–1619),Holy Roman Emperor, was born on 24 February 1557 in Vienna, the third son of the Emperor Maximilian II and his wife Maria (daughter of Charles V) and the ...
Philip II
(1527–98),King of Spain and (as Filippo I) king of Naples and (as Felipe I) king of Portugal (1527–98), was born on 21 May 1527 in Valladolid, the son of ...
Philip III
(1578–1621),King of Spain and (as Felipe II) king of Portugal, was born in Madrid on 14 April 1578, the son of King Philip II and his fourth wife Anna ...
Rudolf II
(1552–1612), Holy Roman Emperor, king of Hungary and Bohemia.The eldest surviving son of Emperor Maximilian II (r. 1564–1576), Rudolf received much of his education in Spain at the court ...
Wenzel Jamnitzer
(1508–85),German goldsmith. He was born into a Viennese family of goldsmiths, but moved with his father Hans Jamnitzer the Elder (d. c.1549) and his brother Albrecht (d. 1555) to ...
