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Charles II Francis of Austria ( German: Karl II. Franz von Innerösterreich) (3 June 1540 – 10 July 1590) was an Archduke of Austria and a ruler of Inner Austria ( Styria, Carniola, Carinthia and Gorizia) from 1564. He was a member of the House of Habsburg .
NameBirthDeathNotesArchduke FerdinandJudenburg, 15 July 1572Judenburg, 3 August 1572Died in infancy.Graz, 16 August 1573Warsaw, 10 February 1598Married on 31 May 1592 to Sigismund III ...Graz, 10 November 1574Hall in Tirol, Tyrol, 6 April 1621Married on 6 August 1595 to Sigismund ...Graz, 4 January 1576Graz, 29 June 1599Died unmarried.Learn about the life and rule of Charles II, the youngest son of Emperor Ferdinand I and Anna of Jagiello. He inherited Inner Austria and faced the challenges of Ottoman expansion and religious reform in the Habsburg Monarchy.
Eventually his efforts to gain the hand of the Wittelsbach princess Maria of Bavaria (1551–1608) were crowned with success. She was the daughter of Duke Albrecht V of Bavaria and the Habsburg archduchess Anna (1528–1590), one of Charles’s aunts. He was thus marrying his first cousin.
Archduke Charles (born Sept. 5, 1771, Florence [Italy]—died April 30, 1847, Vienna, Austria) was an Austrian archduke, field marshal, army reformer, and military theoretician who was one of the few Allied commanders capable of defeating the French generals of the Napoleonic period.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Learn about the life and reign of Charles II, the youngest son of Emperor Ferdinand I, who ruled Inner Austria from 1564 to 1590. Find out how he defended the Catholic Church against the Protestant Estates and his offspring.
Charles became Archduke of Inner Austria, elevated Graz to the status of a royal seat, promoted its urban development and established a well-functioning central administration.
Charles, 1771–1847, archduke of Austria; brother of Holy Roman Emperor Francis II. Despite his epilepsy, he was the ablest Austrian commander in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars; however, he was handicapped by unwise decisions imposed on him from Vienna.
