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1589, Bohemia, Emperor Rudolph II. Silver Maley Groschen Coin. Prague mint!

Mint Year: 1589 Mint Place: Prague Condition: Minro deposits, otherwise XF! Denomination: Maley Grossus (Maley Groschen = "small grossus") Diameter: 16mm Weight: 0.82gm Material: Silver

Obverse: Crowned Bohemian lion rampart left. Legend: (+) RVDOL . II . D . G . R . I . S . A . G . H . B . REX   Reverse: Crowned initial of the Emperor (R), flanked by two rosettes. Denominaiton ("MALEY GROSS") and date (1589) below.

Rudolf II (July 18, 1552, Vienna, Austria - January 20, 1612, Prague, Bohemia,  now part of the Czech Republic) was King of Hungary (as Rudolf,  1572-1608), King of Bohemia (as Rudolf II, 1575-1608/1611), Archduke of  Austria (as Rudolf V, 1576-1608), and Holy Roman Emperor (as Rudolf II,  1576-1612). He was a member of the Habsburg family.

Rudolf's legacy has traditionally been viewed in  three ways: an ineffectual ruler whose mistakes led directly to the  Thirty Years' War; a great patron of Renaissance art; and a devotee of  occult arts and learning which helped seed the scientific revolution.

Rudolf was born in Vienna on July 18, 1552. He was  the eldest son and successor of Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor, King  of Bohemia, and King of Hungary; his mother was Maria of Spain, a  daughter of Charles V and Isabella of Portugal.

Rudolf spent eight formative years, from age 11 to  19 (1563-1571), in Spain, at the court of his maternal uncle Phillip  II. After his return to Vienna, his father was concerned about Rudolf's  aloof and stiff manner, typical of the more conservative Spanish court,  rather than the more relaxed and open Austrian court; but his Spanish  mother saw in him courtliness and refinement. Rudolf would remain for  the rest of his life reserved, secretive, and largely a homebody who  did not like to travel or even partake in the daily affairs of state.  He was more intrigued by occult learning such as astrology and alchemy,  which was mainstream in the Renaissance period, and had a wide variety  of personal hobbies such as horses, clocks, collecting rarities, and  being a patron of the arts. He suffered from periodic bouts of  "melancholy" (depression), which was common in the Habsburg line. These  became worse with age, and were manifested by a withdrawal from the  world and its affairs into his private interests. Rudolf never married,  and it has been claimed that he was a homosexual. During his periods of  self-imposed isolation, he reportedly had affairs with his court  chamberlain, Wolfgang von Rumpf, and a series of valets, one of whom,  Philip Lang, ruled him for years and was as a result hated by those  seeking favor with the emperor. Others, however, claim more  conventionally that Rudolph had many mistresses and children with a  retinue of 'imperial women'.

Historians have traditionally blamed Rudolf's  preoccupation with the arts, occult sciences, and other personal  interests as the reason for the political disasters of his reign. More  recently historians have re-evaluated this view and see his patronage  of the arts and occult sciences as a triumph and key part of the  Renaissance, while his political failures are seen as a legitimate  attempt to create a unified Christian empire, which was undermined by  the realities of religious, political and intellectual disintegrations  of the time.

Although raised in his uncle's Catholic court in  Spain, Rudolf was tolerant of Protestantism and other religions  including Judaism. He largely withdrew from Catholic observances, even  in death denying last sacramental rites. He had little attachment to  Protestants either, except as counter-weight to repressive Papal  policies. He put his primary support behind conciliarists, irenicists  and humanists. When the papacy instigated the Counter-Reformation,  using agents sent to his court, Rudolf backed those who he thought were  the most neutral in the debate, not taking a side or trying to effect  restraint, thus leading to political chaos and threatening to provoke  civil war.

His conflict with the Ottoman Turks was the final  cause of his undoing. Unwilling to compromise with the Turks, and  stubbornly determined that he could unify all of Christendom with a new  Crusade, he started a long and indecisive war with the Turks in 1593.  This war lasted till 1606, and was known as "The Long War". By 1604 his  Hungarian subjects were exhausted by the war and revolted, led by  Stephen Bocskay. In 1605 Rudolf was forced by his other family members  to cede control of Hungarian affairs to his younger brother Archduke  Matthias. Matthias by 1606 forged a difficult peace with the Hungarian  rebels (Peace of Vienna) and the Turks (Peace of Zsitvatorok). Rudolf  was angry with his brother's concessions, which he saw as giving away  too much in order to further Matthias' hold on power. So Rudolf  prepared to start a new war with the Turks. But Matthias rallied  support from the disaffected Hungarians and forced Rudolf to give up  the crowns of Hungary, Austria, and Moravia to him. At the same time,  seeing a moment of royal weakness, Bohemian Protestants demanded  greater religious liberty, which Rudolf granted in the Letter of Majesty in 1609. However the Bohemians continued to press for further freedoms  and Rudolf used his army to repress them. The Bohemian Protestants  appealed to Matthias for help, whose army then held Rudolf prisoner in  his castle in Prague, until 1611, when Rudolf was forced to cede the  crown of Bohemia to his brother.

Rudolf died in 1612, nine months after he had been  stripped of all effective power by his younger brother, except the  empty title of Holy Roman Emperor, which Matthias inherited five months  later. He died unmarried. In May 1618 at an event known as the  Defenestration of Prague, the Protestant Bohemians, in defense of the  rights granted them in the Letter of Majesty, began the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648).

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