The new emperor had already shown that he believed in the necessity for a thorough reform of the Church. He was unable, however, to obtain the consent of Pope Pius IV. to the marriage of the clergy, and in 1568 the concession of communion in both kinds to the laity was withdrawn. On his part Maximilian granted religious liberty to the Lutheran nobles and knights in Austria, and refused to allow the publication of the decrees of the council of Trent. Amid general expectations on the part of the Protestants he met his first Diet at Augsburg in March 1566. He refused to accede to the demands of the Lutheran princes; on the other hand, although the increase of sectarianism was discussed, no decisive steps were taken to suppress it, and the only result of the meeting was a grant of assistance for the Turkish War, which had just been renewed. Collecting a large and splendid army Maximilian marched to defend his territories; but no decisive engagement had taken place when a truce was made in 1568, and the emperor continued to pay tribute to the sultan for Hungary. Meanwhile the relations between Maximilian and Philip of Spain had improved; and the emperor’s increasingly cautious and moderate attitude in religious matters was doubtless due to the fact that the death of Philip’s son, Don Carlos, had opened the way for the succession of Maximilian, or of one of his sons, to the Spanish throne. Evidence of this friendly feeling was given in 1570, when the emperor’s daughter, Anne, became the fourth wife of Philip; but Maximilian was unable to moderate the harsh proceedings of the Spanish king against the revolting inhabitants of the Netherlands. In 1570 the emperor met the diet at Spires and asked for aid to place his eastern borders in a state of defence, and also for power to repress the disorder caused by troops in the service of foreign powers passing through Germany. He proposed that his consent should be necessary before any soldiers for foreign service were recruited in the empire; but the estates were unwilling to strengthen the imperial authority, the Protestant princes regarded the suggestion as an attempt to prevent them from assisting their coreligionists in France and the Netherlands, and nothing was done in this direction, although some assistance was voted for the defence of Austria. The religious demands of the Protestants were still unsatisfied, while the policy of toleration had failed to give peace to Austria. Maximilian’s power was very limited; it was inability rather than unwillingness that prevented him from yielding to the entreaties of Pope Pius V. to join in an attack on the Turks both before and after the victory of Lepanto in 1571; and he remained inert while the authority of the empire in north-eastern Europe was threatened. His last important act was to make a bid for the throne of Poland, either for himself or for his son Ernest. In December 1575 he was elected by a powerful faction, but the diet which met at Regensburg was loath to assist; and on the 12th of October 1576 the emperor died, refusing on his deathbed to receive the last sacraments of the Church.
By his wife Maria he had a family of nine sons and six daughters. He was succeeded by his eldest surviving son, Rudolph, who had been chosen king of the Romans in October 1575. Another of his sons, Matthias, also became emperor; three others, Ernest, Albert and Maximilian, took some part in the government of the Habsburg territories or of the Netherlands, and a daughter, Elizabeth, married Charles IX. king of France.
The religious attitude of Maximilian has given rise to much discussion, and on this subject the writings of W. Maurenbrecher, W. Goetz and E. Reimann in the Historische Zeitschrift, Bände VII., XV., XXXII. and LXXVII. (Munich, 1870 fol.) should be consulted, and also O. H. Hopfen, Maximilian II. und der Kompromisskatholizismus (Munich, 1895); C. Haupt, Melanchthons und seiner Lehrer Einfluss auf Maximilian II. (Wittenberg, 1897); F. Walter, Die Wahl Maximilians II. (Heidelberg, 1892); W. Goetz, Maximilians II. Wahl zum römischen Könige (Würzburg, 1891), and T. J. Scherg, Über die religiöse Entwickelung Kaiser Maximilians II. bis zu seiner Wahl zum römischen Könige (Würzburg, 1903). For a more general account of his life and work see Briefe und Akten zur Geschichte Maximilians II., edited by W. E. Schwarz (Paderborn, 1889-1891); M. Koch, Quellen zur Geschichte des Kaisers Maximilian II. in Archiven gesammelt (Leipzig, 1857-1861); R. Holtzmann, Kaiser Maximilian II. bis zu seiner Thronbesteigung (Berlin, 1903); E. Wertheimer, Zur Geschichte der Türkenkriege Maximilians II. (Vienna, 1875); L. von Ranke, Über die Zeiten Ferdinands I. und Maximilians II. in Band VII. of his Sämmtliche Werke (Leipzig, 1874), and J. Janssen, Geschichte des deutschen Volkes seit dem Ausgang des Mittelalters, Bände IV. to VIII. (Freiburg, 1885-1894), English translation by M. A. Mitchell and A. M. Christie (London, 1896 fol.).
MAXIMILIAN (1832-1867), emperor of Mexico, second son of the archduke Francis Charles of Austria, was born in the palace of Schönbrunn, on the 6th of July 1832. He was a particularly clever boy, showed considerable taste for the arts, and early displayed an interest in science, especially botany. He was trained for the navy, and threw himself into this career with so much zeal that he quickly rose to high command, and was mainly instrumental in creating the naval port of Trieste and the fleet with which Tegethoff won his victories in the Italian War. He had some reputation as a Liberal, and this led, in February 1857, to his appointment as viceroy of the Lombardo-Venetian kingdom; in the same year he married the Princess Charlotte, daughter of Leopold I., king of the Belgians. On the outbreak of the war of 1859 he retired into private life, chiefly at Trieste, near which he built the beautiful chateau of Miramar. In this same year he was first approached by Mexican exiles with the proposal to become the candidate for the throne of Mexico. He did not at first accept, but sought to satisfy his restless desire for adventure by a botanical expedition to the tropical forests of Brazil. In 1863, however, under pressure from Napoleon III., and after General Forey’s capture of the city of Mexico and the plebiscite which confirmed his proclamation of the empire, he consented to accept the crown. This decision was contrary to the advice of his brother, the emperor Francis Joseph, and involved the loss of all his rights in Austria. Maximilian landed at Vera Cruz on the 28th of May 1864; but from the very outset he found himself involved in difficulties of the most serious kind, which in 1866 made apparent to almost every one outside of Mexico the necessity for his abdicating. Though urged to this course by Napoleon himself, whose withdrawal from Mexico was the final blow to his cause, Maximilian refused to desert his followers. Withdrawing, in February 1867, to Querétaro, he there sustained a siege for several weeks, but on the 15th of May resolved to attempt an escape through the enemy’s lines. He was, however, arrested before he could carry out this resolution, and after trial by court-martial was condemned to death. The sentence was carried out on the 19th of June 1867. His remains were conveyed to Vienna, where they were buried in the imperial vault early in the following year. (See [Mexico].)
Maximilian’s papers were published at Leipzig in 1867, in seven volumes, under the title Aus meinem Leben, Reiseskizzen, Aphorismen, Gedichte. See Pierre de la Gorce, Hist. du Second Empire, IV., liv. xxv. ii. (Paris, 1904); article by von Hoffinger in Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie, xxi. 70, where authorities are cited.
MAXIMINUS, GAIUS JULIUS VERUS, Roman emperor from A.D. 235 to 238, was born in a village on the confines of Thrace. He was of barbarian parentage and was brought up as a shepherd. His immense stature and enormous feats of strength attracted the attention of the emperor Septimius Severus. He entered the army, and under Caracalla rose to the rank of centurion. He carefully absented himself from court during the reign of Heliogabalus, but under his successor Alexander Severus, was appointed supreme commander of the Roman armies. After the murder of Alexander in Gaul, hastened, it is said, by his instigation, Maximinus was proclaimed emperor by the soldiers on the 19th of March 235. The three years of his reign, which were spent wholly in the camp, were marked by great cruelty and oppression; the widespread discontent thus produced culminated in a revolt in Africa and the assumption of the purple by Gordian (q.v.). Maximinus, who was in Pannonia at the time, marched against Rome, and passing over the Julian Alps descended on Aquileia; while detained before that city he and his son were murdered in their tent by a body of praetorians. Their heads were cut off and despatched to Rome, where they were burnt on the Campus Martius by the exultant crowd.
Capitolinus, Maximini duo; Herodian vi. 8, vii., viii. 1-5; Zosimus i. 13-15.