Royalty. The third child of Emperor Maximilian II and his wife Maria of Spain. Under the pressure of his uncle Philipp II he and his brother Ernst were sent to the Spanish court in 1563. The objective was to distance them from the Protestant teaching, for which their father showed great tolerance. In 1571, the two were allowed to return home. Rudolf enjoyed an excellent education and spoke five languages ​​fluently. He was interested in history, antiquity, astronomy, and astrology. Although he was crowned King of Hungary and Bohemia while his father was still alive, he was rarely involved in government affairs. He succeeded his father in 1576 and moved the seat of government to Prague. His failure to marry or choose a successor led to conflict within the family. The conflict between Rudolf and his brothers resulted in the archdukes declaring their eldest brother insane and appointing Matthias to be the head of the family. The more he isolated himself on the Hradschin, the more the dissatisfaction grew in Hungary. Matthias was forced to negotiate to prevent Hungary from splitting off. He was able to negotiate a peace treaty in 1606, in which the Hungarians submitted to him, but not Rudolf, whom they rejected. In the same year, he made peace with the Sultan and ended the war, which had started in 1593. Rudolf rejected both contracts, but signed them. In 1608, he ceded Austria, Hungary, and Moravia to Mathias. After he also lost the support of the Bohemian nobility, Matthias forced him to give up the Bohemian crown. So in 1611, Rudolf was Holy Roman Emperor but without a country. He died a year later. He was a passionate art collector and later opened his collection to scholars. He also was a patron of the astronomers Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler, of natural philosophers, painters and writers.