Mitteilungen des Österreichischen Staatsarchivs 48. (2000)

LAVERY, Jason: Emperor Maximilian II. and the Danish-Swedish Struggle for Baltic Hegemony 1563–1576

In terms of practical politics, this equality of legal condition created both an equality of political initiative and a broad diffusion of power. Any constituent part of the Empire could assume the initiative. However, power was spread so thinly that a member of the Empire, even the emperor, could act effectively only in consensus with others.* 4 Emperor Maximilian’s actions in respect to the Scandinavian rivalry underscore the significance of consensus and initiative in Imperial politics. In leading the effort to end the Danish-Swedish rivalry, Maximilian understood that his effectiveness would depend on the level of consensus that backed him inside of the Empire. Strong internal backing provided the only form of pressure that the emperor could bring to bear over the combatants.

The second larger issue is the Peace of Augsburg and, more specifically, the question of ’’the insurance of peace“ (Friedenssicherung) in the post-1555 Reich. Recent scholarship has broadened common assumptions about the Augsburg settlement. It not only enshrined the principal of cuis regio eius religio, but also devolved greater responsibility for maintaining internal peace to the individual constituent parts and circles. Moreover, there was, at least until the end of Maximilian II’s reign, a strong political will within Empire to defend the peace from internal and external enemies.5 Maximilian’s attempts to end the Scandinavian rivalry were supported by a broad biconfessional consensus in the Empire that viewed the Danish-Swedish conflict as a threat to the Augsburg order.

The third question concerns the leadership of Emperor Maximilian himself. The central issue for generations of scholars has been the emperor’s religious convictions. Was Maximilian a closet Protestant, an cynical Catholic, or a supporter of some kind of humanistic ’’third force“ that sought to reunite western Christendom?6 More recently, scholars have examined Maximilian in the context of Imperial politics and its basis at the time, the Peace of Augsburg. Maximilian’s political convictions clearly lay in making the Augsburg settlement work.7 In internal Imperial matters, religion in particular, the emperor sought to give the new biconfessional order time to settle in by avoiding extremes and making compromises. His foreign

Emperor Maximilian II and the Danish-Swedish Struggle for Baltic Hegemony 1563 - 1576

(Studies Presented to the International Commission for the History of Representative and Parliamentary Institutions 47), pp. 1-29.

4 Vann, James A.: New Directions for the Study of the Old Reich. In: The Journal of Modem History 58, supplement (1986), 3-22, cited here pp. 9-10; Walker, Mack: German Home Towns: Community, State and General Estate 1648-1871. Ithaca 1971, p. 11.

5 Lanzinner: Friedenssicherung; Luttenberger: Kurfürsten, Kaiser und Reich.

6 Bibi, Viktor: Zur Frage der religiösen Haltung Maximilians II. In: Archiv für österreichische Geschichtsforschung 106 (1918), pp. 289-425. Many of the themes in Bibl’s article appear in his work: Maximilian II. Der rätselhafte Kaiser: Ein Zeitbild. Hellerau bei Dresden 1929; Edel: Kaiser und Kurpfalz, pp. 13-20; Heer, Friedrich: Die dritte Kraft. Der europäische Humanismus zwischen den Fronten des konfessionellen Zeitalters. Frankfurt am Main 1959; Louthan : Quest for Compromise, pp. 5-9.

7 Edel: Kaiser und Kurpfalz, p. 53.

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