Ferdinand I

Ferdinand I. (1503-1564), Emperor-elect, was the brother of Charles V. Though he took the title immediately after his brother's abdication in 1556, it was not till two years later that he was acknowledged by the electors. In 1527 he became King of Hungary and Bohemia, which two countries thenceforward became part of the Hapsburg dominion. The Emperor was mild and an advocate of religious tolerance, and enforced the claims of his Protestant subjects at the Council of Trent. At a Diet held at Augsburg in 1559 he regulated the currency of the Empire, and redressed certain hardships which weighed upon his Protestant subjects.