Abstrakt
The court of Archduke Ferdinand II underwent continual development during the years 1529-1595. The development of the court's structure, size and composition of personnel, as well as the changing life at the court, played a varying role during different periods in the formation of the archduke's personality.
The period of childhood and early youth, when the archduke had not yet legally come of age and did not have his own financial resources, can be characterised as the complete dependence of a son - in this case also a possible heir to the royal throne - on his father King Ferdinand I. The archduke was the passive object of his father's political concepts and plans.
The structure, size and operation of the king's children's courts, their material equipment and style of living all depended on the financial capacities of the monarch, their father. In the period of childhood and youth, during which the archduke's upbringing was shaped by persons selected by the king, we can find the roots of his later interest in science, art and literature, but also the causes behind some of the archduke's adult decisions as regards his personal life, which are sometimes difficult to comprehend.
The twenty years that the archduke spent in the Czech Lands should be considered of great importance, as it was there that he amassed valuable experience for his later rule in Tyrol. In addition, the emancipation from his father's control enabled him to develop his own opinions on the appropriate 'content' for the life of a Renaissance cavalier, and similarly also on the functioning of his court and the persons by whom he wished to be surrounded.
The archduke then realised these ideas, to a limited extent, during the last phase of his life. It appears that for the entire duration of its existence, the court apparatus was linked both organisationally and through personnel to the royal and imperial courts, even though this bond slackened from 1567 on.
The archduke evidently did not have ambitions of his own in terms of the introduction of new offices or functions. However, the social and cultural role that Archduke Ferdinand II's court circle played in Europe during that period was, thanks to his intensive support for the sciences and art, irreplaceable.