Archduke Ferdinand II of Further Austria was born on 14 June 1529. The second son of Emperor Ferdinand I and Anne of Bohemia, he was well educated, considered handsome and good-natured, and entrusted with significant responsibilities in both government and military matters.
Unlike his elder brother Maximilian, the future emperor, Ferdinand was his father’s clear favourite. When he secretly married Philippine Welser, the daughter of a wealthy bourgeois family, the Emperor accepted their morganatic union on the condition that it remain secret. He also acknowledged their two sons as his grandsons, granted them the title of count, but excluded them from the line of succession. Notably, neither of these sons had legitimate children.
Despite the legal complications, Ferdinand and Philippine lived happily at Ambras Castle in Innsbruck. An avid art collector, Ferdinand renovated the residence in lavish Renaissance style. His celebrated cabinet of curiosities (Kunstkammer) survives to this day. He showered gifts on his respected and beloved wife and was heartbroken at her death. As a widower, he later married his niece, Anna Caterina Gonzaga, with whom he had three daughters. One of them, Anna of Tyrol, went on to marry her first cousin, Emperor Matthias.
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