Ferdinand III

Efterfulgte 1637 faderen Ferdinand 2. Konge af Ungarn 1625, af Böhmen 1627. Deltog i komplottet mod Wallenstein 1634; slog svenskerne ved Nördlingen samme år. Var fortaler for fred, som dog først kom efter nye tilbageslag for kejsermagten med Westfalske Fred 1648. Landeafståelser og store indrømmelser til landsfyrsterne svækkede for altid Det tysk-romerske Kejserdømme.

Tysk-romersk kejser 1637-57 af huset Habsburg. Afløste sin fader Ferdinand II.

• Trediveårskrigen, 1618-1648
• Nördlingen I, 1634
• Wittstock, 1636
• Rheinfelden, 1638
• Breisach, 1638
• Breitenfeld II, 1642
• Tuttlingen, 1643
• Freiburg, 1644
• Jankau, 1645
• Nördlingen II, 1645
• Zusmarshausen, 1648
• Prag II, 1648
• Lens, 1648

Ferdinand III (16008-1657), tysk-romersk kejser 1637-57, søn af Ferdinand II, ligeledes opdraget af jesuitterne til ivrig katolik, blev 1626 og 1627 kronet i Ungarn og Böhmen og 1636 valgt til romerske konge. da krigen stadig gik kejseren imod, åbnede Ferdinand på opfordring af rigsdagen i Regensburg fredsunderhandlingerne, der førte til den westfalske fred 1648, hvorved fyrster og rigsstæder blev suveræne og kejserens magt næsten betydningsløs. Hans forsøg på at gøre Ungarns krone arvelig i sin slægt mødte modstand hos ungarerne; han fik sin søn Ferdinand valgt til romersk konge, men da denne døde 1654, nåede han ikke at få sin anden søn Leopold valgt, inden han selv døde. (HK3/1921)

Ferdinand III, Holy Roman Emperor, ruled February 15, 1637 - 1657.

Born July 13, 1608. Died April 2, 1657.

Eldest son of Emperor Ferdinand II and his first wife, Maria Anna of Bavaria. Made King of Hungary in 1625, King of Bohemia in 1627, and King of the Romans in 1636.

Following the death of Wallenstein in 1634, he was made titular head of the Imperial Army in the Thirty Years War, and later that year joined with his cousin the Cardinal-Infante to defeat the Swedes at Nördlingen.

Leader of the peace party at court, he helped negotiate the Peace of Prague with the Protestant States, especially Saxony in 1635.

He succeeded his father as Holy Roman Emperor in 1637. He hoped to be able to quickly make peace with France and Sweden, but the war dragged on for another 11 years, finally coming to an end with the Peace of Westphalia (Treaty of Münster with France, Treaty of Osnabrück with Sweden) in 1648.

Ferdinand married three times - first to his cousin, the Infanta Maria Anna of Spain, by whom he had two surviving sons - Ferdinand IV, his eldest, who predeceased him, and Leopold, who ultimately succeeded him. After Maria Anna's death in 1646, he married another cousin, Archduchess Maria Leopoldine, daughter of the ruler of Tirol. She died in 1649, and Ferdinand married a third time, to Eleonora Gonzaga, daughter of the Duke of Mantua.