Speaker 1: Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of iHeartRadio and Grim
Speaker 1: and Mild from Aaron Manky. Listener Discretion advised. If you
Speaker 1: were a time traveler arriving at Prague Castle at the
Speaker 1: start of the sixteen hundreds, you would find yourself at
Speaker 1: the epicenter of the Holy Roman Empire, a hub of
Speaker 1: culture where scholars, scientists, artists, diplomats and religious officials milled
Speaker 1: and mingled in the castle's grand corridors. But few of
Speaker 1: those illustrious visitors would have had the privilege of visiting
Speaker 1: the most private and opulent chambers in the castle, the
Speaker 1: personal domain of the Emperor Rudolf the Second of Habsburg.
Speaker 1: Rudolph was an accomplished, even obsessive collector, and his private
Speaker 1: chambers housed the paintings, sculptures, and other treasures he had
Speaker 1: gathered over the course of his reign. This section of
Speaker 1: the palace was known as the Kunstkamer, which translates to
Speaker 1: cabinet of curiosities. That said, Rudolph's Kunstkamer was no mere cabinet.
Speaker 1: The collection took up an entire wing of the castle.
Speaker 1: The existence of the Kunstkamer itself was not a secret
Speaker 1: Rudolf's political advisers were familiar with the emperor's collection hobby
Speaker 1: as an annoying distraction from his more important task of
Speaker 1: ruling the Holy Roman Empire. But no matter how much
Speaker 1: his advisers protested, Rudolf poured more and more of his
Speaker 1: time and energy into the Kunstkamer, meeting with artists that
Speaker 1: could contribute to his collection, sending diplomats across the world
Speaker 1: to bring back treasures, and wandering through the rooms to
Speaker 1: gaze at his most prized possessions. But while everyone in
Speaker 1: court had heard about the Kunstkamer, only a select few
Speaker 1: had actually seen what was inside. If you were a
Speaker 1: high level dignitary Rudolph wanted to impress, he might have
Speaker 1: escorted you into the chamber and showed off the collection
Speaker 1: to you himself. You could have also tried to bribe
Speaker 1: Rudolph by bringing him an especially rare painting or sculpture,
Speaker 1: hoping that it might earn you an hour or two inside.
Speaker 1: If you were feeling especially brave, you could have tried
Speaker 1: to sneak in. One merchant pulled that off. He arrived
Speaker 1: at the castle to visit his friend, a painter that
Speaker 1: Rudolf had employed. The painter managed to bring the merchant
Speaker 1: into the Kunstkammer in secret while Rudolph was eating. In
Speaker 1: any case, if you were lucky enough to see the Kunstkamer,
Speaker 1: you'd be led through a narrow corridor tucked between a
Speaker 1: study and a courtyard, up a set of stairs. Upon
Speaker 1: entering the main chamber, you'd encounter a large, green table
Speaker 1: covered with well stuff, globes, clocks, caskets, strange musical instruments.
Speaker 1: At the head of the table you would see a
Speaker 1: peacock automaton that operated by clockwork. It could walk, squawk,
Speaker 1: and wave its tail, which was made out of actual
Speaker 1: peacock feathers. Surrounding the table on all sides was a
Speaker 1: variety of paintings, statues, clocks, goblets, and more. Some of
Speaker 1: the items were free standing on the floor, others were
Speaker 1: perched on writing desks, chests, or cabinets made of ebony
Speaker 1: and marble. A unicorn horn, which was most likely a
Speaker 1: narwhale tusk, lay on a green writing desk off to
Speaker 1: the side of the chamber, while a bust of Rudolph
Speaker 1: himself sat on a case pushed up against a wall.
Speaker 1: If you opened up these chests, and cabinets, you would
Speaker 1: find even more treasures. One small gray writing desk contained
Speaker 1: forty eight rings, shells, spoons, and various pieces of coral.
Speaker 1: Another case was filled with one hundred and five knives
Speaker 1: and daggers, one of which was rumored to be the
Speaker 1: very weapon that killed Julius Caesar. The Kunstcomer was so
Speaker 1: vast and chaotic that an archivist started compiling an inventory
Speaker 1: of the space in sixteen o seven and wouldn't finish
Speaker 1: until four years later, just before Rudolph would die. It wasn't,
Speaker 1: and still isn't clear how the collection was organized. It's
Speaker 1: even less clear why Rudolf the second was so consumed
Speaker 1: with collecting all of these objects in the first place.
Speaker 1: On one hand, the Kunstkamer was an artistic and scientific achievement,
Speaker 1: which reflected Rudolph's commitment to expanding the frontiers of human knowledge.
Speaker 1: Rudolph was the patron of many artists and scientists, some
Speaker 1: of whose work ran up against the worldview of the
Speaker 1: Catholic Church. The Church's attempt to stem the spread of
Speaker 1: Protestantism and protect their faith often meant punishing individuals whose
Speaker 1: ideas challenged it. Rudolf hoped his objects might become a
Speaker 1: universal encyclopedia of nature, which could lead to scientific breakthroughs,
Speaker 1: even if those discoveries didn't happen during his lifetime. His
Speaker 1: collection and patronage laid the groundwork for further scientific exploration
Speaker 1: that would continue long after his death. But at the
Speaker 1: same time, the Kunstkammer reflected Rudolph's paranoia and gullibility. Throughout
Speaker 1: his life, Rudolf suffered from what we now might call depression.
Speaker 1: When his mental health worsened, Rudolf would spend months nearly
Speaker 1: catatonic with despair, Unable to engage in official business. He
Speaker 1: had a persistent fear of assassination, and so he avoided
Speaker 1: people altogether, even his closest advisors. He spent all of
Speaker 1: his time alone in his Kunstkammer, the only place he
Speaker 1: felt truly safe. In the face of increasing uncertainty, anxiety,
Speaker 1: and hopelessness, Rudolph developed an obsession with alchemy and magic.
Speaker 1: He fixated on finding the Philosopher's Stone, which would give
Speaker 1: him eternal life and assuage his fears about an untimely death.
Speaker 1: Once and for all. That interest manifested in the Kunstkammer,
Speaker 1: as well. It contained magical objects like the aforementioned unicorn horn.
Speaker 1: Towards the end of Rudolph's life, he started casting spells
Speaker 1: and even conducting sex rituals in the secret chambers. The
Speaker 1: question of how to understand the Kunstkamer and its Emperor
Speaker 1: has vexed scholars for centuries. During his lifetime, Rudolph the
Speaker 1: Second was known by two very different nicknames that represent
Speaker 1: his diametrically opposed qualities. He was known as the Great
Speaker 1: Master of Prague and the Recluse of Prague. Which one
Speaker 1: was he the Great Master, a wise tolerant leader who
Speaker 1: championed intellectual freedom, or the Recluse, debilitated by anxiety and
Speaker 1: depression and led astray by the fruitlessness of his quest
Speaker 1: for eternal life. These are the questions we can't find
Speaker 1: answers to in a cabinet of curiosities, no matter how vast.
Speaker 1: I'm Danish Schwartz and this is noble blood. Rudolph the
Speaker 1: Second was not the first Habsburg with an extensive art collection.
Speaker 1: His paternal grandfather, Ferdinand the First had one too, in
Speaker 1: Ambress Castle in Austria, where he Ferdinand stored his fragments
Speaker 1: from classical coins, statues, rare books, paintings and jewels. Rudolph's father,
Speaker 1: Maximilian the Second, inherited Ferdinand's passion for art collection and philosophy.
Speaker 1: While Maximilian never had a Kunstkammer of his own, he
Speaker 1: did build a number of royal gardens in Vienna and
Speaker 1: Prague that displayed exotic plants and animals like lions, tigers, bears,
Speaker 1: oh mai, and parrots which Renaissance Europeans called Indian crows. Maximilian,
Speaker 1: Rudolph's father was also the first to catalog and organize
Speaker 1: the Hebsburg holdings of books, which became the Austrian National
Speaker 1: Library that still exists to this day. In fifteen twenty two,
Speaker 1: Rudolph the second was born. He was Maximilian's oldest son,
Speaker 1: and he grew up in Vienna into a freethinking scholarly environment.
Speaker 1: Maximilian attracted some of the greatest humanist, philosoph and scientists
Speaker 1: in Western Europe to his castle in Vienna, and some
Speaker 1: of them became Rudolph's earliest tutors. Rudolf spent his childhood
Speaker 1: listening in on cutting edge scholarly conversations about neoplatonism or
Speaker 1: decoding Egyptian hieroglyphics while wandering through the palace's vast collection
Speaker 1: of books and admiring plants like lilacs and tulips, plants
Speaker 1: that you would only be able to find within the
Speaker 1: castle's walls. Rudolf's mother, Maria, was not happy with such
Speaker 1: an environment for her first born son. Maria was also
Speaker 1: a Habsburg surprise, surprise, Maximilian was her cousin, but she
Speaker 1: grew up in Spain, and aside from blood, she had
Speaker 1: almost nothing in common with her husband. In contrast to
Speaker 1: the gentle intellectual Maximilian, Maria was severe and moreau, always
Speaker 1: dressed in black, as was typical for the Spanish court.
Speaker 1: Their greatest disagreement was religion. Maria, whose parents started the
Speaker 1: Spanish Inquisition, was staunchly Catholic. She was so religious that
Speaker 1: she refused to take anything to ease the pain when
Speaker 1: she was giving birth to Rudolph, not even a glass
Speaker 1: of water. Meanwhile, Rudolph's dad, Maximilian, had a pretty nonchalant
Speaker 1: relationship with Christianity. He was ostensibly Catholic, but he was
Speaker 1: so averse to the Vatican that many thought he was
Speaker 1: a closet Lutheran. That worried Maria's side of the family.
Speaker 1: Maria's brother Philip insisted that young Rudolph spend his adolescence
Speaker 1: in Spain to make sure that he would be faithful
Speaker 1: to the church. Maximilian initially bulked at the request. Maximilian
Speaker 1: himself had been and shipped off to Spain when he
Speaker 1: was a teen, and he hated it. The Spanish court
Speaker 1: was known for being cold, rigid, and formal, but the
Speaker 1: disagreements between him and his wife Maria were hard on Rudolph.
Speaker 1: Rudolf didn't like harsh noises, bright lights, or conflict of
Speaker 1: any kind. When his parents began to fight, he would flee,
Speaker 1: retreating into his own internal world. In the end, Maximilian
Speaker 1: and Maria sent eleven year old Rudolph and his brother
Speaker 1: ernst Off to Spain for eight years. Like his father,
Speaker 1: Rudolph hated Spain. When those eight years were finally up,
Speaker 1: Rudolph typically reserved and morose, was uncharacteristically thrilled. Recalling this
Speaker 1: period later in his life, he said he was seized
Speaker 1: with such joy that it was impossible to sleep. Upon
Speaker 1: Rudolf's return, Maximilian was happy to see his son back
Speaker 1: in Vienna. But noted that his boy had changed. Rudolf
Speaker 1: had always been quiet, but now, at twenty years old,
Speaker 1: his reservedness came off as prideful, as if he was
Speaker 1: too high status to talk to lowly political advisers. Maximilian
Speaker 1: encouraged his son to loosen up so he could win
Speaker 1: more friends and allies at court, but Rudolf couldn't let
Speaker 1: his guard down so easily. His stiffness had been a
Speaker 1: survival strategy in Spain, which demanded absolute formality and piousness
Speaker 1: at all times. Maximilian had actually officially become the Holy
Speaker 1: Roman Emperor a year after Rudolf arrived in Spain, and
Speaker 1: he had spent the last seven years on the throne,
Speaker 1: so Rudolf got a promotion too. He went from being
Speaker 1: the Prince of Hungary to the King of Hungary and
Speaker 1: then three years later to the King of Bohemia and
Speaker 1: King of the Romans. Rudolf didn't do all that much
Speaker 1: with his first taste of political power, and there isn't
Speaker 1: a lot to say about his early years on the throne.
Speaker 1: Biographers note that he brought a bunch of imperial women
Speaker 1: to the palace so that he could finally get laid,
Speaker 1: which needless to say, was not a priority for the
Speaker 1: deeply Catholic Spanish court where Rudolph spent his adolescence. Rudolf
Speaker 1: had barely gotten his political bearings as King of Hungary,
Speaker 1: King of Bohemia and King of the Romans when his
Speaker 1: father Maximilian died in fifteen seventy six. Suddenly it was
Speaker 1: intimidating enough for Rudolph to inherit the Holy Roman Empire
Speaker 1: at just twenty three years old. It was also an
Speaker 1: incredibly politically fraught time after the Protestant Reformation. There were
Speaker 1: increasingly violent conflicts between Catholics and Protestants and other religious groups. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: the Habsburgs were also at war with the Ottoman Empire
Speaker 1: over territory in Cyprus and hungry. Maximilian had done his
Speaker 1: best to balance those competing interests with policies that emphasized
Speaker 1: religious tolerance, barely keeping a civil war between the Catholics
Speaker 1: and Protestants at Bay, but his death would cause those
Speaker 1: tensions to rise up. Maximilian's death also caused conflict within
Speaker 1: his own family. In a move that was considered unusual,
Speaker 1: Maximilian gave all of his land to his oldest son Rudolph,
Speaker 1: leaving out Rudolf's younger brothers entirely. Rudolf tried to rectify
Speaker 1: the situation by giving two of his brothers political control
Speaker 1: of Austria, but it was too little, too late. The
Speaker 1: pressure proved to be too much for Rudolph. His brothers
Speaker 1: had come to resent him, and his father, the family
Speaker 1: member he had been closest to, was dead. His empire
Speaker 1: was beset by internal conflicts from the Protestants and external
Speaker 1: threats from the Ottoman Empire. Terrified that he wouldn't be
Speaker 1: able to live up to the expectations, Rudolf spiraled into
Speaker 1: a debilitating depression for a full year. He withdrew to
Speaker 1: his private chambers, so despondent that he could barely walk.
Speaker 1: His attendants carried him from room to room. His entourage
Speaker 1: was worried. Madness was an inheritance in the Habsburg family
Speaker 1: just as much as Kunskammer's. Rudolf was the great grandson
Speaker 1: of Juana le Looka, whom you might remember from her
Speaker 1: eponymous episode on this podcast back in twin vent twenty one,
Speaker 1: who became infamous after her supposed descent into madness after
Speaker 1: her husband's death. Rudolf's cousin, Don Carlos, also suffered from
Speaker 1: poor mental health issues. During Rudolf's stint in Spain, he
Speaker 1: had witnessed Don Carlos's erratic behavior, like roasting live animals
Speaker 1: and forcing a shoemaker to eat a particularly ugly pair
Speaker 1: of shoes he had made. After Don Carlos tried to
Speaker 1: stab a duke, he was imprisoned by his own father
Speaker 1: and starved himself to death. Rudolf's court and Rudolf himself
Speaker 1: feared that he might lose touch with reality and might
Speaker 1: suffer a similar fate. In the face of all of
Speaker 1: these familial, personal, and political stresses, there was one silver
Speaker 1: lining in rudolphe life. He inherited his father's collection of art.
Speaker 1: Throughout his childhood, Rudolf escaped the pressures of early royal
Speaker 1: life by exploring the art that his father, grandfather, and
Speaker 1: uncle had accumulated. Now that Rudolf ruled over the Holy
Speaker 1: Roman Empire, he would no longer have to rely on
Speaker 1: his family's good graces to explore his passions for art
Speaker 1: and science. He could finally start a collection of his
Speaker 1: very own. Rudolf began his reign by moving out of
Speaker 1: his parents' house. He was sick of refereeing his brother's
Speaker 1: dramas and having to involve his mother in his political affairs.
Speaker 1: Vienna's bustling vibrants may have enchanted Rudolf as a child,
Speaker 1: but it overwhelmed him as an adult. He much preferred
Speaker 1: the peaceful and austere Prague, which was a better fit
Speaker 1: for his reserved personality. Rudolph's new home was Prague Castle
Speaker 1: atop Fradkinney Hill, surrounded by foreboding walls and a moat.
Speaker 1: This was perfect for Rudolph, who preferred to be alone,
Speaker 1: but even that isolation wasn't enough for him. Rudolf hated
Speaker 1: being seen so much that he built roofed, wooden corridors
Speaker 1: and staircases across the castle so members of his court
Speaker 1: wouldn't be able to find him as he moved from
Speaker 1: room to room. These new corridors were just one part
Speaker 1: of the major home renovation project Rudolph undertook when he
Speaker 1: moved into Prague Castle in fifteen eighty. He built new
Speaker 1: stables for his favorite horses. He loved horses, particularly and
Speaker 1: a Lucian grays, and he devoted an entire room to
Speaker 1: his collection of rare saddles. Rudolf also loved birds and
Speaker 1: created a heated, walled aviary filled with parrots, birds of paradise,
Speaker 1: and even a dodo. He created an enclosure with tigers, bears,
Speaker 1: and wolves. His favorite animal was a pet lion, which
Speaker 1: he occasionally let roam around inside the palace. Rudolf also
Speaker 1: built a new wing of the castle to house the
Speaker 1: paintings he inherited from Phillip, Maximilian, and Ferdinand's respective collections,
Speaker 1: along with a tower from which he could view the
Speaker 1: night sky, laboratories for alchemical and scientific experiments, and a
Speaker 1: botanical garden full of plants like orange, olive and pomegranate trees,
Speaker 1: which were exceptionally rare in Eastern Europe at the time.
Speaker 1: This new wing of Prague Castle reflected Rudolph's evolving vision
Speaker 1: of his role as emperor. Back in the depressive episode
Speaker 1: in the wake of his father's death, Rudolph's rule seemed
Speaker 1: as though it was promising to be an endless diplomatic
Speaker 1: nightmare of trying to appease power hungry relatives and quash
Speaker 1: increasing religious conflict. But Rudolph believed that his reign could
Speaker 1: transcend those political struggles. After all, he had been taught
Speaker 1: his entire life that he was chosen by God to rule,
Speaker 1: which put him at an advantage when it came to
Speaker 1: pursuing deeper existential and philosophical questions. Rudolph took it upon
Speaker 1: himself to figure out the meaning of life, and in
Speaker 1: doing so, unite not only his empire but all of humanity.
Speaker 1: If that goal feels a little vague, it's because it
Speaker 1: ended up being a moving target. Sometimes Rudolf was more
Speaker 1: focused on more typical scientific concerns, like cataloging the world's
Speaker 1: animals and plants, or mapping the skies. Other times he
Speaker 1: had more pie in the sky ambitions, like finding the
Speaker 1: key to eternal life. In any case, he thought that
Speaker 1: by attaining this knowledge for himself, he could save the world.
Speaker 1: As a homebody, Rudolf wasn't going to go out into
Speaker 1: the world to search for knowledge. He wanted the world
Speaker 1: to come to him. So Rudolf became a patron of
Speaker 1: the arts and sciences, bringing the greatest intellects to his
Speaker 1: court and supporting their work. He set up studios for
Speaker 1: artists to work in, gave them rooms in the castle,
Speaker 1: and paid them annual stipends with bonuses for commissioned work.
Speaker 1: As such, the artists that worked for Rudolf tended to
Speaker 1: indulge his personal preferences, which were paintings that featured either
Speaker 1: one hot naked women, two flattering depictions of Rudolph, or
Speaker 1: three symbols from Greek mythology, ideally all three at the
Speaker 1: same time. Rudolf also loved hidden sources of knowledge and
Speaker 1: searching for meaning underneath appearances, a proto da Vinci Coode lover.
Speaker 1: He was particularly fond of allegorical art. A perfect example
Speaker 1: of his preferred style of art was Allegory of the
Speaker 1: Virtues of Rudolf the Second by Bortolomeus Spranger, an artist
Speaker 1: originally from Antwerp who was appointed the Rudolphine Court's master
Speaker 1: painter around fifteen ninety. The painting features Beloona, the Roman
Speaker 1: goddess of war, surrounded by other naked gold goddesses and
Speaker 1: mythological figures. What clues us in to the fact that
Speaker 1: this painting is an allegory, aside from the title, is
Speaker 1: that the goddesses are wearing emblems of hungry, symbolizing Rudolf
Speaker 1: and his empire's power and virtue. Another common feature of
Speaker 1: these kinds of allegorical paintings were depictions of Rudolph atop
Speaker 1: one of his beloved horses wielding a sword, Even though
Speaker 1: Rudolf would never even come close to going into battle.
Speaker 1: Rudolf visited the artists he sponsored every day, spending the
Speaker 1: mornings admiring what they managed to get done the day before.
Speaker 1: This obsession with art was annoying to politicians hoping for
Speaker 1: Rudolf's guidance on religious conflicts and skirmishes with the Ottoman Empire,
Speaker 1: but particularly shrewd diplomats found that Rudolph's love of art
Speaker 1: could be manipulated to ser diplomatic ends. There was no
Speaker 1: surer way of getting Rudolph's attention than by bringing him
Speaker 1: a particularly rare painting or sculpture. In sixteen o five,
Speaker 1: an ambassador for the Duke of Savoy wrote that Rudolph
Speaker 1: spent two and a half hours sitting motionless looking at
Speaker 1: paintings of fruit and fish markets that the Duke had
Speaker 1: given him as a gift. Rudolf also collected scientific drawings
Speaker 1: and telescopes and clocks, along with curios and objects which
Speaker 1: he believed had mystical powers. He wanted his Kunstkamer to
Speaker 1: function as an encyclopedia of natural phenomenon, including skeletons, drawings,
Speaker 1: and preserved specimens of various animals and plants. He also
Speaker 1: had what he believed was a Greek siren's jawbone, gullstones
Speaker 1: from animals that were supposedly antidotes to poison, feathers from
Speaker 1: a phoenix, and a biological drawing of a dragon. These
Speaker 1: more mythical objects are of dubious origin. It is likely
Speaker 1: that these jawbones and feathers came from other animals, and
Speaker 1: even more likely that they did not have the magical
Speaker 1: powers that Rudolph thought they did. Still, if Rudolf was
Speaker 1: feeling poorly, he would go to his Kunstkamer, take out
Speaker 1: one of his enchanted objects, and draw a magic circle
Speaker 1: around himself for protection. Rudolf's strong draw toward both science
Speaker 1: and the occult may seem contradictory from a modern point
Speaker 1: of view. Particularly, we think of science as a position
Speaker 1: of skepticism, a way of disproving conspiratorial or speculative theories
Speaker 1: about how the world works. But we have to first
Speaker 1: remember that the world was less connected in the sixteenth century.
Speaker 1: And knowledge was less centralized. If you lived in fifteen
Speaker 1: hundreds Prague, a dodo bird or polar bear or penguin
Speaker 1: might have seemed just as fantastical as a dragon or
Speaker 1: a phoenix. I mean, really, a narwhale really is kind
Speaker 1: of as magical as a unicorn. Most scholars in the
Speaker 1: sixteenth century thought that magic, science, and religion all reinforced
Speaker 1: one another. Like the paintings in Rudolph's Kunstkammer, the natural
Speaker 1: world functioned as a kind of allegory that could expose
Speaker 1: God's designs for the universe or clarify this seeming chaos
Speaker 1: of the world. The best example of this is in
Speaker 1: Rudolph's Passion for astronomy and astrology. Rudolf supported a lot
Speaker 1: of astronomers at Prague Castle, giving them a salary, a
Speaker 1: rent free place to live, and state of the art telescopes.
Speaker 1: In return, the astronomers were expected to provide Rudolph with
Speaker 1: personalized star charts. This wasn't uncommon, as astronomy and astrology
Speaker 1: were considered parts of the same discipline. Astronomers had to
Speaker 1: accurately map the movement of celestial bodies in order to
Speaker 1: figure out what they might portend about the future. Rudolf
Speaker 1: consulted these astrologers nearly every day to get their advice
Speaker 1: about how to rule, while they also worked on their
Speaker 1: scientific projects. Rudolph relied so heavily on his favorite astrologer,
Speaker 1: Tak o'brie, that other members of the court referred to
Speaker 1: him as the evil spirit of the Emperor because of
Speaker 1: his potential to influence the emperor for the worse. True
Speaker 1: to his nickname, in sixteen hundred, Briy forecasted that Rudolf
Speaker 1: would be assassinated sometime that year. A biography of Rudolf
Speaker 1: notes that Briy was in a bad mood when he
Speaker 1: made this prediction. He was particularly unhappy that Rudolf had
Speaker 1: made him move to Prague from Denmark so that he
Speaker 1: could receive more regular astrological readings. Rudolf took that prophecy
Speaker 1: very seriously, and it amplified his already simmering paranoia and depression.
Speaker 1: Rudolf had already suspected that he would die before his
Speaker 1: fiftieth birthday, and he had just turned forty eight. Fearing
Speaker 1: that any member of his court could assassinate him at
Speaker 1: any time, Rudolf refused to leave his Kunstkammer or entertain
Speaker 1: any visitors. As time passed, he grew so despondent that
Speaker 1: he couldn't even manage to visit his artists' studios or
Speaker 1: the scientific laboratories in his castle. Some of his previously
Speaker 1: more reliable sources of joy. Brahi's dire astrological prediction would
Speaker 1: turn out to be wrong. Rudolf survived sixteen hundred without
Speaker 1: any assassination. That said, Rudolf's paranoia wasn't entirely misplaced. While
Speaker 1: Rudolf was busy pursuing artistic and intellectual flights of fancy,
Speaker 1: long simmering political, religious, and family conflicts were reaching a
Speaker 1: breaking point. Sixteen hundred may not have been the year
Speaker 1: that Rudolf died, but it was the year his rule
Speaker 1: would begin to fall apart. Beyond the walls of Rudolf's Kunstkammer,
Speaker 1: the Holy Roman Empire was in crisis after the Protestant
Speaker 1: Reformation challenged the Vatican's authority. The Catholic Church pursued a
Speaker 1: counter Reformation, trying to squash Protestant influence once and for all. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: the Holy Roman Empire's relationship with the Ottoman Empire was deteriorating.
Speaker 1: For a while, Rudolf had been paying forty five thousand
Speaker 1: sailers to the Ottomans in exchange for peace, but in
Speaker 1: fifteen ninety two, the Sultan Grand Vizier suddenly demanded double
Speaker 1: the payment. Rudolf tried to get away with sending the
Speaker 1: Sultan gifts rather than money, but it didn't work. The
Speaker 1: Ottomans declared war on Rudolph, invading Vienna and Hungary. Rudolph
Speaker 1: convened the Imperial Parliament to request funds for the war,
Speaker 1: and it took months of arguments between the Catholics and
Speaker 1: Protestants before they finally agreed to send over the money.
Speaker 1: As much as Rudolf tried to distract himself with his
Speaker 1: impressive collection of curios in his Kunstkamer, Rudolf was increasingly
Speaker 1: nervous about these sources of unrest growing in his empire.
Speaker 1: He had little sympathy for the Catholics and for the Protestants,
Speaker 1: and like his father, refused to take either side. Even
Speaker 1: though he had never been more depressed in his life
Speaker 1: and his empire was splintering beneath his feet, Rudolf held
Speaker 1: out hope that he could unite all religions under his
Speaker 1: dominion and usher in an era of peace. Meanwhile, there
Speaker 1: were two forces conspiring against Rudolf to try to remove
Speaker 1: him from the throne. On one side was the Vatican,
Speaker 1: which had a number of issues with Rudolf's reign. Not
Speaker 1: only was Rudolph too easy on the Protestants, but he
Speaker 1: was also turning his attention towards magic, alchemy and the occult,
Speaker 1: which the Church considered heretical. Rumors spread that Rudolf refused
Speaker 1: to go to Mass fearing the sign of the Cross.
Speaker 1: Even his depression was used as proof that Rudolph had
Speaker 1: turned his back on the Church. The court's papal ambassador
Speaker 1: wrote in a letter in sixteen hundred that Rudolph's melancholy
Speaker 1: suggested that he was quote bewitched and in league with
Speaker 1: the devil. In September of sixteen sixty, the papal ambassador
Speaker 1: sat down with Rudolf and explained to him that he
Speaker 1: was in serious threat of excommunication. Rudolf didn't take it
Speaker 1: well at that the moment. The only response he had
Speaker 1: was that the ambassador had bad breath. The President of
Speaker 1: the Chamber of Finances believed that Rudolph was more agitated
Speaker 1: than he was letting on writing. Quote night and day,
Speaker 1: the Emperor is tortured by the idea that he is abandoned,
Speaker 1: that he can have confidence in no one, that his
Speaker 1: subjects have lost their respect for him, that one wants
Speaker 1: to take his power and his life from him. Later
Speaker 1: that night, Rudolph was in such a state of panic
Speaker 1: that he couldn't sleep. He called for one of his ministers,
Speaker 1: and when he arrived, tried to stab him with a dagger.
Speaker 1: A sudden clap of thunder outside startled Rudolph narrowly, allowing
Speaker 1: the minister to escape. Servants heard the commotion and rushed
Speaker 1: to Rudolph's room, arriving to find him about to attempt suicide.
Speaker 1: They managed to wrest the dagger away from him and
Speaker 1: calm him down, but Rudolph was immobile for days afterward,
Speaker 1: refusing to leave his chambers or let anyone inside. The
Speaker 1: other force rooting for Rudolph's downfall was his own family,
Speaker 1: who had little to know sympathy for his depression. One
Speaker 1: family member in particular, had a vendetta against Rudolph his
Speaker 1: younger brother Matthias. When their father Maximilian had died and
Speaker 1: left all of his land to Rudolph. Rudolf had done
Speaker 1: his best to distribute the land equally among his brothers,
Speaker 1: with the exception of Matthias. At the time, Rudolf had
Speaker 1: been angry at Matthias because he had taken on a
Speaker 1: diplomatic role without Rudolph's permission, and Rudolph viewed that as
Speaker 1: a direct threat to his rule. In retaliation, when Rudolph
Speaker 1: tried to more evenly distribute their father's lands among the brothers,
Speaker 1: he refused to give Matthias a share of their father's land.
Speaker 1: He also prevented Matthias from marrying and spread a rumor
Speaker 1: that Matthias was impotent. Matthias had been waiting for decades
Speaker 1: to get revenge, and Rudolph's debilitating depression gave Matthias the
Speaker 1: perfect opportunity to try and take over the empire. In
Speaker 1: November of sixteen hundred, Matthias and his two youngest brothers
Speaker 1: signed an agreement of concerted opposition against Rudolph. Rudolf was
Speaker 1: terrified that Matthias would send someone to assassinate him, just
Speaker 1: like his court astrologer had predicted. Rudolph finally turned his
Speaker 1: attention to marrying and producing an air. Just so he
Speaker 1: could keep Matthias off the throne, he disguised his court
Speaker 1: painters as ambassadors and sent them across Europe to create
Speaker 1: portraits of the available bachelorettes. But when the artists presented
Speaker 1: their portraits to Rudolph, he found he had no desire
Speaker 1: to reach out to any of the women. Instead, he
Speaker 1: found that he much preferred staring at the paintings in
Speaker 1: the safety of his Kunstcomer. Rudolph responded to his fears
Speaker 1: of losing political power by delving deeper into alchemy and
Speaker 1: the occult. He had become obsessed with finding the Philosopher's Stone,
Speaker 1: which would grant him eternal life, but had, as you
Speaker 1: can imagine, very little success. Rudolph spent less and less
Speaker 1: time in the outside world and more and more time
Speaker 1: in his Kunstcomer. He was so separate from public life
Speaker 1: that he became known as the Recluse of Prague. Some
Speaker 1: people even assumed he had died. Matthias began ousting Rudolph
Speaker 1: from the throne, officially maneuvering around the emperor to pursue
Speaker 1: his own ambitions. In sixteen o six, Matthias consulted with
Speaker 1: the rest of the Habsburgs and formally declared Rudolph insane.
Speaker 1: The family nominated Matthias to lead the Holy Roman Empire, but,
Speaker 1: in perhaps a rare moment of sympathy for Rudolph, refused
Speaker 1: to forcibly remove him from power. Instead, Matthias just took
Speaker 1: on de facto political power. He went behind Rudolph's back
Speaker 1: and negotiated peace with the Ottoman Empire later that year,
Speaker 1: much to Rudolph's chagrin. Over the next five years, Rudolf
Speaker 1: hemorrhaged authority and political goodwill, until finally, in sixteen eleven,
Speaker 1: Matthias and his forces invaded Prague and forced Rudolph to
Speaker 1: finally abdicate the throne. Matthias was crowned King of Bohemia
Speaker 1: in the city Rudolph had made his home. Rudolf was
Speaker 1: allowed to retain the title of Emperor and to continue
Speaker 1: to live in Prague Castle until his death. During this time,
Speaker 1: Rudolf drank heavily and barely left his chambers, unable to
Speaker 1: make it to his stables. He would have his favorite
Speaker 1: horses paraded outside his windows so that he could admire
Speaker 1: them from a distance. Rudolph reserved his energy to try
Speaker 1: and put a hex on Matthias. This part is a
Speaker 1: little gruesome. Apologies. Rudolph baptized a dog and then killed it,
Speaker 1: hoping that Matthias would suffer a similar tragedy, and even
Speaker 1: witnessed ritual sex in a mass magic circle in an
Speaker 1: attempt to reverse his bad fortune. In sixteen twelve, Rudolf
Speaker 1: caught a bad case of bronchitis and his legs started
Speaker 1: to swell. Physicians told him not to put shoes on,
Speaker 1: but Rudolf didn't listen because he insisted on still going
Speaker 1: to the Kunstkamer to see his collection, the only thing
Speaker 1: that still gave him pleasure. After a while, his legs
Speaker 1: had swollen so much that he couldn't take his shoes
Speaker 1: off for days, and he developed gangreen. He died a
Speaker 1: few days later of those complications. It turned out that
Speaker 1: Rudolf's death aligned with at least one of his court
Speaker 1: astrologer's predictions. One astrologer pointed out that Rudolf and his
Speaker 1: beloved pet Lion had a similar star chart and forecasted
Speaker 1: that they would die within day of each other. Sure enough,
Speaker 1: Rudolf's pet Lion had died just three days before Rudolph did.
Speaker 1: Seemingly terrified of the vengeful spirit of his dead brother,
Speaker 1: Matthias refused to pay his respects to Rudolph's corpse. He
Speaker 1: had similarly dismissive attitudes towards Rudolf's achievements. He fired most
Speaker 1: of the scholars, artists, and alchemists Rudolf had supported over
Speaker 1: his rule, and moved the Imperial court officially back to Vienna.
Speaker 1: Matthias and his youngest brother, Maximilian took a few paintings
Speaker 1: from the Kunstkamer, but left most of it to get
Speaker 1: pillaged by various merchants. Only a fraction of Rudolf's vast
Speaker 1: collection has been saved. Given the tragic ending of his story,
Speaker 1: it's easy to see Rudolf as a failure. He was
Speaker 1: a superstitious, spacey, timid ruler who was ill equipped to
Speaker 1: handle the demands of the throne. It's hard to rationalize
Speaker 1: Rudolph's obsession with the occult and his fruitless pursuit for
Speaker 1: eternal life, and easy to dismiss the real work he sponsored,
Speaker 1: especially because a century later the Enlightenment would undermine the
Speaker 1: scholarly achievements of the Rudolphine court. The enlightenments most archetypal figures.
Speaker 1: Descartes and Newton established that the world is reducible to
Speaker 1: what can be observed and logically deduced, which is now
Speaker 1: the foundation of modern science. This is not to say
Speaker 1: that Rudolph's occult beliefs were particularly out there for the time.
Speaker 1: Plenty of respected scientists practiced alchemy on the side, including
Speaker 1: Isaac Newton, who had a fascination with alchemy that dominated
Speaker 1: the back half of his life. But the consequences of
Speaker 1: Rudolph's fixation on the supernatural were so dire that they
Speaker 1: threatened to overshadow the rest of his legacy. His political
Speaker 1: inaction stoked tensions that would lead to the Thirty Years War,
Speaker 1: one of the deadliest conflicts in European history. Meanwhile, Rudolf's
Speaker 1: greatest achievement, arguably the Kunstkamer itself, has been lost to time.
Speaker 1: All that remains of it is an inventory, a list
Speaker 1: of the many, many objects that were once inside, along
Speaker 1: with whatever those who rated it had cared to preserve.
Speaker 1: But those same qualities that probably led to Rudolph's downfall
Speaker 1: had made his court vibrant and unique. Rudolf never questioned
Speaker 1: the value of art and knowledge. While he had his,
Speaker 1: let's say, quirks, he paid the artists and scientists that
Speaker 1: set up shop in his palace, and he had deep
Speaker 1: respect for their work. Rudolf's utter devotion to knowledge and
Speaker 1: to the people who produced it allowed both to flourish.
Speaker 1: Rudolf's kcomer may have looked haphazard, but it did have
Speaker 1: an organizational principle. It wanted to surprise and delight in
Speaker 1: exposing that which was once hidden. The randomness heightened the
Speaker 1: pleasure of finding something you might not expect by opening
Speaker 1: a cabinet or peering around the corner, whether it was
Speaker 1: an allegory that explains a painting or a map of
Speaker 1: the planet that could predict the future. Rudolph's passion for
Speaker 1: discovering hidden meanings was infectious. You can still feel Rudolph's
Speaker 1: whimsy and carry out through the artworks he commissioned. One
Speaker 1: of these is a portrait of Rudolph as Vertumnus, the
Speaker 1: Roman god of the seasons, a painting by Giuseppe Arsimbaldo.
Speaker 1: This is no standard portrait. In fact, you might have
Speaker 1: actually seen this portrait and not known it was of Rudolf.
Speaker 1: Archimbaldo paints a Rudolf constructed out of fruits and vegetables,
Speaker 1: with a pair for a nose, apples for cheeks, blueberries
Speaker 1: for eyes, grapes for hair, and cabbage for shoulders. The
Speaker 1: portrait shows Rudolf not as a recluse, or as a savior,
Speaker 1: or even a human being, but as nature itself in
Speaker 1: all of its beauty and abundance. This is what Rudolph wanted,
Speaker 1: after all, to transcend the chaos of everyday existence and
Speaker 1: find the meaning of life, absurd as it is in
Speaker 1: its pure form. That's the story of Rudolf and his Kunstkamer.
Speaker 1: But stick around to hear about how Rudolph's love of
Speaker 1: astrology led to the discovery of some of the most
Speaker 1: fundamental laws of physics. The most famous of Rudolph's court
Speaker 1: astronomers was Johannes Kepler. Kepler had been brought to Prague
Speaker 1: as an assistant to Rudolph's head astrologer, Tico Brahe. Unlike Tico,
Speaker 1: whose dire predictions sent Rudolph spiraling, Kepler was more interested
Speaker 1: in formulating the laws that governed celestial bodies movement in space.
Speaker 1: Kepler had bad eyesight, so he couldn't map planets like
Speaker 1: Brahi did. Instead, his strength was in mathematics. He wanted
Speaker 1: to find out what caused the planet to move in
Speaker 1: certain patterns at certain speeds. Kepler mostly stayed under the radar,
Speaker 1: letting Brahi deal with Rudolph's whims. After Brahie's death, an
Speaker 1: unfortunate urination incident that you can hear about in our
Speaker 1: episode that we've done on Brahi and Rudolph's brief experiment
Speaker 1: in attempting to bring Brahi back to life, Rudolph turned
Speaker 1: his attention to Kepler, naming him the new Imperial Mathematician. Kepler,
Speaker 1: like Brahi before him, had to give Rudolph personalized star
Speaker 1: charts in addition to continuing his scholarly work. Kepler didn't
Speaker 1: necessarily mind Like many astronomers at the time, He believed
Speaker 1: in astrology's ability to explain people's personalities and futures, but
Speaker 1: he also recognized that astrology was vulnerable to grifters that
Speaker 1: manipulated their readings for their own personal gain. Because of
Speaker 1: Rudolph's credulity, Kepler wrote in sixteen eleven, I hold that
Speaker 1: astrology must not only be banished from the Senate, but
Speaker 1: also from the heads of all those who wish to
Speaker 1: advise the Emperor in his best interests, it must be
Speaker 1: kept entirely out of his sight. Rudolph didn't follow Kepler's advice,
Speaker 1: and Kepler still acted as one of Rudolph's personal astrologers.
Speaker 1: Kepler tended to use astrology to hype up his patron
Speaker 1: a strategy that allowed him to stay in Rudolph's good
Speaker 1: graces during his time under Rudolph's patronage. When he wasn't
Speaker 1: doing star charts, Kepler was wildly productive, producing thirty astronomers
Speaker 1: called treatises. In one of them, Astronomia Nova, he found
Speaker 1: that Earth's orbit was elliptical around the Sun. In the
Speaker 1: introduction to Astronomy and Nova, Kepler explains how Rudolph's astrological
Speaker 1: profile made him a particularly powerful ruler. Kepler's reading was
Speaker 1: so flattering and effective that Galileo might have actually ripped
Speaker 1: him off. A year after Astronomy and Nova came out,
Speaker 1: Galileo dedicated his Astronomical treatise to Rudolph and included a
Speaker 1: lengthy appreciation of Rudolph's star chart that was so similar
Speaker 1: to Coupler's that some scholars think Galileo plagiarized it. This
Speaker 1: is not to say that Rudolf and Kepler didn't have
Speaker 1: their disagreements, especially because Rudolf rarely paid Kepler on time
Speaker 1: and sometimes withheld payments and bonuses because of the Empire's
Speaker 1: financial trouble. But Keupler appreciated Rudolph's patronage. He described Rudolph
Speaker 1: as a star around which he orbited, like the Earth
Speaker 1: around the sun. Noble Blood is a production of iHeartRadio
Speaker 1: and Grimm and Mild from Aaron Manke. Noble Blood is
Speaker 1: created and hosted by me Dana Schwartz, with additional writing
Speaker 1: and researching by Hannah Johnston, Hannah Zwick, Mira Hayward, Courtney Sender,
Speaker 1: and Lori Goodman. The show is edited and produced by
Speaker 1: Noemi Griffin and rima Il Kahali, with supervising producer Josh
Speaker 1: Thain and executive producers Aaron Manke, Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick.
Speaker 1: For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the Eyeheart Radio app,
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.