Rudolf II, the "Mad Habsburg Emperor"

Not Just the Tudors

History Hit

History

4.8 • 3K Ratings

🗓️ 29 September 2025

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In the final episode of her short series on the Habsburg dynasty, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb turns to one of the most fascinating and misunderstood rulers of early modern Europe: Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor. Often remembered—if at all—as the "mad emperor" who withdrew from politics and lost his grip on power, Rudolf’s story is far richer than the stereotype. Instead of governing from Vienna or Madrid, he relocated his imperial court to Prague, transforming it into a dazzling hub of art, science, alchemy, and astrology. Was he truly unfit to rule, or has history been unfair? Suzannah is joined by Professor Thomas Kaufmann to re-examine Rudolf II's reign not as decline, but as a bold, eccentric vision of imperial rule during a turbulent age of religious wars, Protestant uprisings, Ottoman expansion, and dynastic rivalries.

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Presented by Professor Suzannah Lipscomb. The researcher is Max Wintle, audio editor is Amy Haddow and the producer is Rob Weinberg. The senior producer is Anne-Marie Luff.

All music courtesy of Epidemic Sounds.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, I'm Professor Susanna Lipscomb.
0:02.6	If you'd like not just the Tudors ad-free to get early access and bonus episodes, sign up to History Hit.
0:10.5	With a History Hit subscription, you can also watch hundreds of hours of original documentaries,
0:16.0	including my own recent two-part series, A World Torn Apart, The Dissolution of the Monastries, and enjoy a new release
0:24.0	every week. Sign up now by visiting historyhit.com forward slash subscribe.
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1:06.8	Hello, I'm Professor Susanna Lipscomb and welcome to Not Just the Tudors from History Hit,
1:12.6	the podcast in which we explore everything from Anne Boleyn to the Aztecs,
1:17.1	from Holbein to the Huguenose, from Shakespeare to Samarise,
1:21.7	relieved by regular doses of murder, espionage and witchcraft.
1:25.9	Not in other words, just the Tudors, but most definitely also the Tudors.
1:39.3	In our final episode of this series on the Habsburg dynasty, we turned to the most enigmatic of rulers,
1:46.1	Rudolph II. Last time we explored the women of the dynasty figures who so often stood just
1:52.1	off stage, yet whose influence shaped court politics, dynastic strategy and religious life across Europe.
1:58.6	Now we end with the ruler who seems to have vanished from the
2:01.5	centre of the Habsburg stage altogether, Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor from 1576 to 1612,
2:08.7	remembered if at all as the Mad Emperor, who withdrew from politics and lost his grip on power.
	...

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