Ferdinand II (1578-1637) of the House of Habsburg ruled as Holy Roman Emperor from 1619 until 1637. Ferdinand was a devout Catholic who had been educated by the Jesuits at one of the centers of the Counterreformation, the University of Ingolstadt. Accordingly, reconverting his subjects to Catholicism and fighting Protestantism was a central goal of his regency, which ultimately led the Empire into the Thirty Years War. He pursued an absolutist rule, which he managed to realize in the Habsburg hereditary and crown lands, but not throughout the Empire. This undated etching shows Ferdinand on horseback with the Imperial regalia. The Habsburg coat of arms appears in the upper right, and Ferdinand’s motto “legitime certantibus corona” [“the crown belongs to the warrior for the just cause”] is printed in the top left.