Ferdinand was a belligerent and ruthless monarch: as ruler over Inner Austria he relentlessly implemented the re-Catholicization of his subjects by means of ‘Reformation commissions’ which toured the land. He was elected emperor in the midst of rebellions by the Estates at the beginning of the Thirty Years’ War. He rapidly settled the conflicts in Bohemia in his favour and ruled in absolutist style, but suffered setbacks in the latter years of his reign.