Many know the life and legacies of Tom谩拧 Masaryk and Edvard 叠别苍别拧, two Czechs who helped to found Czechoslovakia. However, there was a third person who played a very important role in the founding of the country: a Slovak named Milan 艩迟别蹿谩苍颈办. Before he participated in the founding of Czechoslovakia though, he was first an astronomer and aviator.
Rudolf II: The Intellectual yet Disastrous Emperor
Rudolf II desired to unify Christendom in the Empire and tried to take a tolerant stance on religious issues. Though he was an ineffectual ruler, he had a love for academics that helped spur the Scientific Revolution. He was known as 鈥渢he greatest art patron in the world,鈥 and philosophers, painters, alchemists, astronomers, architects, and mathematicians came to Prague to work under his patronage.