1636 Imperial election

This was the sixth imperial election to take place during the Reformation. On October 31, 1517, Martin Luther, a professor of moral theology at the University of Wittenberg, now part of the Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg, had delivered the Ninety-five Theses to Albert of Brandenburg, the elector of Mainz. This list of propositions criticized the practice of selling indulgences, remissions of the punishment meted out for sin in Purgatory. Luther's criticism snowballed into a massive schism in the church, and from there into a split among the states of the empire.

The accession of the fiercely Catholic Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor as king of Bohemia led to unrest among the Protestant estates of the kingdom. On May 23, 1618, a group of members of the Protestant estates threw two of Ferdinand II's representatives from the third story of Prague Castle in an event known as the Defenestration of Prague. On August 26, 1619, the full Bohemian estates declared Ferdinand II deposed. They offered the throne to Frederick V of the Palatinate, elector of the Electoral Palatinate, who accepted.

Ferdinand II called on Maximilian I, Elector of Bavaria, duke of Bavaria and leader of the Catholic League, a political confederation-cum-military alliance, for help suppressing the Bohemian Revolt and removing Frederick. In a treaty of October 21, he promised the Upper Palatinate and its electoral rights in exchange for this help. At the Diet of Regensburg on February 25, 1623, the Duchy of Bavaria received the Palatine electoral dignity, to be returned on Maximilian's death.

On May 30, 1635, the Peace of Prague was signed, ending the conflict between the Holy Roman Empire and its Protestant states. However, the larger war in Germany, the Thirty Years' War, which involved other great powers in Europe, continued.

Ferdinand II called for the election of his successor. In addition to Maximilian, the electors called to Regensburg were:

• Anselm Casimir Wambold von Umstadt, elector of Mainz
• Philipp Christoph von Sötern, elector of Trier
• Ferdinand of Bavaria, elector of Cologne
• Ferdinand III, Holy Roman Emperor, king of Bohemia
• John George I, Elector of Saxony, elector of Saxony
• George William, Elector of Brandenburg, elector of Brandenburg

Of these, only the elector of Saxony was Lutheran and only the elector of Brandenburg was Calvinist.

Ferdinand III, Ferdinand II's eldest son, was elected.

Ferdinand III acceded to the throne on his father's death on February 15, 1637 and was crowned on November 18.