Maximilian I
Holy Roman Emperor from 1508 to 1519
Maximilian I (22 March 1459 – 12 January 1519) was King of the Romans from 1486 and Holy Roman Emperor from 1508 until his death in 1519. He was never crowned by the Pope, as the journey to Rome was blocked by the Venetians.2
From Wikipedia’s article on Maximilian I (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.
Born Mar 31, 1459, died Jan 22, 1519.1
About
He proclaimed himself elected emperor in 1508 at Trento, with Pope Julius II later recognising it. This broke the tradition of requiring a papal coronation for the adoption of the Imperial title. Maximilian was the only surviving son of Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor and Eleanor of Portugal, Holy Roman Empress. From his coronation as King of the Romans in 1486, he ran a double government, or Doppelregierung with his father until Frederick's death in 1493.
Maximilian expanded the influence of the House of Habsburg through war and his marriage in 1477 to Mary, Duchess of Burgundy. However, he also lost his family's lands in Switzerland to the Swiss Confederacy. Through the marriage of his son Philip the Handsome to eventual queen Joanna of Castile in 1496, Maximilian helped to establish the Habsburg dynasty in Spain, which allowed his grandson Charles V to hold the thrones of both Castile and Aragon. Historian Thomas A. Brady Jr. describes him as "the first Holy Roman Emperor in 250 years who ruled as well as reigned" and the "ablest royal warlord of his generation".
Nicknamed "Coeur d'acier" ("Heart of Steel") by Olivier de la Marche and later historians (either as praise for his courage and soldierly qualities or reproach for his ruthlessness as a warlike ruler), Maximilian has entered the public consciousness, at least in the German-speaking world, as "the last knight" (der letzte Ritter), especially since the eponymous poem by Anastasius Grün was published (although the nickname likely existed even in Maximilian's lifetime). Scholarly debates still discuss whether he was truly the last knight (either as an idealised medieval ruler leading people on horseback, or a Don Quixote – type dreamer and misadventurer), or the first Renaissance prince – an amoral Machiavellian politician who carried his family "to the European pinnacle of dynastic power" largely on the back of loans.
Historians of the late 19th century, like Leopold von Ranke, often criticised Maximilian for putting the interest of his dynasty above that of Germany, hampering the nation's unification process. Since Hermann Wiesflecker's Kaiser Maximilian I. Das Reich, Österreich und Europa an der Wende zur Neuzeit (1971–1986) became the standard work, a more positive image of the emperor has emerged. He is seen as a modern, innovative ruler who carried out important reforms and promoted significant cultural achievements, even if the financial costs weighed down the Austrians and his military expansion caused the deaths and sufferings of many people.
From Wikipedia’s article on Maximilian I, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.2
Companies
- Kaiserliche ReichspostFounder12
Early life and education
Maximilian was born at Wiener Neustadt on 22 March 1459. His father, Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor, named him after Maximilian of Tebessa, who Frederick believed had once warned him of imminent peril in a dream. In his infancy, he and his parents were besieged in Vienna by Albert of Austria. One source relates that, during the siege's worst days, he wandered around the castle garrison, begging the servants and men-at-arms for bread. He was the favourite child of his mother, whose personality contrasted with his father. Reportedly, she told Maximilian, "If I had known, my son, that you would become like your father, I would have regretted having born you for the throne." Her early death pushed him even more towards a man's world, where one grew up first as a warrior rather than a politician.
Despite the efforts of Maximilian's father Frederick and his tutor Peter Engelbrecht, the latter of whom Maximilian held in contempt, Maximilian became an indifferent and belligerent student who preferred physical activities over his studies. Although the two remained on good terms overall, Frederick was horrified by his only surviving son's and heir's overzealousness in chivalric contests, extravagance, and heavy tendencies towards wine, feasts and young women, which became evident during their trips in 1473 and 1474. Even though the prince was very young, his skills and physical attractiveness often made him the centre of attention. Although Frederick had forbidden the princes of the Empire from fighting with Maximilian in tournaments, Maximilian gave himself the necessary permission at the first chance he got. Frederick did not allow him to participate in the 1474 war against Burgundy, though and placed him under the care of the Bishop of Augsburg instead.
The powerful Duke of Burgundy, Charles the Bold, who also held various fiefs within the Empire, was one of the chief political opponents of Maximilian's father, Frederick III. Frederick was concerned about the expansionist tendencies of the House of Valois-Burgundy towards the western regions of his Holy Roman Empire, and, to forestall military conflict, he attempted to secure the marriage of Charles's daughter, Mary of Burgundy, to Maximilian. After the Siege of Neuss (1474–1475), he was successful and the marriage was agreed upon, but concluded later, in 1477.
Perhaps as preparation for his task in the Netherlands, in 1476 at the age of 17, Maximilian commanded a military campaign against Hungary. This was the first actual battlefield experience in his life, even though the responsibility was likely shared with more experienced generals.
Maximilian and Mary's wedding took place on 19 August 1477.
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Background
Traditionally, German dynasties had exploited the potential of the imperial title to bring Eastern Europe into the fold, in addition to their lands north and south of the Alps. Under Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor, the House of Luxembourg, predecessors of the Habsburgs as the Imperial dynasty, had managed to gain an empire almost comparable in scale to the later Habsburg empire, although at the same time they lost the Kingdom of Burgundy and control over Italian territories. Their focus on the East, especially Hungary (which was outside the Holy Roman Empire and also gained by the Luxembourgs with a marriage), allowed the new Burgundian rulers from the House of Valois to foster discontent among German princes. Thus, the Habsburgs were forced to refocus their attention on the West. Frederick III's cousin and predecessor, Albert II of Germany (who was Sigismund's son-in-law and heir through his marriage with Elizabeth of Luxembourg) had managed to combine the crowns of Germany, Hungary, Bohemia and Croatia under his rule, but he died young. During his rule, Maximilian had a double focus on both the East and the West. The successful expansion (with the notable role of marriage policy) under Maximilian bolstered his position in the Empire, and also created more pressure for an imperial reform, so that they could get more resources and coordinated help from the German territories to defend their realms and counter hostile powers such as France.
From Wikipedia’s article on Maximilian I (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.
Career
Occupation: ruler.6
Personal life
- BornMar 31, 1459, Wiener Neustadt7
- DiedJan 22, 1519, Wels8
- CitizenshipHoly Roman Empire9
- SpousesMary of Burgundy 1477 to 148210; Anne of Brittany 1490 to 149110; Bianca Maria Sforza 1493 to 151010
Marriage and foreign policy under Maximilian
As part of the Treaty of Arras, Maximilian betrothed his three-year-old daughter Margaret of Austria to the Dauphin of France (later Charles VIII of France), son of his adversary Louis XI. The betrothal was the result of clandestine negotiations between Louis XI and Ghent – as Maximilian's position was temporarily weakened by his wife's death, he had no say in the matter.
During the Mad War (1485–1488), Maximilian supported the rebellious French nobility against the regency of Anne of France as part of his broader policy of weakening the French Crown and preserving the independence of the Duchy of Brittany.
Dying shortly after signing the Treaty of Le Verger, Francis II, Duke of Brittany, left his realm to his daughter Anne of Brittany. In search of alliances to protect her domain from neighbouring interests, she betrothed herself to Maximilian I in 1490. About a year later, they married by proxy.
However, Charles VIII and his sister Anne wanted her inheritance for France. So, when the former came of age in 1491, and taking advantage of Maximilian and his father's interest in the succession of their adversary Matthias Corvinus, King of Hungary, Charles repudiated his betrothal to Margaret, invaded Brittany, forced Anne of Brittany to repudiate her unconsummated marriage to Maximilian, and married her himself.
Margaret then remained in France as a hostage of sorts until 1493, when she was finally returned to her father with the signing of the Treaty of Senlis.
In late 1493, as the hostilities of the lengthy Italian Wars with France were in preparation, Maximilian contracted another marriage for himself, this time to Bianca Maria Sforza, daughter of Galeazzo Maria Sforza, Duke of Milan, with the intercession of his brother, Ludovico Sforza, then regent of the duchy after the former's death.
In the east, Maximilian faced the need to reduce the growing pressures on the Empire brought about by treaties between the rulers of France, Poland, Hungary, Bohemia, and Russia, as well as to bolster his dynasty's position – temporarily threatened by the union between Anne of Foix and Vladislaus II of Hungary, in addition to resistance of the Hungarian magnates – in Bohemia and Hungary (that the Habsburgs claimed through inheritance and overlordship). Maximilian met with the Jagiellonian kings Vladislaus II of Hungary and Sigismund I the Old at the First Congress of Vienna in 1515. There they arranged for Maximilian's granddaughter Mary of Habsburg to marry Louis II of Hungary, the son of Vladislaus, and for Anna of Bohemia and Hungary (the sister of Louis) to marry Maximilian's grandson Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor (both grandchildren being the children of Philip the Handsome, Maximilian's son, and Joanna of Castile). The marriages arranged there brought Habsburg kingship over Hungary and Bohemia in 1526. In 1515, Louis was adopted by Maximilian. Maximilian had to serve as the proxy groom to Anna in the betrothal ceremony, because only in 1516 did Ferdinand agree to enter into the marriage, which would happen in 1521.
These political marriages were summed up in the following Latin elegiac couplet, reportedly spoken by Matthias Corvinus: Bella gerant aliī, tū fēlix Austria nūbe/ Nam quae Mars aliīs, dat tibi regna Venus, "Let others wage war, but thou, O happy Austria, marry; for those kingdoms which Mars gives to others, Venus gives to thee."
Contrary to the implication of this motto, though, Maximilian waged war aplenty (In four decades of ruling, he waged 27 wars in total). Late in his life, though, only the military situation in the east worked well – the Magyars were said to fear him more than the Turks or the Devil. In the west, he could do no more than block French expansion and only with Spanish aid. His general strategy was to combine his intricate systems of alliance, military threats and offers of marriage to realise his expansionist ambitions. Using overtures to Russia, Maximilian succeeded in coercing Bohemia, Hungary, and Poland into acquiescing in the Habsburgs' expansionist plans. Combining this tactic with military threats, he was able to gain the favourable marriage arrangements in Hungary and Bohemia (which were under the same dynasty). According to Bence Péterfi, many Hungarian nobles maintained dual loyalty to both the Habsburgs and the Jagiellons. After the Peace of Pressburg, legalised this phenomenon, there was a change in dynamic: "While at the time of the conflicts between Frederick III and Matthias Corvinus it was primarily those who took the side of the Hungarian king who were able to pursue successful careers, after 1491, the situation reversed, and those who were on the side of the Habsburgs seemed to have more opportunities."
At the same time, his sprawling panoply of territories as well as potential claims constituted a threat to France, thus forcing Maximilian to continuously launch wars in defence of his possessions in Burgundy, the Low Countries and Italy against four generations of French kings (Louis XI, Charles VIII, Louis XII, and Francis I of France). Coalitions he assembled for this purpose sometimes consisted of non-imperial actors like England. Edward J. Watts comments that the nature of these wars was dynastic, rather than imperial.
Fortune was also a factor that helped to bring about the results of his marriage plans. The double marriage could have given the Jagiellon a claim in Austria, while a potential male child of Margaret and John, Prince of Asturias, a prince of Spain, would have had a claim to a portion of the maternal grandfather's possessions as well. But as it turned out, Vladislaus's male line became extinct, while the frail John died without offspring, so Maximilian's male line was able to claim the thrones.
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Maximilian was married three times, but only the first marriage produced offspring:
Maximilian's first wife was Mary of Burgundy. They were married in Ghent on 19 August 1477, but she died in a riding accident in 1482. Mary was the love of his life. Even in old age, the mere mention of her name moved him to tears (although his sexual life, contrary to his chivalric ideals, was unchaste). The grand literary projects commissioned and composed in large part by Maximilian, many years after her death, were in part tributes to their love, especially Theuerdank, in which the hero saved the damsel in distress as he had saved her inheritance in real life. His heart is buried inside her sarcophagus in Bruges, according to his wish. Beyond her beauty, the inheritance and the glory she brought, Mary corresponded to Maximilian's ideal of a woman: the spirited grand "Dame" who could stand next to him as sovereign. To their daughter Margaret, he described Mary: from her eyes shone the power (Kraft) that surpassed any other woman.
The marriage produced three children, of whom only two survived:
Philip I of Castile (1478–1506), who inherited his mother's domains following her death, but predeceased his father. He married Joanna of Castile, becoming king-consort of Castile upon her accession in 1504, and was the father of the Holy Roman Emperors Charles V and Ferdinand I;
Margaret of Austria (1480–1530), who was first engaged at the age of two to the French dauphin (who became Charles VIII of France a year later) to confirm peace between France and Burgundy. She was sent back to her father in 1492 after Charles repudiated their betrothal to marry Anne of Brittany. She was then married to John, Prince of Asturias, crown prince of Castile and Aragon, and after his death to Philibert II, Duke of Savoy. She undertook the guardianship of her deceased brother Philip's children and governed Burgundy for the heir, Charles;
Francis of Austria, who died shortly after his birth in 1481.
Maximilian was also married to Anne of Brittany (1477–1514). They were married by proxy in Rennes on 18 December 1490. The contract was dissolved by Pope Innocent VIII in early 1492, after Charles VIII had repudiated his betrothal to Margaret and forced Anne to marry him instead.
The drive behind this marriage, to the great annoyance of Frederick III (who characterised it as "disgraceful"), was the desire of personal revenge against the French (Maximilian blamed France for the great tragedies of his life: Mary of Burgundy's death, political upheavals that followed, his troubled relationship with his son, and later, Philip's death). The young King of the Romans had in mind a pincer grip against France, while Frederick wanted him to focus on expansion towards the east and maintenance of stability in newly reacquired Austria. But Brittany was so weak that by itself it could not resist French attack even briefly as the Burgundian State had done, while Maximilian could not even personally come to Brittany to consummate the marriage.
Maximilian's third wife was Bianca Maria Sforza (1472–1510). They were married in 1494, the marriage bringing Maximilian a rich dowry and allowing him to assert his rights as imperial overlord of Milan. The marriage was unhappy, and they had no children. In Maximilian's view, while Bianca might surpass his first wife, Mary, in physical beauty, she was just a "child" with "a mediocre mind", who could neither make decisions nor be presented as a respectable lady to society. Benecke opines that this seems unfair, as while Bianca was always concerned with trivial, private matters (Recent research, though, indicates that Bianca was an educated woman who was politically active), she was never given the chance to develop politically, unlike the other women in Maximilian's family, such as Margaret of Austria or Catherine of Saxony, Archduchess of Austria. Despite her unsuitability as an empress, Maximilian has often been criticised for treating her with coldness and neglect, which after 1500 only became worse. Bianca, on the other hand, loved the emperor deeply and always tried to win his heart with heartfelt letters, expensive jewels and allusions to sickness, but did not even get back a letter, developed eating disorders and mental illness, and died a childless woman. Court historian and physician Joseph Grünpeck, criticised the emperor, who in his opinion was responsible for Bianca's death through neglect.
In addition, he had several illegitimate children, but the number and identities of those are a matter of great debate. Johann Jakob Fugger writes in Ehrenspiegel (Mirror of Honour) that the emperor began fathering illegitimate children after becoming a widower, and that there were eight children in total, four boys and four girls.
These were:
By a widow in Den Bosch, whom Maximilian met in a campaign:
Barbara Disquis (1482–1568): Her birth and Mary of Burgundy's death seemed to connect to Maximilian's near fatal illness in 1482 and later pilgrimage to Amsterdam in 1484. In her teenage years, she rebelled against her father and entered St Gertrude's convent. Philip IV of France was introduced to her in 1504 when he and Maximilian went to Den Bosch to prepare for the war against Guelders. On their father's behalf, Philip urged her to leave the convent and get married, but she refused. The place she was buried is now a square named after her. In 2021, a recently built city walk close to Maximilian's statue was named "Mijn lieven dochter" ("My dear daughter").
By an unknown mistress:
Margarethe von Helfenstein or Martha, Margaretha, Mathilde, Margareta, née von Edelsheim (?–1537), wife of Johann von Hille (died 1515), remarried Count Ludwig Helferich von Helfenstein (1493–1525, married in 1517 or 1520); Ludwig was killed by peasants on 16 April 1525 in the Massacre of Weinsberg during the German Peasants' War. They had a surviving son named Maximilian (1523–1555). Some sources reported that she was born in 1480 or her mother was Margareta von Edelsheim, née Rappach.
By Margareta von Edelsheim, née Rappach (?–1522); Dingel reports that Margareta was born around 1470 while others report that in 1494 she was still a minor when she married von Rottal:
Barbara von Rottal (1500–1550), wife of Siegmund von Dietrichstein, member of the House of Dietrichstein. Barbara and Siegmund are great-grandparents of Maximilian, Prince of Dietrichstein, and the paternal grandparents of Franz von Dietrichstein. Some report that she was the daughter of Margareta von Edelsheim, née Rappach, while Benecke lists the mother as unidentified:
George of Austria (1505–1557), Prince-Bishop of Liège.
By Anna von Helfenstein:
Cornelius (1507–c. 1527).
Maximilian Friedrich von Amberg (1511–1553), Lord of Feldkirch.
Anna Maria (1512–1562), wife of Bartold Dienger.
Leopoldo de Austria (c. 1515–1557), bishop of Córdoba, Spain (1541–1557), with illegitimate succession.
Dorothea (1516–1572), heiress of Falkenburg, Durbuy and Halem, lady in waiting to Queen Mary of Hungary (governor of the Netherlands); wife of Johan I of East Frisia.
Anna Margareta (1517–1545), lady in waiting to Queen Maria of Hungary; wife of François de Melun (?–1547), 2nd count of Epinoy.
Anne (1519–?), she married Louis d'Hirlemont.
Elisabeth (d. 1581/1584), wife of Ludwig III von der Marck, Count of Rochefort.
Barbara, wife of Wolfgang Plaiss.
Christoph Ferdinand (d. c. 1522).
By unknown mistress (parentage uncertain):
Guielma, wife of Rudiger (Rieger) von Westernach.
From Wikipedia’s article on Maximilian I (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.
Awards
Links
Sources
The numbers on this page point here. Each one links to the record it came from.
- 1WikidataMaximilian I on Wikidata
- 2WikipediaMaximilian I on Wikipedia
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- 11WikidataMaximilian I: award, on Wikidata
- 12WikidataKaiserliche Reichspost, Founder
- 13Wikimedia CommonsMaximilian I photo by Albrecht Dürer, Public domain