Maximilian I 1459-1519
Holy Roman Emperor

He was born Archduke of Austria in Weiner Neustadt, the eldest son of Frederick III, of Germany and Eleanor of Portugal, and by his marriage with Mary, heiress of Charles the Bold (1477), he acquired Burgundy and Flanders. This involved him in war with Louis XI of France, and he was forced to give Artois and Burgundy to Louis (1482). Elected King of the Romans (1486), he drove out the Hungarians (1490) who, under Matthias I Hunyadi (Corvinus), had seized much of Austria. At Villach (1492) he defeated the Turks, and in 1493 he became Holy Roman Emperor. Having next married a daughter of the Duke of Milan (1494), he turned his ambition towards Italy, but after years of war he had to cede Milan to Louis XII (1504) and despite the League of Cambrai (1508), he was defeated by the Venetians, and the Swiss broke away from the German Empire. The peaceful acquisition of the Tyrol, however, increased his territory, and the marriage of his son Philip to the Infanta Juana united the Houses of Spain and Habsburg, Philip becoming Philip I, the Handsome of Spain. The marriage of his grandson Ferdinand to the daughter of Ladislas of Hungary and Bohemia brought both these kingdoms to Austria. Although full of wild schemes which he could not finance, he was genial, energetic and popular. He improved the administration of justice, greatly encouraged the arts and learning, and caused to be written both Theuerdank in verse and Weisskunig in prose, of both of which he himself is the hero, and probably part-author. He left his extended empire to his grandson Charles V.

Bibliography: R W Setson-Watson, Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor (1902)