Holy Roman Empire (XV): Maximilian I
30. Maximilian I
Maximilian I (22 March 1459 – 12 January 1519), Holy Roman Emperor, King of the Roman people, Grand Duke of Austria (1493–1519), also known as Maximilian the Great. The eldest son of Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor, grandfather of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V (also known as King Carl V of the Roman people or King Carlos I of Spain) and the founder of the heyday of the Habsburg dynasty. Through his marriage to his children, Maximilian enabled his grandson to successfully take the throne of the colonial empire of Spain, and together with his own Holy Roman throne, Charles V became the ally of Europe, and the Habsburg dynasty became an "empire that never sets".
(1) Biography
In 1477, Maximilian I was engaged to Mary, the bold daughter of Charles, Duke of Burgundy, and acquired the Burgundy territories along the eastern borders of the Netherlands and France. After the death of the bold Charles in the Battle of Nancy, Maximilian I defeated the french king Louis XI at the Battle of Gineggart in 1479, protecting his wife's domain. On 27 March 1482, his wife fell to his death on horseback, and his young eldest son Philip the Beautiful Man succeeded the Netherlands as regent, but later because of the war with France, clashed with the Dutch Parliament, and was trapped in the palace, until his father sent troops to rescue him, he was forced to accept the "Treaty of Arras", allowing the Dutch third-class parliament to act as the regent of his son, and also allowing his daughter Marguerite to marry his daughter Margaret to the Prince of France to maintain peace. Maximilian intended to marry Anne of Brittany, and after the wedding was held through a surrogate, his son-in-law Charles VIII, fearing that Brittany would fall into Maximilian's hands, actually destroyed the marriage and stole Maximilian's fiancée. He soon broke his oath and regained regency rights. In 1486 he succeeded his father as king of the Roman people.
In 1490, after the death of Matthias I of Hungary, he regained control of Austria. He fought for the thrones of Hungary and Bohemia, but was preemptively seized by Vladislav IV, according to the "Peace of Presburg" of 1491, if Vladislav had no descendants, the thrones of Bohemia and Hungary should be inherited by the Habsburgs. When Frederick III died in 1493, he became the sole ruler of Germany and the head of the Habsburg family.
In 1494, King Charles VIII of France invaded Italy, beginning a half-century-long Italian war, and in order to seek allies against the Kingdom of France, Maximilian I married Maria of the Sforza family of Milan and formed a double family with Fernando II of Aragon. In 1495, he formed an alliance with the Pope, Spain, Venice, and Milan, and the following year drove out the French army that invaded Italy. In 1499, the Swiss Confederation disobeyed the imperial decree and he ordered a conquest, but he had not yet left, and the forward had been defeated by the Swiss night raid, and had to recognize Swiss independence. In fact, the German princes were afraid that he would expand his power, and even prepared to collude to depose him, so he had to agree to hand over the power of the Empire to the parliament, satisfied with being a virtual monarch, and for a while he had the whims to run for the pope. But he finally survived the storm and regained his strength in the Dynastic War of 1504. In February 1508, Pope Julius II conferred on him the title of Holy Roman Emperor, and since then the king of the Roman people has been elected Holy Roman Emperor without having to go to Rome to receive the pope's coronation. In the same year, he formed the Cambrai Alliance with the Papal States, France, and Spain, and waged war against the Venetian Republic, after which he won Verona, Vicenza, and Padua in Lombardy.
In 1511, through the diplomatic skills of his illustrious daughter, Margaret of Austria, the regent of the Netherlands, broke the covenant with the Kingdom of France, recalled German mercenaries from the French army, formed a new Holy Alliance with England, Spain and the Pope, and defeated the French army at the Battle of Splits in 1513, driving Louis XII's French army out of Italy. But in 1515 King François I of France reappeared on the Plains of Italy with his troops, defeating his ally Maximilian Sforza, Duke of Milan, at the Battle of Marignano, according to the Treaty of Brussels, Milan belonged to the Kingdom of France, Verona belonged to Venice, and Maximilian I retained only the Tyrolean region.
(2) Marriage
Maximilian himself married Marie of Burgundy, the only daughter of Charles the Duke of Burgundy, on 18 August 1477. After the death of Mary's father, the marriage was incorporated into the Habsburg royal estates of the Duchy of Burgundy, from southern France to the Netherlands. After the death of his first wife, Marie, he remarried in 1497, and his marriage to Bianca Maria Sforza, daughter of the Duke of Milan, allowed him to obtain large amounts of cash from Italy, helping Maximilian to be confirmed emperor in 1508.
Maximilian's son Philippe married Juana, a mad woman of the Crown Prince of Castile, on October 20, 1496, and founded the Habsburg dynasty in Spain.
Maximilian's grandson, the future Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand I, married Princess Anna Jagiello of Bohemia on 25 May 1521, and the following year Ferdinand's sister Princess Maria married King Lajos II of Hungary and Bohemia, both marriages that laid the groundwork for Austria's annexation of Bohemia and the Austro-Hungarian Dual Empire.
Maximilian's sons and daughters mostly intermarried with foreign royal families, and the influence of the Habsburgs in Europe was greatly enhanced.
Maximilian's elaborate political marriage made his grandson Charles V the hegemon of Europe.
In 1506, Maximilian's son, Charlie's father, Philippe, a beautiful man, died young, and Charles succeeded the Counts of Burgundy and Flanders, becoming the first ruler of Spanish Netherlands (present-day Holland and Belgium).
In 1516, Maximilian's relative, King Ferdinand II of Aragon, died of illness, and Charles became King Carlos I of Spain. Since then, the whole of Spain, Sicily in southern Italy, Sardinia, the Kingdom of Naples, and Spain's colonies in the Americas have all become the domain of habsburg rule. On 29 August 1526, King Louis II of Hungary and Bohemia was killed in battle, and another grandson of Maximilian, charles V's younger brother, Archduke Ferdinand of Austria, succeeded Louis as Louis's brother-in-law to the King of Hungary and Bohemia. Although there were contenders for the throne in Hungary, they were quickly pacified.
(3) Death and posthumous arrangements
In 1519, Maximilian died of illness, and the eldest grandson Charles succeeded him as Charles V, and inherited the family's rule over Austria and Alsace. Maximilian also instructed his daughter that Grand Duchess Margaret of Austria would be responsible for raising her two grandchildren, Karl and Ferdinand. Maximilian's two grandchildren became Holy Roman Emperors one after another, and both did so.
(4) Contribution and influence
Maximilian I, known as the "Last Knight", had both a medieval style and the temperament of a Renaissance monarch, a scholar and poet, a protector of humanists and artists. He was a strategic commander in the war, the founder of the German mercenaries (Landsknechts) and the Imperial artillery, and an expert in artillery technology. Author of a semi-fictional personal autobiography, Weiss K nig (White King). In addition, Maximilian is also known for advocating one of the most important styles of armor making. The "Maximilian armor", characterized by multiple slotted and engraved lines on the surface, became popular in Europe between 1500 and 1530.
He was virtuous, handsome, romantic, of course, he could not help but be a little casual, he liked women and wine, liked hunting and playing, he would find pleasure, he could endure, and in his later years he was afraid that he would die at any time, and even took the coffin disguised as a book box or treasure chest to travel, in 1519, when he was not yet 60 years old, forced by debt, ran to Innsbruck with a very bad mood, but the city actually refused to open the city gate for him, and the two-sided emperor had to continue to move forward. He soon died in the wells mountain hut where he often skied. Innsbruck still has one of his gravesites, but he is not buried there. His cemetery is almost an art gallery, full of statues, which is rare in the West. Although Maximilian's life was full of setbacks and tribulations, his struggles opened up broad prospects for the expansion of the Habsburg dynasty. He has 14 illegitimate children. Like his father, he was often in debt, and when he had troubles, he went hunting for recreation. He was usually majestic and willing to reach out to the people, he was a patron and ardent participant in the cause of the Renaissance, he was a devout Christian, and he believed in astrology.
Maximilian's struggle opened up broad prospects for the expansion of the Habsburg dynasty. Maximilian also made great efforts to strengthen the centralization of Power in Germany, but the princes did not support his policies because they could not distinguish between the interests of the Habsburgs and the interests of the Empire.
"Unite under the leadership of your king to defend Germany from French and Turkish aggression or perish", this is maximilian's eloquent question to the Reichstag, to the princes, to the town councils. He failed to achieve this goal, and the history of Germany for the next three centuries confirmed his warning.