Maximilian I

one of the most distinguished of the German emperors, the son and successor of Frederick III, the forerunner of Charles V, was born at Neustadt, near Vienna, March 22,1459. In his nineteenth year he married Maria, the only child and heiress of Charles the Bold, duke of Burgundy, who died in 1482. Maximilian had hoped to enjoy the estates of his father- in-law, but Louis XI of France attempted to seize some of these possessions, and thus involved our German prince in a contest which, when it promised to end favorably for Maximilian, was suddenly turned in favor of Louis XI by the dexterous intrigues of the latter among the Netherlanders. It was not until 1493 that peace was finally established at Senlis. This very year his father the emperor died, and Maximilian succeeded to the government of the vast possessions of the Teutonic realm, so soon to become the theater of one of the greatest revolutions the world has ever been called upon to witness — the Reformation of the 16th century — an event that was ushered in just as Maximilian himself was fast fading as the shades of evening. In 1494 the newly-crowned emperor married Bianca Sforza, daughter of the duke of Milan, which alliance gave rise to a succession of wars in Italy. Shortly after he joined the League of Cambray, formed between pope Julius II, Ferdinand of Spain, and Louis XII of France, against the Venetians; but that republic having soon after become reconciled to the pope, Maximilian joined the so-called Holy League between England, Spain, Venice, and the pope, in opposition to the French, who were signally defeated by the forces of Henry VIII and the emperor in the "battle of the spurs," near Guinegate (1513). The ascension of Francis I to the throne of France somewhat modified matters in favor of the French. The new king of the Franks captured Milan, and compelled Maximilian to give up Verona to the Venetians for 200,000 ducats. By the treaty of Basle (1499) he had been obliged to acknowledge the independence of Switzerland. Though thus unsuccessful in his wars, he had the fortune to see the hereditary dominions of his house increased during his reign by several peaceful additions; and the marriage of his son Philip with the infanta Juana, and of his daughter Margaret with the infant Juan of Spain, led to the subsequent union of Spain with Austria, while the marriage of two of his grandchildren with the son and daughter of Ladislaus, king of Hungary and Bohemia, brought both these kingdoms to the Austrian monarchy. The closing activity of his reign was displayed against the rising heresy. Luther had just come forward and attacked Tetzel (1517), and, as Leo X was inclined to make light of the opposition of the little Augustine friar, Maximilian addressed the Roman pontiff, and persuaded him to heed this difficulty as "a question which was dividing Germany." But in the very year in which the discussion at Leipzic came off Maximilian died (1519), and left it for his successor Charles V to further the cause of Protestantism by a blind obedience to the dictates of an incompetent Roman pontiff. Maximilian I was a liberal patron of literature, and learned men were greatly encouraged by him. Indeed he was himself an author, producing several works in prose and verse. See Hegewisch, Gesch. d. Regierung Maximilians I (1782; new ed. Leipz. 1818); Haltaus, Gesch. d. Kaisers Maximilian (1850); Klupfel, Kaiser Maximilian I (Berl. 1864); Lichnowsky, Gesch. d. Hauses Habsburg; Vehse, Memoirs of Austria, 1:2-33; Coxe, Hist. of the House of Austria, 1:278 sq.; Kohlrausch, Hist. of Germany, p. 234 sq.