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. 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.
Through an "unprecedented" image-building program, with the help of many notable scholars and artists, in his lifetime, the emperor – "the promoter, coordinator, and prime mover, an artistic impresario and entrepreneur with seemingly limitless energy and enthusiasm and an unfailing eye for detail" – had built for himself "a virtual royal self" of a quality that historians call "unmatched" or "hitherto unimagined". To this image, new layers have been added by the works of later artists in the centuries following his death, both as continuation of deliberately crafted images developed by his program as well as development of spontaneous sources and exploration of actual historical events, creating what Elaine Tennant dubs the "Maximilian industry".
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 borne 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.
Co-ruler in the Netherlands and Burgundy
Upon her father's death in the Battle of Nancy on 5 January 1477, Mary of Burgundy claimed the inheritance of all of her father's domains, both in the Holy Roman Empire and the Kingdom of France. At the same time, King Louis XI asserted his claims through military force, capturing the Duchy of Burgundy and other Valois-Burgundian fiefs that belonged to the French realm, citing the Salic law that favoured male succession. Faced with those challenges, Mary agreed to marry Maximilian (19 August 1477), who undertook the defence of his wife's dominions. Without support from the Empire and with an empty treasury left by Charles the Bold's campaigns, he carried out a campaign against the French during 1478–1479 and reconquered Le Quesnoy, Condé-sur-l'Escaut, and Antoing. He defeated the French forces at the Battle of Guinegate, in modern Enguinegatte, on 7 August 1479.
Despite winning, Maximilian had to abandon the siege of Thérouanne and disband his army, either because the Netherlanders did not want him to become too strong or because his treasury was empty. The battle was an important landmark in military history, though: the Burgundian pikemen were the precursors of the Landsknechte, while the French side derived the momentum for military reform from their loss.
According to some, Maximilian and Mary's wedding contract stipulated that their children would succeed them, but that the couple could not be each other's heirs. Mary tried to bypass this rule with a promise to transfer territories as a gift in case of her death, but her plans were confounded. After Mary's death in a riding accident on 27 March 1482 near the Wijnendale Castle, Maximilian's aim was now to secure the inheritance to his and Mary's son, Philip the Handsome. According to Haemers and Sutch, the original marriage contract stipulated that Maximilian could not inherit her Burgundian lands if they had children.