Date of Birth: 22 March 1459
Royal House: Habsburg
Spouse: Mary, Duchess of Burgundy, then Anne of Brittany, then Bianca Maria Sforza
Predecessor: Frederick III as Holy Roman Emperor, Sigismund as Archduke of Austria
Predecessor: Frederick III as Holy Roman Emperor, Sigismund as Archduke of Austria
Reign: 1486 – 1519 (Co-emperor until 1493)
Summary: Maximilian was a lucky man. He was born to the politically powerful Habsburg family and he married into the incredibly wealthy House of Valois-Burgundy. Indeed, his only misfortune in youth was the loss of the Habsburg's ancestral lands to the Swiss Confederacy. In 1477, his wife's father, Charles the Bold, died leaving the entire Burgundian inheritance to her. This land included all of the Low Countries (Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxembourg) as well as vast territories in France and modern-day Germany, as well as a few scraps in Italy and Switzerland. As husband, Maximilian took on the job of administering the land in the name of his wife. Mary died in 1482 and their son, Philip, became the official duke but was far too young to rule. After negotiations with France, Burgundy became a crown possession of the Habsburg monarchy and by far the wealthiest component.
As Emperor, Maximilian had a more shaky reign. War between Austrian counties caused the Holy Roman Empire to recognize the secession of the Swiss Confederation from the Empire in 1499. War in Italy forced the HRE and France to bump heads again. And worst of all, the other German magnates felt that the Habsburgs were using too many Imperial resources to fight what they viewed as dynastic warfare. To fund all his enterprises, Maximilian went into deep debt, an amount that would not be paid off for nearly 100 years. Maximilian died in 1519, his son Philip predeceasing him by some 13 years. He was, therefore, succeeded by his grandson, Charles, who became Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, upon the latter's death. Perhaps Maximilian's greatest legacy to history was the marriage of his son, Philip, to the heiress of Castile and Aragon, thereby giving the Habsburg dynasty the largest—at least on paper—empire that ever spanned the world: the Spanish Empire.
Date of Death: 12 January 1519
Successor: Charles V
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