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Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I - Habsburg Senior (1459 - 1493 - 1519 (60))
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Arranger of marriages for the greater territorial glory of his Austro-Hungarian House of Habsburg. Acquired the Low Countries and Burgundy by marrying Mary of Burgundy, and married off son Philip (the Handsome) to Joanna of Castile (heir to the Spanish throne who slipped into a grief driven madness after the early death of Philip and passed the Spanish throne on to son Charles - the future Emperor Charles V (aka King Charles I of Spain). Undertook long wars in Hungary and Italy to further extend the "family" lands, though eventually Hungary (and Bohemia) were brought in to the family via marriages. After Mary died, he married Bianca Maria Sforza, daughter of the awful Galeazzo Maria Sforza, Duke of Milan. By the time Max died in 1519, Philip was also long since dead, so everything fell into the hands of grandson Emperor Charles V (1500 - 1558 (58)). It was the largest empire since the days of Rome, and one which proved completely unmanageable (particularly as Luther, Suleiman and Francis I had been dealt as his contemporaries - see insight page). This magnificent portrait, dated 1518, is by Albrecht Durer (1471 - 1528) from Nuremberg, who brought the art of Renaissance painting to Germany, and of whom Maximilian was patron. |
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A 1515 Happy Habsburgs family shot by Bernhard Striegel includes Maximilian I (back left), his son Philip. Philip became King Consort to Isabella and Ferdinand's daughter Queen Joan but died in 1506 aged only 28. His death destabilized Joan completely, and she was removed from her short Queenship of Spain and became known as "Joan the Mad". They are buried beside Isabella and Ferdinand in the Capilla Real in Granada.
Joan's incarceration left a young Charles as King of Spain (Charles I), Holy Roman Emperor (Charles V), and various other things. The only time that a Habsburg ruled most of Europe and then the newly discovered Americas. Charles is the central figure in the front row of the painting. He had an extreme version of the family mandibular prognathistic jaw. Interesting that the Habsburgs had "the jaw" whereas their rivals the Bourbon dynasty suffered from a lack of it.
Maximilian and Charles (and probably succeeding Habsburgs) "knew" that the Habsburg family had a divine right to own as much of everything as they could get their hands on, and the thought of putting the interests of subjects or even states before those of the family, would have struck them as damned odd. |
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