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aximilian I was the German king (1486-1519) and Holy Roman emperor (1493-1519), who established the Habsburg dynasty as an international European power. He was born in Wiener Neustadt, Austria. In 1477 he married Mary, daughter of Charles the Bold, duke of Burgundy, but his right to the Burgundian realm was challenged by the French king, Louis XI. Maximilian successfully defended his wife's inheritance in a war with France that lasted until 1493. He secured the right of succession to the thrones of Hungary and Bohemia, which were held by the Habsburg family for the next four centuries. In 1493 Maximilian succeeded his father, Frederick III, as king and emperor. In 1496 he arranged the marriage of his son Philip I to Joanna the Mad, heiress to the thrones of Castile and Aragón, thus laying the basis for two centuries of Habsburg rule in Spain. In 1519, Maximilian died, leaving a vast Empire to his grandson Charles V, King of Spain.
Maximilian I is also credited with the creation of the Landsknechts, which he did in order to uphold his claim to the Burgundian legacy of the Netherlands and of controlling his future territories in the east. The first Landsknechts he recruited on German soil was in 1487. These initial soldiers were recurited in relation to the creation of the Swabian alliance (1487-8) to keep the powerful princes of Bohemia and Bavaria at bay. Maximilian owed a lot to the success of his Landsknechts to the Lord of Mindelheim, Georg von Frundsberg, who is regarded by many as the true "father of the Landsknechts".
Other Links
Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor - Wikipedia
(The above portrait of Emperor Maximilian by Dürer, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.)
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