Maximilian the Dreamer

Holy Roman Emperor, 1459-1519

Christopher Hare

• Publisher: Barakaldo Books
• Year: 2022
• Topic: History
• eBook ISBN:
  9781839748363
• Subtopic: 19th Century History
• Index: History

THE life of Maximilian I of Austria is not only a great historical drama of the last Holy Roman Emperor of the ancient régime, but it almost attains to the romantic interest of an epic poem, with a royal knight for its hero, in the closing day of mediæval chivalry.
Maximilian stands forth as a typical figure of his time; heir to the great traditions of a Cæsar, a Theodoric, and a Charlemagne, he dreamed of mighty deeds and sought to carry out his high ideal, inspired at once by real patriotism and a lofty ambition for his race. He could never rest satisfied with the near present, but laboured with enthusiasm for distant aims whose fruition he would never see. Again and again he was doomed to disappointment in his political career, for his restless energy and many-sided point of view interfered with that narrow, dogged persistence in one definite aim which wins success. The will-o'-the-wisp of Italian conquest had an invincible attraction for him, and lured him on—as it did many a King of France—to failure and disaster.
An idealist and a dreamer, the Emperor won his truest claim to greatness, not so much by his wars or his diplomacy, as by his warm sympathy with every phase of modern thought and aspiration. His keen appreciation and eager encouragement of the new spirit of the age in literature and art made him the beloved of the scholar and the poet, who both welcomed him as the ideal Emperor of Dante's vision.

Table of contents

• Title page
• TABLE OF CONTENTS
• LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
• INTRODUCTION
• CHAPTER I - THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE
• CHAPTER II - BIRTH AND LINEAGE OF MAXIMILIAN-HIS EARLY LIFE 1440-1463
• CHAPTER III - CHARLES OF BURGUNDY AND THE EMPEROR FREDERICK III - 1463-1477
• CHAPTER IV - MAXIMILIAN AND HIS WIFE, MARIE OF BURGUNDY - 1477-1482
• CHAPTER V - TROUBLES OF MAXIMILIAN IN FLANDERS - 1482-1486
• CHAPTER VI - WARS AGAINST BRUGES AND FRANCE - 1486-1494
• CHAPTER VII - INVASION OF ITALY BY CHARLES VIII - 1494-1495
• CHAPTER VIII - MARRIAGE ALLIANCES OF THE HOUSE OF HAPSBURG - 1495-1500
• CHAPTER IX - PHILIPPE AND JUANA IN SPAIN - 1500-1507
• CHAPTER X - TROUBLES OF MAXIMILIAN-HISTORY OF GUELDERLAND - 1507
• CHAPTER XI - MARGUERITE APPOINTED REGENT OF THE NETHERLANDS - 1502-1509
• CHAPTER XII - COMING OF HENRY VIII. MAXIMILIAN INVADES ITALY - 1509-1511
• CHAPTER XIII - DIET OF AUGSBURG-THE WARRIOR POPE JULIUS II - 1510-1511
• CHAPTER XIV - SWISS WAR IN ITALY. DIET OF COLOGNE - 1511-1512
• CHAPTER XV - MAXIMILIAN JOINS A LEAGUE WITH LEO X, ENGLAND, AND SPAIN - 1512-1515
• CHAPTER XVI - FRENCH SUCCESS. MORE HAPSBURG ALLIANCES - 1515
• CHAPTER XVII - THE COMING OF CHARLES V - 1515-1517
• CHAPTER XVIII - CONCERNING THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY - 1517
• CHAPTER XIX - RIVALRY OF CHARLES V, HENRY VIII, AND FRANÇOIS I - 1517-1518
• CHAPTER XXI - CHARACTER OF MAXIMILIAN-REVIEW OF HIS LIFE
• CHAPTER XXII - STUDY OF MAXIMILIAN’S WORKS: THE “WEISSKÜNIG,” ETC.
• CHAPTER XXIII - HIS BOOKS ILLUSTRATED BY ALBRECHT DÜRER AND OTHERS
• CHAPTER XXIV - THE TRUE GREATNESS OF MAXIMILIAN
• LIST OF CHIEF AUTHORITIES ON THE LIFE AND TIMES OF MAXIMILIAN I