Disregarding the neutral attitude of the German electors towards the
papal schism, and acting under the influence of Aeneas Sylvius
Piccolomini, afterwards Pope Pius II., Frederick in 1445 made a secret
treaty with Pope Eugenius IV. This developed into the Concordat of
Vienna, signed in 1448 with the succeeding pope, Nicholas V., by which
the king, in return for a sum of money and a promise of the imperial
crown, pledged the obedience of the German people to Rome, and so
checked for a time the rising tide of liberty in the German church.
Taking up the quarrel between the Habsburgs and the Swiss cantons,
Frederick invited the Armagnacs to attack his enemies, but after meeting
with a stubborn resistance at St Jacob on the 26th of August 1444, these
allies proved faithless, and the king soon lost every vestige of
authority in Switzerland. In 1451 Frederick, disregarding the revolts in
Austria and Hungary, travelled to Rome, where, on the 16th of March
1452, his marriage with Leonora, daughter of Edward, king of Portugal,
was celebrated, and three days later he was crowned emperor by pope
Nicholas. On his return he found Germany seething with indignation. His
capitulation to the pope was not forgotten; his refusal to attend the
diets, and his apathy in the face of Turkish aggressions, constituted a
serious danger; and plans for his deposition failed only because the
electors could not unite upon a rival king. In 1457 Ladislaus, king of
Hungary and Bohemia, and archduke of Austria, died; Frederick failed to
secure either kingdom, but obtained lower Austria, from which, however,
he was soon driven by his brother Albert, who occupied Vienna. On
Albert's death in 1463 the emperor united upper and lower Austria under
his rule, but these possessions were constantly ravaged by George
Podebrad, king of Bohemia, and by Matthias Corvinus, king of Hungary. A
visit to Rome in 1468 to discuss measures against the Turks with Pope
Paul II. had no result, and in 1470 Frederick began negotiations for a
marriage between his son Maximilian and Mary, daughter and heiress of
Charles the Bold, duke of Burgundy. The emperor met the duke at Treves
in 1473, when Frederick, disliking to bestow the title of king upon
Charles, left the city secretly, but brought about the marriage after
the duke's death in 1477. Again attacked by Matthias, the emperor was
driven from Vienna, and soon handed over the government of his lands to
Maximilian, whose election as king of the Romans he vainly opposed in
1486. Frederick then retired to Linz, where he passed his time in the
study of botany, alchemy and astronomy, until his death on the 19th of
August 1493.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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