[Frontispiece: MAXIMILIAN IN 1502 Painting by A. de Predis] MAXIMILIAN I HOLY ROMAN EMPEROR (Stanhope Historical Essay 1901) WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS R. W. SETON-WATSON Commoner of New College Oxford "Mein Ehr ist deutsch Ehr und deutsch Ehr ist mein Ehr" WESTMINSTER ARCHIBALD CONSTABLE & CO LTD 2 WHITEHALL GARDENS 1902 BUTLER & TANNER, THE SELWOOD PRINTING WORKS, FROME, AND LONDON. {v} PREFATORY NOTE No apology seems necessary for illustrating such an essay as the present, save that it is an innovation. No one now denies the value of portraits in rendering history more vivid; and it might be argued that an essay dealing with a personality requires illustration more, not less, than important historical studies. My best thanks are due to the Keeper of the Hope Collection of Engraved Portraits, Oxford, and his assistants, for the use of eight of the illustrations, and for their unfailing courtesy and ready assistance in the selection; to the well-known publishers, Messrs. Velhagen & Klasing, of Leipzig, for the use of illustrations 6, 7 and 12; and to Herr Löwy, of Vienna, for the two photographs of Maximilian (frontispiece) and Bianca Maria Sforza. The Imperial Arms of Maximilian, which appear upon the cover, are taken from Sir David Lindsay's Scottish Heraldic Manuscript. But for a prolonged illness the essay would have undergone a much more thorough revision. {vii} ILLUSTRATIONS 1. Maximilian in 1502--Painting by A. de Predis (from a photograph by Herr J. Löwy, of Vienna) . . . (_frontispiece_) 2. Mary of Burgundy (from the Hope Collection, Oxford) 3. Anne of Brittany (from the Hope Collection, Oxford) 4. Bianca Maria Sforza--Painting by A. de Predis (from a photograph by Herr J. Löwy, of Vienna) 5. Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan (from the Hope Collection) 5. Armour of Maximilian (by permission of Messrs. Velhagen & Klasing, Leipzig) 7. Maximilian in 1518--Chalk Drawing of Dürer (by permission of Messrs. Velhagen & Klasing, Leipzig) 8. Sebastian Brant (from the Hope Collection) 9. Conrad Peutinger (from the Hope Collection) 10. Wilibald Pirkheimer (from the Hope Collection) 11. Albrecht Dürer (from the Hope Collection) 12. Das Rosenkranzfest--Painting by Dürer, with kneeling figure of Maximilian (by permission of Messrs. Velhagen & Klasing) 13. Conrad Celtes (from the Hope Collection) 14. Genealogy of the Imperial House of Hapsburg Index {viii} "Preis dem wackern Gemsenjäger! Ruhm in Fehden, Ruhm in Frieden, In Gedichten Ruhm beschieden Dir, o ritterlicher Max!" --_Max von Schenkendorf_. {1} I