The closing months of his life were troubled by the uncertainty of the succession to the Empire. His efforts to secure Charles' election as King of the Romans had almost been crowned with success. The day before he left Augsburg, he induced four of the Electors to meet him and to give their consent to the scheme. But his hopes were dashed to the ground by the opposition of Frederick of Saxony and Richard von Greifenklau, Elector of Trier, who contended that no election for the crown of the Romans was possible, while Maximilian himself still remained uncrowned as Emperor, and that Charles, as King of Naples, was expressly debarred from the Imperial dignity. The cup of his disappointment was full, and the Emperor retired wearily to Innsbruck, hoping to end his days in peace beneath the shadow of his {76} beloved Alps. But one final indignity awaited him. The burghers of Innsbruck, who had suffered severely on former occasions from the Emperor's insolvency, resolutely closed their gates upon him; and he was obliged to retire to Lower Austria. On January 12, 1519, Maximilian's adventurous career closed at the little town of Wels, not far from Linz. The body was interred without pomp in the Church of St. George at Wiener Neustadt; but his heart was removed to Bruges and buried beside the remains of the consort, whose early loss had robbed him of life's brightest joy. Thus, amid disillusionment and humiliation, ends the career which had opened so full of rich promise. With Maximilian passed away the last Holy Roman Emperor, in the true mediaeval sense. The dominion of Charles V. was doubtless more universal than any which Europe had seen since the days of Charles the Great, but its universality was essentially modern rather than mediaeval--dynastic and personal, not founded on the old dreams of an united Christian commonwealth. "Henceforth the Holy Roman Empire is lost in the German, and after a few faint attempts to resuscitate old-fashioned claims nothing remains to indicate its origin save a sounding title and a precedence among the States of Europe."[95] [Illustration: MAXIMILIAN IN 1518 From a Chalk Drawing by Dürer] [30] _Maximilians I. Beziehungen zu Sigmund von Tyrol._--Victor v. Kraus. [31] His mother was the daughter of Albert II., Emperor and King of Hungary and Bohemia (died 1439). Though Hungary was strictly an elective monarchy, the next heir was almost invariably elected. [32] A small garrison held out in the citadel till the end of August. [33] Huber, _Gesch. Oesterreichs_, iii. 298. [34] "Time ever brings its reward or its revenge." [35] Maximilian to S. P. (September 21). Debts growing ever larger: "darumb pit helfft und rath ains für als." He adds, "Der König v. Behaimb ... ist auch nicht viel erberer dann der ander gewest" (i.e. Matthias).--_Vertraulicher Briefwechsel_, p. 80.