Ep. 234: The Charisma of Emperor Maximilian (1493-1519)

Maximilian I died on January 12th, 1519. But his likeness is everywhere. None of his predecessors left behind as many depictions of their life, from being fed by his nurse as a toddler to the Totenbild, the picture of the emperor in death, stripped of all his paraphernalia, even his teeth broken out.

If you search in google for the most reproduced image of a Holy Roman Emperor, two come up, the portrait of Maximilian that Albrecht Dürer produced in Augsburg in 1518, as shown on last weeks episode artwork and Titian’s equestrian portrait of Charles V after the battle of Mühlberg, which in turn is a composition that goes back to several equestrian portraits of Maximilian I.

Basically, Maximilian I is the most visually present Holy Roman emperor of them all. And that is not by chance. As he said on several occasions, quote:

"Whoever does not provide for his commemoration during his lifetime has no commemoration after his death and is forgotten with the sound of the bell that rings at his burial"

The music for the show is Flute Sonata in E-flat major, H.545 by Carl Phillip Emmanuel Bach (or some claim it as BWV 1031 Johann Sebastian Bach) performed and arranged by Michel Rondeau under Common Creative Licence 3.0.

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To make it easier for you to share the podcast, I have created separate playlists for some of the seasons that are set up as individual podcasts. they have the exact same episodes as in the History of the Germans, but they may be a helpful device for those who want to concentrate on only one season.

So far I have:

The Ottonians

Salian Emperors and Investiture Controversy

Fredrick Barbarossa and Early Hohenstaufen

Frederick II Stupor Mundi

Saxony and Eastward Expansion

The Hanseatic League

The Teutonic Knights

The Holy Roman Empire 1250-1356

The Reformation before the Reformation

The Empire in the 15th century

The Fall and Rise of the Habsburgs