German royalty, an emperor who reigned from 1493 to 1519. Although he aspired to restore forceful imperial leadership and to institute much needed reforms, Maximilian I left Germany in even worse anarchy at the end of his rule, and he sacrificed the interests of the country to the aggrandizement of the Hapsburg possessions.
He was the eldest son of Holy Roman Emperor Frederick III, and in 1486, he was elected king of the Romans. While defending his wife’s inheritance in 1490, he recovered Austria, and the following year, he secured the right of succession to the thrones of Hungary and Bohemia in the Treaty of Pressburg. While he had already assumed many of the imperial responsibilities and duties, he succeeded his father as emperor in 1493.
In 1495, he embarked in a war with France in an effort to keep France from acquiring territory in Italy. Maximilian made peace with France in 1504, and four years later, he joined Louis XII in the League of Cambrai against Venice. Chronically short of money, his involvement in the alliance forced him to borrow heavily. In 1511, he once again, however, opposed France in the Holy League along with England and Spain.
Maximilian was a patron of the arts, and among his writings are two autobiographical poems.
He married Mary, daughter of Charles the Bold, duke of Burgundy, in 1477 and immediately became embroiled in a defense of her inheritance against King Louis XI of France. Mary died in 1482, by which time Maximilian had secured many of her properties. He married the niece of Ludovico Sforza in 1493. Three years later, he arranged for his son Philip to marry Joanna the Mad, heiress to the thrones of Castile and Aragón, and the double marriage of his grandson and granddaughter to the daughter and son of King Uladislaus II of Hungary assured Hapsburg succession to the Hungarian and Bohemian thrones and ascendancy in central Europe.
Maximilian I died at Wels on 1/12/1519.
Link to Wikipedia biography