Empire in the sovereign's name.
3rd. A proposal was laid down for yearly meetings of the Estates, with
the object of controlling the Imperial expenditure. To this assembly
the treasurer was to deliver the money which he received from the
taxes, and it was to hold the exclusive power of deciding the
expenditure; while neither the Emperor nor his son might declare war
without its consent.
"The constitution thus proposed was a mixture of Monarchical and
federal Government, but with an obvious preponderance of the latter
element; a political union, preserving the forms of the ancient
hierarchy of the Empire." But the defective nature of the Diet's
composition, and the virtual impossibility of securing a united effort
for any length of time, prevented the accomplishment of this scheme.
4th. In return for these concessions on the part of Maximilian, the
Diet instituted "The Common Penny" (Der Gemeine Pfennig). This was an
attempt at systematic taxation, according to which an impost of half a
gulden was levied on every 500 gulden, and among {127} the poorer
classes every twenty-four people above the age of fifteen contributed
one gulden.
The Common Penny was imperfectly organized and soon became merely
nominal, as the needy Maximilian often found to his cost; and though it
was revived under Charles V., it soon disappeared again after a brief
and fitful existence.
The only actions of the Diet of Lindau (1496), the next in succession
to that of Worms, were to renew the Common Penny, to transfer the
Imperial Chamber from Frankfurt to Worms, and to impose a tax upon the
Jews of the chief Imperial towns.
Though Maximilian had at Worms evaded the demand for a Reichs-regiment,
or Council of Regency, as too serious a limitation to his prerogative,
yet at the Diet of Augsburg (1500) he was obliged to give way even at
this point. The Diet gave its sanction to a scheme of military
organization, according to which every 400 inhabitants were to provide
one foot soldier, the cavalry was to be raised by the Princes and
nobles upon a fixed scale, and a tax was imposed on those who could not
themselves take any active share. In return for this concession,
Maximilian consented to the establishment of a Council of Regency,
which, had it preserved the powers which were at first granted to it,
would have deprived the Emperor of whatever power he still possessed.
It was composed of a President, chosen by the Emperor, one delegate
from each of the Electors, six from the Princes conjointly, two from
Austria and the Netherlands, and two from the Imperial cities. Its
powers were most comprehensive, and included the administration of
justice, the maintenance of peace, the defence of the Empire from
attack, and, most astounding of all, the control of foreign affairs.
It is conceivable that Maximilian might have submitted to the Council's
authority, had it displayed becoming moderation. But its first
act--the conclusion of peace with France--was so directly contrary to
the whole trend of Maximilian's policy, that he was naturally driven
into active opposition to its powers. "In 1502 he fell back upon his
Imperial right of holding Courts of Justice (Hofgerichte), and erected
a standing court or Aulic Council (Hofrath), entirely under his own
control." He himself was its president, and its assessors were
arbitrarily appointed. This action led to a congress of Electors at
Gelnhausen in June 1502, at which they arranged to meet four times a
year to deliberate on public affairs, and actually announced the first
meeting for the following November, without consulting the Emperor in
any way upon the matter. Maximilian was too weak to oppose them, and
therefore proclaimed the assembly himself. But the successful issue of
the War of Landshut and the death of {128} Berthold of Mainz greatly
strengthened Maximilian's position in the Empire, and proportionately
weakened the cause of Reform. Hence the Council of Regency was allowed
to die a natural death.
At the Diet of Constance (1507) some progress was again made. In
return for a grant of troops and money, Maximilian re-established the
Imperial Chamber, which had held no sittings for three years, and a
small tax was instituted to pay the salaries of its officials. The
Diets of Worms (1509) and Augsburg (1510) were occupied by complaints
and abuse, which were wholly without effect. In 1512, however, the
Diet of Koln, to which city it had removed from Trier, secured the
division of the Empire into six Kreise, or Circles, for administrative
and military purposes. The Circles were to be placed under Captains,
who were all controlled by a Captain-general, and the organization was
to be entrusted to a council of eight, "who were to act as a Privy
Council under the Emperor's control." But the jealousy of the Diet
refused him the nomination of these Captains, and of the council, with
the result that the measure fell through for the time, and did not take
effect till 1521, under Charles V.
This was the last serious attempt at Reform during the reign of
Maximilian; for the later Diets were mere scenes of confusion and of
mutual recrimination. The failure of the reforming movement only
served to emphasize the fact that the constitution of the Empire had
become an unworkable machine, and that the Empire itself could only be
saved from weakness and disorganization by the rise of a strong central
monarchy. But this was not to be. Such a contingency, which
Maximilian's vast dreams of Austrian world-power had seemed to
foreshadow, was rendered impossible by the great spiritual revolution,
which filled all minds throughout the reign of Charles V. Several
centuries were required to permit the growth of a strong German state
out of the chaos of the mediaeval Empire; and it was reserved for the
nineteenth century to see a native dynasty restore to Germany the
long-lost blessings of consolidation and unity.
[Illustration: The Imperial House of Hapsburg]
{133}
INDEX
The names of battles have their dates in brackets
Tr.=Treaty
Aachen, 18
Adelsberg, 56.
Agnadello (1509), 59.
Albert Achilles, 17
Albert IV., of Bavaria, 31, 32, 51
Albert VI., of Austria, 6
Albert, El. of Mainz, 79
Albert of Saxony, 22
Aldus Manutius, 103
Alexander VI., 36
Amboise Cardinal d', 49, 57
Anne of Brittany, 23-5, 44
Apulian Ports, 38, 59
Arras, Tr. of (1482), 16
_Ars Versificandi_, 101
Ausburg, Diet of (1500), 48; (1510) 61; (1518) 74
---- Humanists of, 87
Aulic Council, 127
Austria, 6, 17, 27, 29, 98
_Austria_, 105
Balbus, Hieronymus, 100
Basel, Tr. of (1499), 47
Bavarian War of Succession, 51-3
Beck, Leonhard, 91, 95
Berthold, El. of Mainz, 17, 19, 33, 39-40, 49, 53
Bianca Maria Sforza, 34, 35, 42
Blois, Tr. of (1504), 50
Brant, Sebastian, 84-87
Brittany, 23-5
Bruges, 21, 76, 86
Brussels, Tr. of (1516), 72
Burgau, 27
Burgkmair, Hans, 92
Burgundy, Loss of, 12
Burgundian Marriage, 10-13
Cajetan, Cardinal, 75
Cambrai, League of (1508), 57
Celtes, 82, 100-4
Charles, Archduke, 54, 57, 65, 67, 68, 72, 75, 76
Charles the Bold, 10
Charles of Egmont, 46, 48, 57
Charles VIII., 22, 23, 36, 42; death, 44
Chièvres, 54, 68
Coblenz, Diet of (1492), 32
Cochläus, 92
Colins, Alexander, 113
Collegium Poetarum, 102
Comines, 15, 38
Common Penny, 46
Constance, Diet of (1507), 54
Cunigunda, Sister of Max., 31
Cuspinian, 99-101, 104, 105
Deventer, School of, 81
Dijon, 65
Dornach (1499), 46
Dournon (1493), 25
Dürer, Albrecht, 94-7
Eberhard of Würtemberg, 19, 40, 79
Eck, Johann, 93
_Ehrenpforte_, 94
Eleanor of Portugal, 6
Engelbrecht, Bishop, 7
Eric of Brunswick, 52
Esslingen, 19
Ferdinand V., 23, 25, 37, 38, 49, 50, 53 _sqq._, 67, 117; death, 72
Fornovo (1495), 38
Francis I., 50, 68-9, 72
Frankfurt, Tr. of (1489), 22
Frederick III., 6, 11, 17, 21, 27 _sqq._; death, 33; policy, 9
Frederick, El. of Saxony, 75, 79
Freydal's _Mummereien_, 91
Fuchsmagen, 100
Fugger, 42
Fürstenberg, C. of, 46
Gaston de Foix, 63
_Gebetbuch_, 97
_Gejaidbuch_, 109
George the Rich, D. of Landshut, 27, 51
_Germania_, 82
Gian Galeazzo, II., 34
Görz, 28, 53, 56
Gossembrot, Sigismund, 87
Grandson (1476), 10
"Great Privilege" of Ghent, 12
Greifenklau, El. of Trier, 75
_Grievances, the Hundred_, 84
Guinegate (1478), 9, 15; (1513), 65
Henry VII., 23
Henry VIII., 61, 64 _sqq._, 70
Hofheimer, Paul, 106
Holbein, Hans, 90
Holy League (1495), 38; (1511) 63
Humanists, in Strasburg, 81-7; in Augsburg, 87-90; in Nuremberg,
91-7; in Vienna, 98-105
Hutten, Ulrich von, 79
Innocent VIII., 24
Innsbruck, 27, 71, 75
---- tomb of Max. at, 91, 113
Isaak, Heinrich, 105
Isabella the Catholic, 50
Istria, 56
Joanna of Spain, 41
Julius II., 55, 58 _sq._, 62, 64
Köln, 11, 21; Diet of (1505), 52
Krachenberger, 100
Kufstein, 52
Kunz von der Rosen, 20
Landshut, 51
Lang, Matthew, Bp. of Gurk, 3, 57, 63
La Trémouille, 66
Leo X., 64, 68
Lille, Tr. of (1513), 66
Lindau, Diet of (1496), 41, 127
Linz, 33, 42
Livorno, 43
Louis XI., intrigues of, 12-16
Louis XII., 44, 47 _sqq._, 54, 57, 58, 61, 65, 117; death, 68
Louis (II.) of Hungary, 69
Lower Union, 32
Löwlerbund, 31
Ludovico Sforza, 34, 36, 38, 41, 48
Machiavelli, 116
Mantua, Congress of (1511), 62
Margaret of Austria, 16, 24, 25, 40-1, 54, 57, 63, 64, 67
Marignano (1515), 69
Mary of Burgundy, 11, 13-15
Mary of England, 57, 65, 67-8
Massimiliano Sforza, 64
Matthias of Hungary, 7, 17; death, 28
Maximilian I.,--character, 1-4, 121-4; as idealist, 2;
as soldier, 73-4; as sportsman, 109-11; dream of Papacy, 62;
administration, 115-21; portraits, 97; nicknames, 35, 62, 71.
---- Contemporary descriptions of, 10, 11, 34, 116 and note, 117
---- and the German Renaissance, 77-114
Meisterlin, 92
Milan, 37, 45, 48, 50, 57, 69, 70
Moral (1476), 10
Münster, 42
Nancy (1477), 10
Naples, Conquest of, 50
_Narrenschiff_, 84
Neustadt, 6, 7, 76
Novara, 40; (1513) 65
Noyon, Tr. of (1516) 72
Nuremberg, Chronicle, 92, 104; Diet of (1487), 101; Humanists of, 91-7
Orléans, Tr. of (1514), 68
Osiander, 92
Pace, Richard, 70-1
Padua, 60
Papacy, Max. aspires to, 62
Perger, 99
Perpetual Peace (1516), 72
Peutinger, Conrad, 88-90
Pfinzing, Melchior, 109
Philip, Archduke, 14, 16, 21, 40, 45, 49, 53
Pirkheimer, Wilibald, 92-4
Pius II. (Aeneas Sylvius), 10, 77
Prättigau, 47
Pressburg, Tr. of (1491), 31
Quirini, 34, 117
Ravenna (1512), 64
Regensburg, 18, 32; (1504) 52
Reichsregiment, 48, 59, 125
Renaissance, German, Maximilian's connexion with, 77-114
---- German and Italian, contrasted, 79-80
Rupert of Palatinate, 51
Sachs, Hans, 92
Schwaderloch (1499), 46
Senlis, Peace of (1493), 33
Sigismund, Emperor, 77, 130
Spanish Marriages, 40-1
Spaur, Carl von, 109
Stabius, 102, 104
Strasburg, Humanists of, 81-7
Stuhlweissenburg, 29
Swabian League, 19, 32, 51, 56
Swiss, 40, 41, 45
Swiss War, 45-7
_Teuerdank_, 108
Thérouenne, 65
Ticiano, Ludovico, 116
Tournai, 65
Trautson, 56
Treitzsauerwein, Marx, 107
Trent, 55, 56
Trier, Diet of (1512), 64
_Triumphzug_, 95
Trivulzio, 62
Turks, 33, 35
Tyrol, 27, 43, 60
Uladislas IV., 17, 29-31, 69
Ulrich of Würtemberg, 40, 65
Venice, 37, 38, 41, 43, 47, 55-64, 68, 71-3
Verona, 58, 60, 70, 72
Vicariates, the Four, 73
Vienna, Tr. of (1515), 69
---- University, 29, 98-105
_Wappenbuch_, 109
_Weisskunig_, 7, 107-8
Wels, 76
Werdenberg, Hugo von, 14, 130
Wimpheling, Jacob, 81-4
Worms, 8; Diet of (1495), 39-40, 125; (1509) 59
Würtemburg, 19, 40, 51
Zillerthal, 53
Butler & Tanner, The Selwood Printing Works, Frome, and London.