Maximilian I (aug 20, 1493 – jan 12, 1519)

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son of Frederick III and Eleanor of Portugal. His accession marked the beginning of the rise of the Habsburgs as a great power in Europe. He united the Habsburg patrimonial lands and was of all rulers the one who had the most formative influence upon the continent at the close of the Middle Ages. Maximilian expanded the influence of the House of Habsburg through war and his marriage in 1477 to Mary of Burgundy, the heiress to the Duchy of Burgundy, though he also lost the Austrian territories in today's Switzerland to the Swiss Confederacy. Through marriage of his son Philip the Fair to eventual queen Joanna of Castile in 1498, Maximilian helped to establish the Habsburg dynasty in Spain, which allowed his grandson Charles to hold the thrones of both Castile and Aragon.
Maximilian died in 1519 and was succeeded as Emperor by his grandson Charles V, his son Philip the Handsome having died in 1506. He had appointed his daughter Margaret as both Regent of the Netherlands and the guardian and educator of his grandsons Charles and Ferdinand, and she fulfilled this task well.

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