Maximilian I

Maximilian I

(1459/1493-1519) was the initiator of the famous Habsburg marriage policy: "Other lands may wage war, but thou, oh happy Austria, marry".

Maximilian, known as 'the last knight', married Mary of Burgundy in 1477, heiress to the rich duchy of Burgundy to which the Netherlands also belonged. His son Philip the Fair married Joan the Mad, heiress to Castile and Aragon, as a result of which Spain together with its rich colonies in South America now belonged to the Habsburg empire. His grandson Ferdinand then married Anne, heiress to the kingdom of Bohemia and Hungary. Thus within the space of only three generations the global empire of the Habsburgs "on which the sun never sets" had been created by a shrewd policy of marriage alliances.