The last decade of emperor Maximilian’s reign was overshadowed by all three challenges to the emerging Habsburg empire gaining strength. The Ottoman empire was piling on resources by taking over Syria, Lebanon and Egypt. A vigorous new king of France, Francois I was turning the tide in the incessant Italian wars into his favor. And finally the greatest of threats to the dynasty emerged as the Prince Electors were contemplating to raise that self-same Francois I to the imperial title.

In this episode we will look at how the prematurely aged and exhausted emperor tried to shield his grandsons Charles and Ferdinand from the ton of bricks that was coming down on them. And we will look at his last days and legacy. Clocking in at 18 episodes, Maximilian did achieve one of his objectives in life, outpacing the great emperor Frederick Barbarossa. Let’s find out whether he did this only in terms of number of HotGPod episodes, or in other ways too.

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.

As always:

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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