Maximilian had many excellent personal qualities. Simple in his habits, conciliatory in his bearing, and catholic in his tastes, he enjoyed great popularity and rarely made a personal enemy. He was a skilled knight and a daring huntsman, and although not a great general, was intrepid on the field of battle. He reorganized the University of Vienna and encouraged the development of the universities of Ingolstadt and Freiburg. He was the author of military reforms, which included the establishment of standing troops, called Landsknechte. He was continually devising plans for the better government of Austria, and although they ended in failure, he established the unity of the Austrian dominions. Maximilian has been called the second founder of the house of Habsburg, and certainly by bringing about marriages between Charles and Joanna and between his grandson Ferdinand and Anna, daughter of Ladislaus, king of Hungary and Bohemia, he paved the way for the vast empire of Charles V. and for the influ ence of the Habsburgs in eastern Europe.
But Maximilian was at once reckless and unstable. For absurd and impracticable schemes in Italy and in other places, he at times neglected even Germany, and sought to involve its princes in wars undertaken solely for private aggrandizement or personal jealousy. Ignoring his responsibilities as ruler of Germany, he only considered the question of its government when in need of money and support from the princes. As the "last of the knights" he could not see that the old order of society was passing away and a new order arising, while he was fascinated by the glitter of the mediaeval empire and spent the better part of his life in vague schemes for its revival. As "a gifted amateur in politics" he in creased the disorder of Germany and Italy and exposed himself and the empire to the jeers of Europe.
Maximilian was also a writer of books, and his writings display his inordinate vanity. His Geheimes Jagdbuch, containing about 2,500 words, is a treatise purporting to teach his grandsons the art of hunting. He inspired the production of The Dangers and Adven tures of the Famous Hero and Knight Sir Teuerdank, an allegorical poem describing his adventures on his journey to marry Mary of Burgundy. It was first published at Nuremberg by Melchior Pfintzing in 1517, and was adorned with woodcuts by Hans Leonhard Schaufe lein. The Weisskunig was long regarded as the work of the emperor's
secretary, Marx Treitzsaurwein, but it is now believed that the greater part of the book at least is the work of the emperor himself. It is an unfinished autobiography containing an account of the achievements of Maximilian, who is called "the young white king." It was first published at Vienna in 1775. He also is responsible for Freydal, an allegorical account of the tournaments in which he took part during his wooing of Mary of Burgundy ; Ehrenpforten, Triumphwagen and Der weisen Konige Stammbaum, books concerning his own history and that of the house of Habsburg, and works on various subjects, as Das Stahlbuch, Die Baumeisterei and Die Gartnerei. These works are all profusely illustrated, some by Albrecht Duren A facsimile of the original editions of Maximilian's autobiographical and semi-autobiographical works has been published in nine volumes in the Jahrbiicher der kunsthistorischen Sammlungen des Kaiserhauses (Vienna, 188o-88). For this edition S. Laschitzer wrote an introduc tion to Sir Teuerdank, Q. von Leitner to Freydal, and N. A. von Schultz to Der Weisskunig. The Holbein society issued a facsimile of Sir Teuerdank (London, 2884) and Triumphwagen (1883).
See Correspondance de l'empereur Maximilien I. et de Marguerite d'Autriche, 1507-1519, ed. A. G. le Glay (1839) ; Maximilians I. vertraulicher Briefwechsel mit Sigmund Priischenk, ed. V. von Kraus (Innsbruck, 1875) ; J. Chmel, Urkunden, Briefe und Aktensticke zur Geschichte Maximilians I. and seiner Zeit. (Stuttgart, 1845) and AktenstUcke und Briefe zur Geschichte des Hauses Habsburg im Zeitalter Maximilians I. (Vienna, 1854-58) ; K. Kliipfel, Kaiser Maxi milian I. (1864) ; H. Ulmann, Kaiser Maximilian I. (Stuttgart, 1884) ; L. P. Gachard, Lettres inedites de Maximilien I. sur les affaires des Pays Bas (Brussels, 1851-52) ; L. von Ranke, Geschichte der roman ischen und germanischen Volker, 1494-1514 (Leipzig, 1874) ; R. W. S. Watson, Maximilian I. (1902) ; A. Jager, Ober Kaiser Maximilians I. Verhiiltnis zum Papstthum (Vienna, 1854) ; H. Ulmann, Kaiser Maxi milians I. Absichten auf das Papstthum (Stuttgart, 1888), and A. Schulte, Kaiser Maximilian I. als Kandidat fur den papstlichen Stuhl (Leipzig, 1906) ; C. Hare, Maximilian the Dreamer (1913).