Friedrich III. (HRR)

Portrait of Emperor Friedrich III.
(attributed to Hans Burgkmair the Elder , Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna)

Friedrich's monogram

Friedrich III. (* September 21, 1415 in Innsbruck ; † August 19, 1493 in Linz ) from the House of Habsburg was as Friedrich V from 1424 Duke of Styria , of Carinthia and Carniola , from 1439 Duke of Austria , as Friedrich III. from 1440 Roman-German King and from 1452 until his death Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire . He was the penultimate Roman-German emperor, that of the Popewas crowned, and the last to be crowned in Rome .

Friedrich's reign was the longest of all Roman-German rulers. Under him the center of power shifted from Bohemia to the inner Austrian hereditary lands (Styria, Carinthia, Carniola) on the south-eastern periphery of the empire. Friedrich ruled largely remote from the empire and was bound by internal dynastic disputes in his hereditary lands. Of the 53 years of rule, Friedrich stayed outside of his hereditary lands for only nine years. During a period of 27 years (1444–1471) he did not leave his hereditary lands at all, apart from two trips to Italy in 1452 and 1468/69.

From the 1470s he turned increasingly to the empire in the west. The new activity of the emperor in the empire was accompanied by a profound structural and constitutional change, which late medieval research describes as the “condensation” of the empire. With Hungary's entitlement in 1459/63 and in particular the acquisition of Burgundy and securing the successor for his son Maximilian I , Friedrich laid the foundation for the great dynastic rise of the Habsburgs. By inheriting the Albertines in 1457/63 and the Tyrolean line in 1490, he succeeded in reunifying the countries of the House of Austria, which had been divided since 1379.

In older research, the empire was described as internally torn apart by Frederick's inactivity and absence and powerless on the outside. Friedrich was known as "the Holy Roman Empire's ore sleeping cap", but also due to a highly incomplete source of sources: only about 8,000 of the estimated 30,000 to 50,000 documents he left behind during his long reign were known. The previously unknown documents have been used since 1982 by the “German Commission for the Processing of the Regesta Imperii e. V. "published. Through them a revision of the very negative assessment of Frederick III began in research. and his government.

Life

origin

Friedrich came from the Habsburg family . Due to the Neuberg division of 1379 between Albrecht III. and Leopold III. the entire Habsburg lands were separated. Friedrich belonged to the main line of the Habsburg Leopoldines in the inner Austrian duchies. He was the eldest son from the second marriage of Duke Ernst and Cimburgis of Mazovia . Of their nine children, in addition to Friedrich, only Albrecht VI. , Margarete and Katharina the marriageable age. Duke Ernst died when Friedrich was nine years old. Friedrich spent the following years with his mother in Graz or Wiener Neustadt . In 1424, their uncle, Duke Friedrich IV of Tyrol , became guardian of Friedrich and his brother Albrecht . During the guardianship, Friedrich received a very good education, but hardly any details have survived. Friedrich's mother died in 1429.

Family conflicts

AEIOU , symbol of Emperor Frederick III. at the Graz Castle

In 1431 Friedrich was declared of age, but the guardianship was extended by three years. In 1435 he entered the independent government as Duke of Inner Austria through an arbitration award by Duke Albrecht V (later the Roman-German King Albrecht II ) . Now it came to a dispute with his brother over the division of the financial means and over the rule. An arbitration award based on Rudolf IV's house contract of 1364 certified Albrecht's co-government in 1436, but at the same time gave priority to his older brother Friedrich. The equalization remained unsatisfactory as the distribution of the income remained open. In this situation, Duke Friedrich made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land from Trieste on August 9, 1436 as an act of Christian piety. On this trip, from which he returned in December 1436, he was able to gather a large number of nobles. Around 50 aristocratic companions were made knights of the Holy Sepulcher .

During his ducal days he had the vowel symbol " aeiou " attached to mark his possessions in 1437 . In his notebook he collected various possibilities for its resolution. The variant “All earth is subject to Austria” did not appear until the 17th century. In older research, the vowel motto was considered to be "a letter-magic or number-mystical gimmick" with no political significance. In recent research it is interpreted as Friedrich's motto of rule.

After the death of Duke Friedrich IV on June 24, 1439, the guardianship of Sigmund , the twelve-year-old son of the deceased, had to be regulated in Tyrol and the foothills . In Tyrol she was Friedrich by his brother Albrecht VI. disputed, but Albrecht had to give up his claim as a result of the decision of the Tyrolean estates of July 28, 1439. As a guardian, Friedrich was able to influence Tyrol and the Habsburg foothills. He was also able to assert himself against his brother Albrecht in the guardianship of Ladislaus Postumus , the son of his royal predecessor Albrecht II. The Roman-German King Albrecht II did not leave a male successor in his lifetime, but when he died his wife Elisabeth was pregnant; four months after his death she gave birth to Ladislaus. Shortly before his death, Albrecht had decreed that if the expected child were male, the mother and the eldest from the House of Austria should be the guardian. With the death of Duke Friedrich IV. In 1439 Friedrich III. at the age of twenty-four he assumed the role of Senior of the House of Austria. On this basis, the nobility decided in favor of Friedrich as guardian, but they had to give the estates a say. The guardianship was to put a decisive burden on the imperial rule in the following years. Friedrich was repeatedly accused of wanting to seize the inheritance of his ward. He was first confronted with this accusation in March 1444 at a state parliament.

King's election in 1440

Statue of Friedrich III. in the Innsbruck court church

As a cousin, Friedrich was the closest male relative of King Albrecht. On February 2, 1440, the electors unanimously elected him Roman-German king in Frankfurt am Main . It is uncertain whether dynastic reasons were decisive or whether there was no alternative. As the new ruler, Friedrich only ruled Styria, Carinthia and Carniola.

Path to the Imperial Coronation (1440–1452)

An important task for the new head of the empire was to cope with the reform of the empire , that is, to remedy serious deficiencies in the judicial, military and financial constitution through a redistribution of power between the king and the imperial estates . In addition to the imperial reform, the defense against the Turks - the Ottoman Empire conquered large parts of the Balkans and threatened Constantinople - and the elimination of the schism were other challenges. However, Friedrich first had to consolidate his regiment in the hereditary lands. Therefore, he was only able to complete his coronation in Aachen two years later.

Dispute over the succession in the Kingdom of Hungary and in Bohemia

In Hungary, the nobility offered the Polish king Władysław III. the crown, as one promised more effective measures in the Turkish defense. The queen widow Elisabeth tried to secure the succession of her son in Austria, in Bohemia and especially in Hungary. As a result, Friedrich threatened to be drawn into the turmoil in Hungary and Bohemia. The child, born on February 22nd, 1440, was baptized in the Hungarian national saint Ladislaus. Elisabeth left the executive to Vienna funeral Albrechts to Hungary and redirect her husband in Szekesfehervar midst of his Hungarian predecessors since Stephen I bury. She also succeeded in stealing the most important symbol of power in the country with the St. Stephen's Crown and in May 1440 crowned her son Ladislaus as King of Hungary in Stuhlweissenburg. When Friedrich did not take sides for his ward in Hungary, Elisabeth wanted to transfer the guardianship government to Friedrich's brother Albrecht. As a result, the dispute between the two brothers over guardianship flared up again. Pressed by Władysław's successes against the Hungarians, Elisabeth came closer to Friedrich again. In negotiations on August 23, 1440, an agreement was reached that included the Habsburgs. The guardianship of Ladislaus remained with Friedrich, Albrecht was guaranteed 10,000 ducats and handed over to five cities ( Bleiburg , Windischgratz , Fürstenfeld , Völkermarkt and Judenburg ). But it was not until Władysław had died on a campaign against the Turks in the Battle of Varna that Ladislaus was formally recognized as the Hungarian king on May 7, 1445 at a diet in Pest . The actual government, however, remained with the imperial administrator Johann Hunyadi, who was elected by the Hungarian estates on June 6, 1446 . For the coronation, Ladislaus should come to Hungary personally. However, Friedrich refused to extradite Ladislaus. Hunyadi then invaded Austria, but, due to the costly battles against the Turks in the battle of the Amselfeld on October 18, 1448, he was forced to settle with the Habsburgs. The Treaty of Pressburg , concluded on October 22, 1450, stipulated that Ladislaus should remain with Friedrich until he was 18 and that Hunyadi should rule for him in Hungary until then.

In Bohemia, too, Ladislaus was not immediately recognized as king. After a few years of anarchy, the Moravian nobleman George of Podebrady managed to take the capital Prague in 1448. Friedrich maintained good relations with Georg. In 1451 Friedrich gave him imperial administration . Podiebrad decided not to transfer the heir to the throne to Bohemia.

The problems in the leadership of Frederick's guardianship were not limited to Bohemia and Hungary. In Albertine Austria, the former mercenary leader Albrechts II demanded their outstanding pay to finance the Turkish campaign. They began to plunder the country, against which the nobles in Austria demanded measures. Friedrich, however, was of the opinion that paying the debts was the task of the estates in Bohemia, Hungary and Albertine Austria. At a state parliament in the Augustinian Church in Vienna in June / July 1441, Friedrich faced the demands. There the conflicts escalated over economically relevant questions of imperial politics. The focus was on royal Jewish policy, as Friedrich, unlike other princes, insisted on legal security for the Jews. Since 1420/21 at the latest, when the communities of Lower Austria, especially Vienna, were almost wiped out in one of the bloodiest persecutions and expulsions, the so-called “ Wiener Gesera ”, the Jews were suspected and persecuted as usurers and soon as spies of the Turks. Frederick was therefore greeted with insults such as "Crucify him, the King of the Jews". Nevertheless, an agreement was reached in the state parliament. Friedrich promised to meet the outstanding demands.

Coronation trip to Aachen 1442

In spring 1442 Friedrich left the Habsburg hereditary lands for the first time since his election and traveled to Aachen. The coronation journey took him from Graz via Innsbruck , Augsburg , Nuremberg and Mainz . On June 17, 1442, around two and a half years after his election, he was crowned king in Aachen. On the return journey the problems of Reich policy were to be discussed in Frankfurt. On August 14, 1442, at the Reichstag in Frankfurt, Friedrich issued a peace treaty , which contemporaries called Reformatio Friderici . The Reformatio Friderici , however, was not a reform of the imperial constitution, as the name suggests, rather it concerns provisions to combat feuds .

Armagnakenzug and fight with the Confederates

Friedrich III. arrives in Zurich on September 19, 1442. Tschachtlan, Bern Chronicle , 1470, Zurich, Central Library, HS. A 120, p. 729.

Friedrich tried to regain the Habsburg territories that had been lost to the Confederates by supporting their opponents there. In 1415 the Habsburgs and Aargau had lost their center of power and with it the traditional places such as the Habsburg or the monasteries of Muri and Königsfelden to the Confederates. In the Old Zurich War , which broke out in 1439 , the city of Zurich fought against the rest of the Confederation, and Friedrich saw this as an opportunity to intervene. He concluded an alliance with Zurich on June 17, 1442. However, since he held on to the guardianship of the young Duke Sigmund, which should have ended on July 25, 1443, many influential nobles threatened to side with the Confederates. This prevented Friedrich in his struggle. Although he was able to persuade Sigmund to continue to renounce his rule in Tyrol, Friedrich had to release him from guardianship in the spring of 1446 after all attempts had failed to persuade him to renounce the rule. However, Sigmund only received Tyrol and the Austrian parts of Vorarlberg . Friedrich's brother Albrecht was awarded the rest of the foreland with the Upper Rhine and Alsatian possessions for the lost power in Inner Austria.

In May 1443 war broke out again between the Swiss and Zurich after an armistice. In order to curb the success of the confederates, French mercenary troops, the Armagnaks , were to be brought to the Upper Rhine in August 1443 at Frederick's request to King Charles VII of France . A first request for help failed, but a few months later it was repeated by the nobility of the Habsburg foothills, and this time it was successful with the French king. In August 1444 the Armagnaks slaughtered 1,300 Swiss Confederates in the battle of St. Jakob an der Birs . The French mercenaries devastated the Sundgau . As head of the empire, Friedrich had summoned the Armagnaks to the Reich, but left the defense of the marauding mercenaries to his regional officials, especially Margrave Wilhelm von Hachberg . The empire and its members proved too sluggish to respond to this military challenge. It was not until 1444/45 that the dreaded Armagnaks withdrew from the region. Friedrich was held responsible for the fatal consequences of the Armagnac campaign by his contemporaries. In 1450 the Swiss made peace with Austria and Zurich. Friedrich won back the cities of Rapperswil , Winterthur , Diessenhofen and Rheinfelden . However, Aargau was lost forever, and with the exception of Rheinfeld, the cities mentioned were recaptured by the Confederates in the 1460s.

Anti-conciliarist church policy, Vienna Concordat

In 1378, after a controversial papal election, a schism that had lasted for decades broke out. From then on there were rival popes who fought over decision-making power in the church. In the Great Occidental Schism , which lasted until 1417, and also at the great councils in Constance (1414–1418) and Basel (1431–1449), the sole power of the Pope was questioned. According to the theory of conciliarism , a general church assembly was superordinate to the Pope. The Council of Basle even sat on June 15, 1439 Pope Eugenius IV. As heretics and elected Amadeus of Savoy as the new pope, which Felix V. called. But Eugen insisted on his claim to the papacy.

On March 17, 1438, the electors declared themselves neutral in the dispute between the Curia and the Pope. King Albrecht II continued the course of neutrality, and Friedrich initially stuck to it. His trip to the council in Basel in 1442 was unsuccessful. Negotiations to resolve the schism at a Reichstag in Nuremberg in 1444 that Friedrich visited also failed. Finally, the king gave up neutrality in 1445 and approached Eugene IV. For his willingness to recognize the Pope, Friedrich called for an improvement in the organization of the church and the establishment of the diocese of Vienna and other dioceses in the east of his domain. However, Eugene was unable to comply with Friedrich's wishes for the establishment of new dioceses, as this would have challenged the resistance of the Salzburg and Passau church princes. The Pope then promised Friedrich only the coronation as emperor.

The Electors did not like the rapprochement between Frederick and the Pope. On January 24, 1446, he had the archbishops of Trier and Cologne deposed, but he only strengthened the opposition. The other electors showed their solidarity with their deposed colleagues and formed the Kurverein on March 21, 1446. After numerous negotiations, the Pope declared himself ready to lift the deposition of the two archbishops and to comply with most of the council's decrees. In this conflict, Friedrich held back as head of the Reich to a large extent. In February 1447 most of the princes recognized Eugene IV in the so-called Prince Concordat. On February 17, 1448, Frederick concluded the Vienna Concordat with Eugen's successor Nicholas V , which was to apply to relations between the Roman Curia and the Empire until the end of 1806. The Concordat regulated the relationship between the Reich Church and the Holy See . It awarded the Pope income in the empire that was considerably more extensive than in France, as well as opportunities to intervene in church offices and benefices. This was intended to meet the needs of the papal court and reduce the bureaucracy's increasing financial needs. The Basel Council, on the other hand, became increasingly less important. In 1449 it withdrew to Lausanne , on April 25, 1449 it dissolved.

The alliance with the papacy brought Frederick important advantages. When occupying the dioceses directly under the empire , the Pope took the emperor's interests into account. He appointed supporters of the emperor without regard to the cathedral chapter and refused papal confirmation to candidates who were not acceptable to Friedrich.

Absence from the interior empire, relocation of the main focus of power to Austria

Friedrich covered a distance of at least 33,826 kilometers during his entire reign. His itinerary is characterized by intensive phases of movement through to absolute immobility over many years. From 1444 to 1471 Frederick no longer appeared in the interior (the empire outside of his hereditary lands). He left his hereditary lands only for the imperial coronation in 1452. In the context of his rule policy, the commission system acquired special importance. Friedrich, who ruled from afar, asserted his claim to rule by relying on mandates and rescripts as well as commissioners who performed a wide variety of functions as his deputies.

Frederick no longer continued the policy which gave priority to Bohemia and which had been characteristic of the Luxembourgers . He stayed in Bohemia only once during his entire reign. Since 1440 the focus shifted from Bohemia as the central landscape of the empire to Austria. In older research it was said that Friedrich renounced Hungary and Bohemia against his will. However, the political focus of the empire had shifted. By the Hussite Wars , Bohemia was shattered and no longer suitable as the central landscape of the empire. In the west, the Duke of Burgundy and Regent of Flanders, Phillip the Good , claimed the Duchy of Luxembourg. Philip tried to evade the fact that Burgundy belonged to France and instead wanted to integrate his sphere of influence into the empire. In 1447 Philipp von Friedrich was enfeoffed with the duchies of Lorraine, Brabant, Limburg, the counties of Holland, Zealand, the rule of Friesland, the county of Hainaut as well as Burgundy and Flanders. Accordingly, Philip was no longer a feudal man of the French king, but an imperial prince.

Friedrich expanded his residence in Wiener Neustadt , which had around 7,000 to 8,000 inhabitants, from 1440 onwards, which illustrates the renunciation of the previous center of Prague. With the expansion of the residence, the fame of the House of Austria should be manifested. In 1444 he founded Neukloster in Wiener Neustadt. In 1484/85 the canonization of the Babenberger Leopold III, who was buried in the Augustinian Canons of Klosterneuburg, followed . In this way, Frederick brought to an end the approximately one-hundred-year efforts to help Habsburg and Austria achieve a family and state saint.

From the summer of 1452 the emperor stayed in Wiener Neustadt for years, with the exception of short trips to Graz. According to an older research opinion, he only felt safe in his favorite residence. Heinrich Koller believes, however, that caring for his wife was decisive for his long absence. The birth of a successor was a concern for him that had priority over all other goals. In older research literature, late medieval rulers are often assumed to be weak. But although Frederick only ruled from the periphery of the empire for decades, his kingship remained safe. All plans to disempower him failed.

Imperial coronation and marriage

Enea Silvio Piccolomini, who later became Pope Pius II , represents Friedrich III. his bride Eleonora of Portugal, detail from a fresco by Pinturicchio (1454–1513)

Empress Eleonore with her daughters, German Prayer Book of Frederick III, Vienna, 1466/67, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Cgm 67 and 68, folio 2r.

Before Friedrich's procession to Rome for the coronation of the emperor, there had been a dispute between the emperor and Ulrich von Eyczing in 1451 . When buying Forchtenstein Castle , Ulrich felt that he was a prospective buyer that Friedrich and his brother Albrecht had betrayed. Ulrich took advantage of the dissatisfaction of the Austrian nobility with the leadership of Friedrich's reign. Presumably he wanted to achieve a position as governor in the country for himself . In autumn 1451 Austrian nobles united under Ulrich's leadership to form the Mailberger Bund . They demanded the release of Ladislaus from guardianship and his appointment as sovereign.

Frederick stuck to his plans for the coronation of the emperor despite considerable difficulties in the heart of the country. In December 1451 he started the Rome train with his brother Albrecht, Ladislaus and a small contingent. In Italy, Friedrich was immediately confronted with problems there. After the Visconti dynasty died out, the mercenary leader Francesco Sforza was able to assert himself in Milan in 1450 . In order to achieve the legitimation of his ducal rule under imperial law, he was ready to make great concessions. However, such recognition would have led to problems for Frederick with Venice and King Alfonso V of Aragon-Sicily . The secret negotiations with Francesco Sforza about the enfeoffment dragged Friedrich's councilors out in order to enable a safe move to Rome. Ulrich Riederer played a key role in these negotiations . In the first half of the Habsburg government, he was one of the most influential advisors.

Bypassing Milan, Friedrich moved to Rome. On the trip to Italy, not only the imperial coronation, but also the marriage of the fifteen-year-old Portuguese king's daughter Eleonore was to take place. Frederick's reasons for marrying a woman from the Spanish-Portuguese area are not known, but the high reputation of the regents on the Iberian Peninsula certainly played an important role. Recent research suggests that Frederick indirectly secured the neutrality of Venice through the pact with Alphons of Aragon, which was urgently needed because the emperor's hereditary lands were surrounded by enemies in the north, west and east at that time. In any case, the marriage project had existed since around 1449.

On February 24, 1452, Eleanor met her future husband in Siena . Friedrich arrived in Rome in March. His arrival is considered to be the best-documented recovery from rulers in the entire Middle Ages. On March 16, Friedrich was the last Roman-German king to be crowned Italian king and three days later in Rome by Pope Nicholas V as emperor. For the Roman-German rulers in the 16th century, the electoral decision of the electors should lead directly to the emperor ("elected Roman emperor"). Only Charles V was crowned by the Pope in 1530, albeit in Bologna. At the same time as the imperial coronation, Eleanor's marriage was celebrated. The marriage had six children. However, only Maximilian, born in 1459, and Kunigunde, born in 1465, survived .

After his coronation as emperor, he followed up on the two Staufers Friedrich I and Friedrich II and called himself Friedrich III. With that he passed over the Habsburg counter-kingship of his ancestor Frederick the Fair in the numbering . The name Friedrich III. However, it was only used in a few, particularly solemn diplomas with the extremely rare "ruler's monogram". This reluctance may have resulted from the prophecies that circulated in the empire, especially after the death of Frederick II in 1250. According to this, a third Friedrich should take over the role of the Hohenstaufen as persecutors of the church as an end-time emperor. These end-time expectations were still high during Frederick's lifetime, as demonstrated by Pope Nicholas V's concerns about Frederick's coronation as emperor in 1452.

Crisis developments (1453-1470)

Surrender of Ladislaus and fight for his inheritance

Ladislaus Postumus in a court dress with a high collar. Anonymous. Painting around 1460. Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.

During Friedrich's absence, Ulrich von Eytzing gained further support in Upper and Lower Austria for the demand that Ladislaus be released from guardianship. For example, Count Ulrich II of Cilli , who had been governor of Bohemia since 1437, was won over as an alliance partner. But the opposition tried in vain to get the support of the Pope. On the contrary, Nicholas demanded the recognition of the newly crowned Emperor Friedrich as guardian. When this was refused, the Pope banished the emperor's enemies. After his return on June 20, 1452 in Wiener Neustadt, Friedrich had to deal with the class opposition; At the end of August 1452 Ulrich von Eytzing even attacked Wiener Neustadt with an army, but the imperial military leader Andreas Baumkircher was able to repel the attack. In the armistice of September 1, 1452, Friedrich had to hand Ladislaus over to the Count of Cilli. As a result, Friedrich was again limited to the inner Austrian hereditary lands. Presumably in response to the loss of guardianship rights, on January 6, 1453, he expanded the Austrian letters of freedom known as Privilegium Maius . He held on to his conception of monarchy. The Austrian dukes of the inner-Austrian line, i.e. those to which Frederick belonged, were elevated to archdukes and their privileges redefined. In internal dynastic conflicts, Friedrich repeatedly used the Habsburg house privileges as a political bargaining chip. Above all, the brother of the emperor, Duke Albrecht VI, improved his position vis-à-vis the Habsburg relatives Sigmund and Ladislaus through the archduke title. The issuance of the privilege coincided with a period of reconciliation between the two brothers.

The imperial guardianship government was over and the Albertine legacy was lost. However, the actual power of rule was not with Ladislaus, but with Georg Podiebrad in Bohemia and with Johann Hunyadi in Hungary. In Austria Ulrich von Eytzing and Ulrich von Cilli fought for influence with the young king. For the next few years, Friedrich largely evaded the disputes about guardianship and concentrated on the duchies of Styria, Carinthia and Carniola. Most of the time he stayed in Wiener Neustadt. On November 23, 1457, Ladislaus died completely unexpectedly. With his death, the Albertine line of the House of Habsburg ended, which by the Treaty of Neuberg signed by Albrecht III in 1379. was founded by Austria. During these years the opponents of the Habsburgs also died: Ulrich von Eytzing was captured by the Habsburgs and died in 1460, disempowered; Count Ulrich II of Cilli, whom Ladislaus had made governor of Hungary in 1456, was murdered in Belgrade that same year . With Ulrich's death, the Counts of Cilli died out.

After Ladislaus' death, the Hungarian royal dignity went to Matthias Hunyadi , who was nicknamed Corvinus as king, through the election of the estates on January 24, 1458 , but an opposition group elected Emperor Friedrich in Güssing as Hungarian king on February 17, 1459 . After long negotiations, peace was concluded with Matthias in the Ödenburg Treaty on July 19, 1463. Friedrich recognized Matthias as king in Hungary and gave him the crown of St. Stephen, but was also allowed to use the Hungarian title of king and received, which was much more important in the long term, the right to a successor if Matthias should die without an heir. The situation in Bohemia was similar to that in Hungary. The estates remembered their right to vote and elected Georg von Podiebrad as king on March 2, 1458. In this way, the estates in both Hungary and Bohemia passed over the inheritance claims of King Casimir of Poland and Duke Wilhelm of Saxony , the spouses of the two sisters of the late Ladislaus.

Friedrich's inaction in the defense against the Turks

Piccolomini as Pope Pius II (together with Emperor Friedrich III. In the Schedel'schen Weltchronik , Nuremberg 1493)

With the defeat of the Crusaders at Varna in 1444 and the conquest of Constantinople by the Ottomans on May 29, 1453, the Turkish expansion re-emerged more strongly in Western European consciousness. In order to ward off the Turkish threat, Pope Nicholas V called for a crusade on September 30, 1453 . Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini stood out particularly in the defense against the Turks . But in the empire one waited in vain for an engagement of the emperor against the Turks. The most important princes therefore did not appear at the imperial assemblies, but were represented. Due to the small number of participants, no decision was made. Many princes were more interested in the reform of the empire than in the fight against the Turks. On imperial days in May 1454 in Regensburg, in October 1454 in Frankfurt and from the end of February to the beginning of April 1455 in Wiener Neustadt, meetings took place, but Friedrich appeared neither in Regensburg nor in Frankfurt. Instead of the absent head of the empire, a kind of imperial vicar should take over his duties. All attempts to disempower the inactive emperor then failed because of the disagreement between the electors. Due to the absence of Frederick and the cumbersome structures of the empire, no decision was made to repel the Turks. According to the late medieval view, rule in the empire did not belong to the king or emperor alone, but also to the princes and estates. As an organic system, the empire consisted of the head (emperor) and his members (electors), who formed the political body. The emperor and the elector could not rule without each other. They were forced to reach consensus on all important matters. In 1456 a crusade army was only found in Hungary. However, no contingents of the imperial members belonged to it. With the victory of this army against the Turks on July 21 and 22, 1456 in the Battle of Belgrade , the immediate threat seemed to have been averted. As Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini in 1458 as Pope Pius II. Successor of Calixt III. the subject came up for discussion again. In 1460 the defense against the Turks was discussed again in Vienna. Friedrich was present as head of the empire, but the princes stayed away. The talks therefore ended without result as the cities could not raise the necessary funds.

Conflicts with the brother about the inheritance claims (1461–1463), Landfrieden (1467)

Archduke Albrecht VI. Miniature in a prayer book for Albrecht VI. (Parchment manuscript)

After Ladislaus' death, Friedrich and his brother Duke Albrecht VI. Inheritance claims to Upper and Lower Austria. A little later Sigmund renounced in favor of Albrecht, but the negotiations between the brothers Friedrich and Albrecht turned out to be more difficult. In 1458 a partition agreement could be concluded. Albrecht received Upper Austria and a compensation of 32,000 pennies, Friedrich kept Lower Austria with Vienna. But Albrecht took advantage of the disastrous sovereign financial situation of Frederick for his own purposes. Looting mercenaries, bad harvests and inflation increased the economic hardship and discontent among the population. Albrecht was therefore able to win a majority of the Austrian nobility against Friedrich and saw in this a possibility to revise the unjust division of the inheritance to his advantage.

In 1461 open war broke out between the brothers. In the autumn of 1462 there was a humiliating siege of Frederick and his family in the Viennese castle . Frederick could only be freed from the siege through the intervention of the Bohemian King George of Podebrady. In the Peace of Korneuburg on December 2, 1462, Friedrich agreed to leave the rule in Lower Austria to his brother for eight years in return for an annual contribution of 4,000 ducats , but he immediately started fighting when Albrecht was behind with his obligations. Neither side was able to assert itself militarily in the period that followed. The hostilities did not end until Albrecht's unexpected death on December 2, 1463. Albrecht left no sons entitled to inherit. Only Sigmund could raise claims to the Albertine legacy, but from 1457 he had a conflict with Nikolaus von Kues , the cardinal and bishop of Brixen . Pope Pius had therefore banned Sigmund from church and interdict . Sigmund hoped that Emperor Friedrich would mediate and declared that he would waive his inheritance claims in Upper Austria. With the exception of Tyrol and the foothills, where Sigmund ruled, Friedrich was able to take over all Habsburg possessions. He tried to strengthen his sovereignty by improving the diocese organization. In 1461 the basis for the recognition of the Diocese of Ljubljana was created, a year later Pope Pius II confirmed the diocese.

However, financial problems and open disputes persisted in the years that followed. The still disastrous finances delayed the pay payments endlessly. A large number of feuds prompted Friedrich to stay in Wiener Neustadt over the next three years. As feuds and territorial conflicts occurred more frequently, a ban on these conflicts was called for. On August 20, 1467, Friedrich issued a state peace in Wiener Neustadt with a five-year feud ban. It was decreed that everyone should bring their claims to court. The violation of the peace was treated as a crime of majesty ( crimen laesae maiestatis ) and should be punished accordingly, harsher than in any other peace before. Under Frederick, the crime of the majesty was expanded further and action out of imperial power ( plenitudo potestatis ) was greatly increased. In Landfrieden, however, there was no information about the courts where the claims and lawsuits should be presented. The resolution could therefore only have limited effectiveness in securing peace. It was only Friedrich's son Maximilian I who succeeded in prohibiting feuds in 1495 with the Eternal Peace and at the same time fundamentally reforming the judiciary.

On September 3, 1467, Empress Eleanor of Portugal died at the age of almost 31. After the death of his wife, Friedrich did not remarry.

Baumkircher feud and trip to Italy, foundation of dioceses

Pope Paul II sets in 1469 in the presence of Friedrich III. the first Grand Master of the Order of St. George. Depiction of a Carinthian painter around 1510.

In November 1468 Friedrich set out on a trip to Rome to see Pope Paul II , where he arrived on December 24th. On January 1, 1469, the Pope, a Venetian who had a strong interest in a new crusade, founded the Order of St. George in the presence of the Emperor to ward off the Turks. In addition, the Pope ordered the establishment of the dioceses in Vienna and Wiener Neustadt . The improvements in the church organization in his homeland that Friedrich achieved in Rome were hardly noticed by contemporaries. When Frederick left on January 9th, he performed the strator service by leading the Pope's horse by the reins, thereby symbolically recognizing the superiority of the Pope. In February 1469 he visited Venice, but because of the advance of the Ottomans he had to leave the city in a hurry to the north as far as the Ljubljana Gate.

During Frederick's absence, the imperial mercenary captain Andreas Baumkircher triggered an uprising in the hereditary lands. Baumkircher had been an important pillar of the ruler for years and was rewarded with goods in Hungary. When Friedrich made peace with the Hungarian King Mathias in 1463, Baumkircher wanted to present himself to the Hungarian king as a loyal supporter. This aroused Friedrich's distrust. Due to outstanding monetary payments, Baumkircher announced the Baumkircher feud to the emperor on February 1, 1469 . Baumkircher and his followers were able to take several castles in the Hungarian-Austrian border area. The fighting dragged on for months without result. In Graz, on April 23, 1471, a balance was to be found between the emperor and Baumkircher. Baumkircher was assured safe conduct. The course of the talks is unknown. Friedrich took Baumkircher into custody and had him beheaded the same day together with his co-conspirator Andreas Greisenegger without trial.

Acting at the imperial level, reforms, territorial gains in the West (1471–1493)

Image of Emperor Frederick III, pen drawing. Book of arms, Tyrol, last third of the 15th century (Vienna, Austrian National Library, Cod. 12820 fol. 23v)

From 1470 onwards, Friedrich acted more strongly at the imperial level. In his politics, Heinrich Koller states that there is a "new beginning", which is evident, among other things, in his commitment to the reform of the Reich and the Church as part of the "revitalization of the Reich assemblies". In particular, the threat posed by the Ottomans led the emperor back into imperial politics. At the beginning of May 1469 he had sent envoys to Venice and Bohemia to conclude an alliance while Ottoman troops were already in Istria . If you follow the decisions of the Venetian council, the Venetian envoy Giovanni Aymo played a major role in Frederick's grappling with the threat posed by the Ottomans, who in July 1470 had succeeded in conquering one of the most important bastions of Venice in the Aegean, the island of Negroponte . The representative of Venice is also said to have worked towards convening the Regensburg Reichstag, which Friedrich attended.

On June 16, 1471, the emperor appeared on the well-attended Christian Day in Regensburg, the Conventus christianorum principum , which was attended by 7,000 guests and where a Turkish tax was decided. Delegations from the Italian metropolises of Milan, Venice and Naples, but also from Hungary, Poland and Bohemia at the meeting, which took place from June to August, demonstrated the enormous European framework of defense efforts that the Ottoman Empire created through its recent spread as far as Ljubljana and Istria . For the first time in 27 years, Friedrich visited a Reichstag outside his hereditary lands. The Regensburger Hoftag also produced new forms of communication. All processes were recorded in writing for the first time. His contemporaries also registered Friedrich's return to the interior empire; he rode into the city to the applause of the population.

As head of the empire, he now turned increasingly to the west and the Duchy of Burgundy . However, he hardly devoted himself to his previous residences in Graz and Wiener Neustadt. The new activity in the empire was also connected with Friedrich's son Maximilian. The adolescent gained increasing importance as the only guarantor of dynastic continuity. The Regensburg Christian Day was the first major political event to which the twelve-year-old Maximilian was taken by his father. Maximilian's future political focus was in what is now Belgium and the Netherlands .

The return to imperial politics also produced the "quantitative climax" in Friedrich's notarization work. The appointment of Archbishop Adolf of Mainz as chancellor and chamber judge (1470/71) played a very important role in Frederick's political effectiveness . From the time when he took over the management of the office in June 1471 until the last entries received on August 20, 1474, a total of about 5000 documents and letters have survived. The new dynamic that Friedrich and Maximilian developed in the empire coincided with a structural and constitutional change in the empire. The threats - in the east from Turks and Hungarians and in the west from Burgundians and French - created new political constellations. There were also considerable modernization and change processes. A population increase and an economic boom set in. In addition, communication in the empire intensified and accelerated through the invention of the printing press and the improvement of the postal system. Relations between the members of the empire and the king became closer. The imperial constitution changed. Peter Moraw characterized this in 1985 as a development "from an open constitution to a structured condensation". To what extent the Habsburgs were involved in this process of change is still partly unclear.

The cleric Andreas Jamometić called a council in Basel in 1482 to reform the church and prepare for a Turkish crusade. Friedrich prevented the holding of a council. Pope Sixtus IV then demanded the transfer of the council delinquent to Rome, while the emperor represented the precedence of secular sovereignty under imperial law. According to the imperial view, Jamometić, who was arrested on imperial territory, was guilty of the crime of majesty through the unauthorized convocation of the council . Jürgen Petersohn interpreted the two-year struggle for jurisdiction as the last Pope-Emperor conflict of the Middle Ages, which, however, largely took place in camera. Basic ideas about sovereignty competence were carried out in this dispute with a vehemence that had not existed since the Staufer period. The conflict ended with Jamometić's suicide before November 13, 1484 in his cell in Basel. The controversy gives rise to a revision of widespread clichés about Friedrich's personality and self-image. Frederick relentlessly defended the assertion of his sovereign rights and the dignity of the empire. According to Jürgen Petersohn's research, Friedrich III. "The first - and at the same time the only - German ruler who justified the transfer of a spiritual delinquent to the papal authority and successfully refused".

court

The court was the center of royal rule. The Metz court day of Charles IV of 1356 was considered a high point of late medieval rulership representation due to the performance of court services by the seven electors . From around 1375 to around 1470, however, a "destruction of the ruler's court" emerged. The royal successors of Charles IV no longer succeeded in integrating the political and social elite into the royal court. The greats of the empire had lost interest in council and court service since the last third of the 14th century.

At the beginning of his reign, Friedrich continued the tradition of his royal predecessors by taking over the office staff with the influential Chancellor Kaspar Schlick . The phase from 1440 to 1460 was the lowest point of the ruler's court. The composition of the court staff was so reduced to the hereditary lands that there was a structural alienation between king and empire. Until the death of his brother Albrecht in 1463, the farm was limited to the hereditary lands. Vienna, Wiener Neustadt, Graz and Linz were the preferred cities of the court. The court stayed in these cities for a total of 35 years. After 1470 Friedrich recruited councilors to his court outside of the inner Austrian hereditary lands, mainly from Swabia. Almost two-thirds of all secular councilors from the outlying land empire were appointed in the last twenty years of his government. Gradually the electors and princes were reintegrated into the court. The court thereby made an important contribution to intensifying the ties between the head of the empire and the members of the empire. From 1470 Friedrich tried again to organize the empire as a court. The capture of political life by a single center of power, however, proved to be out of date due to new political and military challenges as well as new developments in business and technology. Only two years after Friedrich's death, two institutions outside of the court structures were created, the Reich Chamber Court and the Reichstag .

The most important elements of the court included the council, the chancellery and the chamber court. The court councilor was the body at the royal court in which the important decisions were made. With 433 people, Frederick had more councilors under oath than any other Roman-German ruler. Friedrich used the award of the council title more intensively than before to integrate rulers and to recruit specialists. With 81 people among the councils, the lower nobility of Styria (over sixty percent), Carinthia (almost thirty percent) and Carniola (ten percent) dominated.

One of the structures that shaped Friedrichs Hof was the division of the ruler's chancellery into two offices from 1441/42. The “Roman” chancellery (later the Reichshof chancellery ) was responsible for imperial affairs and the “Austrian” chancellery for all hereditary issues. Another major change was the leasing of the Roman chancellery between 1458/1464 and 1475 for an annual flat rate. Older research interpreted this as a sign of incompetence and indolence, but it is explained by the fact that the Reich Chancellery had become an expensive agency. Correspondence increased in the 15th century, but the parties did without impressive documents.

Soon after taking office, Friedrich replaced the outdated court with the modern chamber court . The historians of the 19th century did register this, but the changes and improvements in the procedures were ignored. The increasing legalization of the empire is evident in the integration of learned lawyers into the court. Astrologers played a prominent role at court, including Georg von Peuerbach, one of the most important natural scientists of the 15th century. Friedrich claimed astrology for important political decision-making. For no other ruler of the Middle Ages was astrology as important as it was for the Habsburgs.

Burgundian heritage

Probably the most famous portrait of Charles the Bold. The painting is attributed to Rogier van der Weyden , around 1460; today Gemäldegalerie Berlin .

The expansion of the Burgundy empire that Philip had pursued was continued by his son Charles the Bold since 1467 . In 1468 he was able to conquer the prince-bishopric of Liège , a year later Sigmund von Tirol pledged the Habsburg possessions in Upper Alsace, Breisgau and Sundgau for 50,000 guilders . In return, Karl committed himself to providing arms aid against the Confederates. The considerable territory was one of the reasons why Frederick turned more towards the west of the empire. There was a rapprochement between Karl and Friedrich. In 1473 the two negotiated in Trier about Karl's elevation to king and a marriage between Friedrich's son Maximilian and Karl's daughter Maria . The marriage project was of great importance to Charles because of the elevation of Burgundy he wanted to become a kingdom. Friedrich made it possible to claim the Burgundian inheritance. However, the eight weeks of negotiations failed. Friedrich enfeoffed Karl with the Duchy of Geldern on November 6th , but by violating Charles' rules in the coronation ceremony and by the enormous splendor of the Burgundian court compared to the comparatively modest appearance of the imperial court, Karl snubbed the head of the empire. Friedrich broke off the negotiations abruptly on November 25, 1473 and left the city without greeting, thereby duping the proud duke. This took the disputes of the Archbishop of Cologne Ruprecht with the cathedral chapter in the archbishopric of Cologne in the Cologne collegiate feud as an opportunity to stand against the emperor and expand his power. In his dispute with the cathedral chapter, the Archbishop of Cologne asked Karl for help. From July 29, 1474, Karl besieged the city of Neuss , which was based on the cathedral chapter. The siege of the city dragged on until June 27, 1475.

This time Friedrich did not remain idle as head of the Reich. In a letter of solicitation, he declared the Reich War. The formula “German nation” was used for the first time: when we owe us, the holy empire, to yourselves and German nacion . For the first time since the Hussite Wars it was possible to set up an army. In May 1475, the Imperial Army approached Neuss and forced the Duke of Burgundy to break off the siege. Friedrich had gained a lot of reputation in the empire and granted the city of Neuss numerous privileges. But despite the military conflict, he was still interested in a marriage project with the Duke of Burgundy. During the negotiations to break off the siege, Charles the Bold had also indicated that he would be accommodating to the emperor for a marriage project. In November 1475, Karl and Friedrich made peace and agreed the engagement of Karl's daughter to Friedrich's son Maximilian.

The Lorraine Duke René II had already declared war on Karl during the siege of Neuss . René had hoped in vain for the support of Frederick and the French king. On November 30, 1475, Charles entered the Lorraine capital of Nancy as the victor . In 1476 he decided to attack the Confederates. He suffered devastating defeats against them at Grandson in March 1476 and again at Murten in July 1476. Then René II was able to take back his duchy. In the autumn of 1476 Charles invaded Lorraine again. The Lower Association , the Confederates and René II allied against him . Only Friedrich did not distance himself from Karl. On January 5, 1477, Charles was killed in the Battle of Nancy .

War of the Burgundian Succession (1477–1493)

→ Main article : War of the Burgundian Succession (1477–1493)

Maximilian I. Albrecht Dürer 1519, Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna.

The division of the Burgundian heritage between France and Habsburg until 1493

The French King Louis XI. laid claim to the inheritance of Duke Charles, which had fallen to Mary of Burgundy. In the interior of Burgundy, which included one of the richest urban landscapes in Europe, revolts raged against the extremely oppressive centralist rule, especially in Ghent , Bruges and Ypres . The estates wanted to get rid of the old system with its strict centralism and reassert their privileges. In this distress, Maria wanted to implement her father's last will and also hoped that a Habsburg would prevail in Burgundy.

In fact, on April 21, 1477, the marriage was carried out by proxy in Bruges , and Maximilian and Maria of Burgundy married in Ghent on August 19, 1477. This gave the Habsburgs the extremely rich Burgundian inheritance. On April 19, 1478, Frederick legitimized the couple's rule by giving them the Burgundian imperial fiefs. The birth of Philip in 1478 and Margaret in 1480 also ensured dynastic continuity. As a foreigner, however, Maximilian had considerable difficulties in being recognized in Burgundy. For Friedrich, the defense against the Turks came back to the fore. He withdrew to his hereditary lands and stayed in Graz and Vienna for years. To consolidate the Habsburg rule, Maria and Maximilian issued their documents together and called themselves dukes of Austria and Burgundy.

In 1482 Maria died surprisingly in a hunting accident, which suddenly put the legitimacy of the Habsburg legacy into question again. Her untimely death allowed France to again lay claim to the inheritance. The French king had Charles occupy the southern sphere of influence. Maximilian had to assert guardianship over the children against the claims of the Dutch estates. The French king tried to get Margaret and the Dauphin married . Maximilian was eventually forced to make peace with France by the Estates General. According to the provisions of the Peace of Arras of December 23, 1482, Margaret was to be betrothed to the French heir to the throne and immediately brought to the French court for education. The Dutch estates were to take over the guardianship of Philip. As a result Maximilian would have lost any legal basis for his rule. The Ghentians had brought Maximilian's children into their power. In this tense situation Maximilian had to give in and accepted the contract in March 1483. Friedrich could not support his son because Corvinus extended his expansion to the Danube region. Maximilian succeeded in subjugating the estates opposition in Bruges and Ghent by 1485, but on February 5, 1488 he was captured in the course of a renewed uprising in Bruges. Friedrich only found out about his son's imprisonment on March 6th in Innsbruck. From May the emperor advanced with an imperial army, but before Friedrich reached Bruges, Maximilian was released. After a successful campaign by Maximilian in the Free County of Burgundy, the French king signaled readiness for peace. In the Peace of Senlis on May 23, 1493, the Habsburgs secured the legacy of Charles the Bold, with the exception of a few French counties and the Duchy of Burgundy.

Confrontation with the Hungarian Matthias Corvinus

During the serious conflicts in the west, the Habsburgs were also threatened in the east. The relationship with Matthias Corvinus had deteriorated rapidly. Corvinus wanted a revision of the treaty of 1463, which guaranteed Frederick the successor in the absence of descendants of the Hungarian king. Friedrich refused. The death of the Bohemian King George of Podebrady in 1471 created new political constellations. Friedrich entered into an alliance with the Polish king's son Wladislaw in 1476 and enfeoffed him with the Kingdom of Bohemia in 1477. Matthias, who also claimed Bohemia, had to accept the rule of Moravia . In 1477 Matthias Corvinus invaded the Habsburg lands with the aim of uniting Hungary, Bohemia and Austria. On July 21, 1478, Corvinus made peace with Wladislaw in Olomouc . From then on, both could call themselves the King of Bohemia. From now on Corvinus concentrated on the dispute with the emperor. Friedrich did not succeed in winning over the electors and other imperial estates for military aid. From 1480 Friedrich stayed in Vienna for years. In the spring of 1483 he moved to Wiener Neustadt. After ten years of absence, Friedrich had been traveling in the Reich for four years from 1485 to find help against the Hungarians from the imperial princes and imperial cities. In 1485 Matthias was able to conquer Vienna. He accepted the title of "Archduke of Austria". In August 1487 he succeeded in taking Wiener Neustadt, the imperial residence and most important city in eastern Lower Austria. Friedrich first had to move to Graz and temporarily to Linz in Upper Austria. Through an armistice with the Hungarians, the emperor created the freedom he needed to free his son from prison in Bruges.

On April 6, 1490, Matthias died of a stroke in Vienna and did not leave a legitimate heir. This enabled Frederick to regain the territories occupied by Hungary. Despite adhering to the inheritance treaty of 1463, Frederick had no success for the royal succession in Hungary. On July 15, 1490, the Hungarians elected the Bohemian ruler Vladislav as Hungarian king. Because of the conflict with the French king in the west, Frederick began peace negotiations with Wladislaw. In the Bratislava peace treaty of November 7, 1491, the Habsburgs were able to secure their territorial power base in the east against Hungary. Wladislaw was recognized as the Hungarian king, but his kingdom should pass to Maximilian in the absence of heirs. Friedrich and Maximilian were also allowed to use the Hungarian royal title. The possibility of the Habsburg succession was to materialize in 1526.

Maximilian's election as king and Wittelsbach's expansion policy

Not only the Hungarian expansion in the Austrian hereditary lands made Frederick's rule more difficult, but also the Wittelsbach expansion policy in southern Germany. Albrecht IV tried to incorporate the imperial city of Regensburg against the will of Frederick into his sovereignty. In this difficult situation, Friedrich secured the son's successor in 1486 during his own lifetime; since the election of Wenceslas in 1376 by Charles IV , no late medieval Roman-German king had succeeded in this. The prevailing opinion in older research that the electors and Maximilian pushed through the election of a king against the will of the old emperor is erroneous. On February 16, 1486 Maximilian was unanimously elected Roman-German king at the Frankfurt Reichstag by the six electors present. The Elector of Bohemia was not invited because the Hungarian King Corvinus might have made a claim to the Bohemian Kurrecht. The election of Maximilian violated the rules of the Golden Bull . However, there were no protests against the irregular election in the Reich. Fearing that the electors could take advantage of his son's political inexperience, Friedrich did not give Maximilian government powers. On the occasion of Maximilian's election as king, a ten-year country peace was decided. In order to secure the peace and against the expansive territorial policy of the Wittelsbachers, numerous affected imperial estates of Swabia joined together in 1488 on Frederick's initiative to form the Swabian Confederation . After the king was elected, Friedrich accompanied his son to Aachen. Maximilian was crowned king there on April 9th.

From 1486/87 tensions between the Habsburgs and Wittelsbachers intensified. In 1486 Regensburg submitted to the rule of Albrecht IV. In January 1487, Duke Albrecht married his daughter Kunigunde against the will of the emperor . In addition, in 1487 Albrecht and his cousin Georg von Bayern-Landshut succeeded in buying the Austrian foothills, with the exception of Vorarlberg, from Sigmund von Tirol for the small sum of 50,000 guilders. The Wittelsbach expansion reached its climax with the sale of almost all of the forelands of Upper Austria. In 1488 Friedrich therefore traveled to Innsbruck . Sigmund had to revoke the pledge of the Habsburg land. The councilors made responsible for the sale were ostracized for crimes of majesty and punished with confiscation of goods. Duke Georg gave up his claims to the margraviate Burgau and Vorlande under threat of war from the Swabian Federation . At the Innsbruck Landtag on March 16, 1490 Maximilian succeeded in having Sigmund renounce the rule in his favor in return for an annual pension of 52,000 Rhenish guilders . With Sigmund's death the Tyrolean line was extinguished in 1496. Duke Albrecht initially continued his resistance, but eventually had to surrender. Regensburg became an imperial city again. In addition, Albrecht had to give up all possible inheritance claims through his marriage with Kunigunde. Only then did Friedrich accept him as a son-in-law.

Retreat to the heartland, death, burial in Vienna

Leg amputation on Emperor Friedrich III. The representation was originally in Hans Seyff's handwriting Württembergische Landesbibliothek Stuttgart Cod [ex] med [icus] et phys [iologicus] 2 ° 8, sheet [att] 71r [ecto]

Tomb of Emperor Friedrich III. in Vienna's St. Stephen's Cathedral

In the last years of his life, Friedrich stayed in the region on the Danube, in Vienna and in Linz. In 1492 he was elected Knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece . Since February 1493, Friedrich's health deteriorated increasingly. During Lent in 1493, Friedrich's personal physicians diagnosed a symptom in the emperor's left leg, usually referred to in research literature as old age burn , which, according to today's medical terminology, is regarded as a result of arteriosclerosis . On 8 June 1493 the he was headed surgeon Hans Seyff in the Linz Castle , the affected by the disease area of the leg amputated . This leg amputation is one of the most famous and best-documented surgical interventions of the entire Middle Ages. Although Friedrich initially survived the operation well, he died on August 19, 1493 in Linz. The contemporaries named the consequences of leg amputation, old age or dysentery-like diarrhea from eating melons as the cause of death . His entrails were probably buried separately on August 24, 1493 in the parish church of Linz . The Turkish invasions in Carinthia and Carniola delayed Maximilian's arrival and thus also the funeral ceremony. The funeral took place in St. Stephen's Cathedral on December 6th and 7th, 1493 . Friedrich had already commissioned his grave monument in St. Stephen's Cathedral from the sculptor Niclas Gerhaert van Leyden in 1467 . The tomb was completed in 1513 and has been preserved in its original state to this day. It is considered a pinnacle of medieval rulers iconography .

effect

Judgment by contemporaries

Coat of arms of St. George's Cathedral in Wiener Neustadt . Between 1440 and 1460 the church was used as a grave church for Emperor Friedrich III. Erected by master builder Peter Pusika .

Through the use of paper and the widespread writing and reading skills, writing increased in the 15th century. This is clear from the high number of certificates. For Friedrich III. the total number of surviving documents is estimated at between 30,000 and 50,000 copies. More files and city chronicles were also written.

Many events in Friedrich's life are narrated by historians at his court. It was his intention to enhance the history of Austria and highlight its highlights. He asked his historians to embed his biography in the history of the Empire and Austria. The depiction of Austrian history on the coat of arms of Wiener Neustadt was intended to remind of the importance of the past of the country and its princes. Friedrich also gave the order to rewrite the history of Austria with the chronicle ("Chronicle of the 95 rulers") Leopold. He won over the leading scholar Thomas Ebendorfer from the University of Vienna. In 1440 Ebendorfer became Friedrich's adviser. In 1451 the work was officially presented to the ruler.

The historiography concentrated on the first half of the reign until 1462/63. The Historia Austrialis by Eneas Silvius Piccolomini is one of the most important narrative sources on the history of the empire in the 15th century. Piccolomini joined the royal chancellery in late 1442. Until May 1455 he belonged to Friedrich's closest circle and was therefore personally involved in many of the events described.

Piccolomini and Ebendorfer fell out with Friedrich, however, and found no immediate successors as chroniclers. They attributed Friedrich's supposed political failure to his “passive”, “indecisive” and “stingy” character. Their depictions of the Habsburgs formed the basis for the following historians. Both died in 1464 and so did not see the last thirty years of reign with their decisive successes. Historiography only revived under Maximilian. Although Maximilian instructed his courtiers to pay tribute to Frederick's epoch, he wanted his own successes to be emphasized over the merits of his father. Maximilian appeared as a pioneer of a new era, while his father was forgotten.

Research history

In the Protestant-Little German historiography of the 19th century, the late Middle Ages were considered to be an era of disintegration, since with the end of the Hohenstaufen the expansion of territories and the power of the princes over the power of the king increased steadily. The late medieval rulers were considered weak and the princes selfish. The 15th century lay between the supposed imperial glory in the High Middle Ages and the unified dreams of the 19th century. It was considered an age of ecclesiastical and religious grievances and was at most important for the foundation of the Reformation. According to older research, Friedrich did not direct the fate of the empire, but instead devoted himself to plant breeding like a private citizen in the political remote from Styria. The Habsburg was regarded as "a curious, unknightly, conflict-averse and stingy, characterized by utterly poor interests and phlegmatic reduced to his domestic palace". Because of his supposed indolence and inactivity, Friedrich was degraded to the name "Holy Roman Empire Arches' Sleeping Cap", which is still widely used today. Because of the weakness of the emperor and the egoism of the princes, the empire was torn internally and powerless externally. The perversion of the once so glorious history of the German imperial era under the Ottonians , Salians and Staufers assumed its worst degenerated form with Friedrich.

This negative judgment was essentially based on a source base that was far too narrow. According to estimates at the time, the approximately 8,000 documents and the judgments of the historiography, which was concentrated on the first half of the government, had access to the entire collection of documents. Friedrich's defeats in the wars reinforced the negative judgment. For German national research, the luck of war was an essential component of the judgment. Friedrich caused irritation among Austrian historians because he had not exercised what they believed to be a self-evident rule over Bohemia and Hungary. Georg Voigt described Friedrich in his highly acclaimed biography of Enea Silvio Piccolomini, published in 1856, as a stupid and incompetent ruler. His character was characterized by "embarrassment, shyness and avarice, passivity, indecision and poverty of interests".

Despite his long reign, Friedrich was at best considered a ruler in the 19th century who was not worth looking at. He only found attention from the less recognized collectors of material. The Viennese archivist Joseph Chmel published the “History of Emperor Friedrich IV.” (1840/43), a biography of the emperor that only lasted until 1452. This account, because of its adulation, led most historians to condemn the emperor.

In the 20th century, the Austrian historian Alphons Lhotsky Friedrich paid more attention. He carried out a careful rehabilitation of the Habsburgs. Lhotsky, however, gave too little importance to the collapse of conciliarism, the turn to Burgundy and the late days of Frederick. Friedrich Baethgen accused the ruler of "provincialization" in 1970 in the Handbuch der Deutschen Geschichte ("Gebhardt"). Through this political provincialization one could during the reign of Frederick III. no longer speak of a “unified history of the empire”.

Since the 1970s, medieval studies have turned more towards the late Middle Ages. No century has recently been explored as intensely as the fifteenth. It is now understood less as a time of crisis-ridden developments, more as an epoch of transitions, the “open” constitutional states and new approaches. This also influences the assessment of the long period of rule of Emperor Frederick III. Since 1982 his documents have been published according to the provenance principle , sorted by archives and libraries. 1993 was the 500th anniversary of Friedrich's death. An anthology was published for the anniversary. The day of death was hardly noticed by the general public. Exhibitions and memorials were largely absent.

Studies of Friedrich's government practice and that of his court by Heinrich Koller and Paul-Joachim Heinig relativize the verdict of the older research. On the basis of the ongoing development of the source material, these historians came to the conclusion that Friedrich, like hardly any of his predecessors, intervened in imperial politics through diplomas and mandates. The late period of Frederick III. thus takes on a constitutional hinge function on the way of the empire from the Middle Ages to the modern age. The monumental work by Paul-Joachim Heinig from 1997 represents a very significant contribution to the paradigm shift in the assessment of Friedrich. If both scientists have given significant impulses, they follow the older research tradition in so far as the empire is at the center of their studies for them stands.

More recent research focuses on the Habsburg hereditary lands and the ruler's dynastic politics. They show that the emperor's domestic interests usually took precedence over those of the empire. They come to the conclusion that Friedrich III. acted with “remarkable realism” and “great elasticity” in the midst of a very problematic political environment. In contrast to his son Maximilian I, Friedrich was more prudent in assessing political conditions. This also explains why he was ultimately successful despite a much more difficult starting position.

swell

historiography

• Thomas Ebendorfer: Chronica Austriae. Published by Alphons Lhotsky ( MGH SS rer. Germ. NS 13), Berlin 1967, ISBN 3-921575-40-0 ( online ).
• Joseph Grünpeck : The story of Friedrich III. and Maximilians I (The Historians of Prehistoric Germany, 15th Century, Vol. 3. Translation by Theodor Ilgen), Leipzig 1891.
• Eneas Silvius Piccolomini: Historia Austrialis. Vol. 1: Introduction by Martin Wagendorfer ; 1. Editor , edited by Julia Knödler ; Vol. 2: 2nd and 3rd editors , edited by Martin Wagendorfer (MGH SS rer. Germ. NS 24.1–2), Hanover 2009, ISBN 978-3-7752-0224-4 ( review ).

Certificates and letters

• Regesta chronologico-diplomatica Friderici III. Romanorum imperatoris (regis IV.) . Edited by Joseph Chmel , Vienna 1838–1840; (also) register volume , edited by Dieter Rübsamen and Paul-Joachim Heinig ( RI special volume 1), Vienna / Weimar / Cologne 1992, ISBN 3-205-98020-4 . ( online )

Revision

• Regesten Emperor Friedrich III. (1440-1493). Organized according to archives and libraries , founded by Heinrich Koller , 1982ff. [previously published: Volumes 1–35, 1982–2020] ( detailed overview of publications online )

Reichstag files

• Heinz Angermeier , Reinhard Seyboth (arrangement): The Reichstag in Frankfurt 1486. 2 parts (German Reichstag files. Middle row: German Reichstag files under Maximilian I., Volume 1), Göttingen 1989, ISBN 3-525-35403-7 .
• Reinhard Seyboth (arrangement): The Reichstag in Nuremberg 1487. 2 parts (German Reichstag files. Middle row: German Reichstag files under Maximilian I., Volume 2), Göttingen 2001, ISBN 3-525-35404-5 .

literature

Lexicon contributions

• Wilhelm Baum:  Friedrich III. of Habsburg. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 24, Bautz, Nordhausen 2005, ISBN 3-88309-247-9 , Sp. 635-648.

Representations

• Hartmut Boockmann , Heinrich Dormeier : Councils, Church and Imperial Reform 1410–1495 (= Gebhardt. Handbook of German History . Vol. 8). Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 3-608-60008-6 .
• Paul-Joachim Heinig: Emperor Friedrich III. (1440-1493). Court, government, politics (= research on the imperial and papal history of the Middle Ages. Vol. 17). 3 volumes, Böhlau, Cologne 1997, ISBN 3-412-15595-0 (at the same time: Gießen, Universität, habilitation paper, 1993).
• Paul-Joachim Heinig: Emperor Friedrich III. (1440–1493) in his time. Studies on the 500th anniversary of death on August 19, 1493/1993 (= research on the history of the emperors and popes in the Middle Ages. Vol. 12) Böhlau, Cologne et al. 1993, ISBN 3-412-03793-1 . ( Review )
• Franz Fuchs , Paul-Joachim Heinig, Martin Wagendorfer (eds.): King and Chancellor, Emperor and Pope. Friedrich III. and Enea Silvio Piccolomini in Wiener Neustadt (= research on the imperial and papal history of the Middle Ages. Vol. 32). Böhlau, Vienna et al. 2013, ISBN 3-412-20962-7 ( online )
• Paul-Joachim Heinig: Friedrich III. In: Bernd Schneidmüller , Stefan Weinfurter (Hrsg.): The German rulers of the Middle Ages. Historical portraits from Heinrich I to Maximilian I. CH Beck, Munich 2003, ISBN 3-406-50958-4 , pp. 495-517.
• Paul-Joachim Heinig: Art .: Friedrich III. (1440-93). In: Werner Paravicini (ed.): Courtyards and residences in the late medieval empire. A dynastic-topographical handbook, vol. 1: Dynasties and courtyards (= residence research. Vol. 15). Thorbecke, Ostfildern 2003, pp. 341–351, ISBN 3-7995-4515-8 .
• Heinrich Koller: Emperor Friedrich III. Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 2005, ISBN 3-534-13881-3 . ( Review )
• Karl-Friedrich Krieger: The Habsburgs in the Middle Ages. From Rudolf I to Friedrich III. 2nd updated edition. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2004, ISBN 3-17-018228-5 .
• Konstantin Moritz A. Langmaier: Archduke Albrecht VI. of Austria (1418–1463). A prince in the field of tension between dynasty, regions and empire (= research on the imperial and papal history of the Middle Ages. Vol. 38). Böhlau, Cologne et al. 2015, ISBN 978-3-412-50139-6 ( online ).
• Alois Niederstätter: The Middle Century. At the turn of the Middle Ages to the modern age. Austrian history 1400–1522. Ueberreuter, Vienna 1996, ISBN 3-8000-3527-8 .
• Susanne Wolf: The double government of Emperor Friedrich III. and King Maximilians (1486–1493) (= research on the imperial and papal history of the Middle Ages. Vol. 25). Böhlau, Cologne et al. 2005, ISBN 3-412-22405-7 ( online ).

Web links

Commons : Friedrich III.  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Wikisource: Friedrich III.  - Sources and full texts

• Literature by and about Friedrich III. in the catalog of the German National Library
• Works by and about Friedrich III.  in the German Digital Library
• Fridericus III Imperator in the repertory "Historical Sources of the German Middle Ages"
• Entry to Friedrich III. (HRR) in the database of the state's memory for the history of Lower Austria ( Museum Niederösterreich )
• Database "Sources on the jurisdiction of Emperor Friedrich III. (1440–1493) "
• Joachim Laczny: Friedrich III. (1440–1493) traveling. The creation of the itinerary of a late medieval ruler using a historical-geographic information system (his-GIS) .
• WDR time signal broadcast 1415 - The birthday of Emperor Friedrich III.

Remarks

1. ^ Heinrich Koller: Emperor Friedrich III. Darmstadt 2005, p. 48.
2. ^ Paul-Joachim Heinig: Emperor Friedrich III. (1440-1493). Court, government, politics. Vol. 1, Cologne 1997, p. 35.
3. ^ Heinrich Koller: Emperor Friedrich III. Darmstadt 2005, p. 50.
4. ↑ Dietrich Huschenbett: Kaiser Friedrichs sea voyage. In: Author's Lexicon . Volume IV, Col. 943 f.
5. ^ Heinrich Koller: Emperor Friedrich III. Darmstadt 2005, p. 19; Paul-Joachim Heinig: Friedrich III. (1440-1493). In: Bernd Schneidmüller, Stefan Weinfurter (Hrsg.): The German rulers of the Middle Ages. Historical portraits from Heinrich I to Maximilian I Munich 2003, pp. 495–517, here: p. 501.
6. ↑ Alphons Lhotsky: AEIOV. The "motto" of Emperor Friedrich III. and his notebook. Articles and lectures. 2, The House of Habsburg. Selected and edited by Hans Wagner and Heinrich Koller. Vienna 1971, pp. 164–222.
7. ^ Heinrich Koller: On the meaning of the vocal game AEIOU. In: Austria in History and Literature , Vol. 39 (1995), pp. 162–170. Karl-Friedrich Krieger: The Habsburgs in the Middle Ages. From Rudolf I to Friedrich III. 2nd, updated edition, Stuttgart 2004, p. 173.
8. ↑ Karl-Friedrich Krieger: The Habsburgs in the Middle Ages. From Rudolf I to Friedrich III. 2nd, updated edition, Stuttgart 2004, p. 186.
9. ↑ Karl-Friedrich Krieger: The Habsburgs in the Middle Ages. From Rudolf I to Friedrich III. 2nd, updated edition, Stuttgart 2004, p. 179.
10. ^ Heinrich Koller: Emperor Friedrich III. Darmstadt 2005, p. 60.
11. ^ Heinrich Koller: Emperor Friedrich III. Darmstadt 2005, p. 61.
12. ↑ Karl-Friedrich Krieger: The Habsburgs in the Middle Ages. From Rudolf I to Friedrich III. 2nd, updated edition, Stuttgart 2004, p. 176.
13. ↑ Karl-Friedrich Krieger: The Habsburgs in the Middle Ages. From Rudolf I to Friedrich III. 2nd, updated edition, Stuttgart 2004, p. 177.
14. ^ Hermann Wiesflecker : Emperor Maximilian I. , Vol. 5: The emperor and his environment. Court, state, economy, society and culture. Munich 1986, p. 592 f.
15. ↑ Karl-Friedrich Krieger: The Habsburgs in the Middle Ages. From Rudolf I to Friedrich III. 2nd, updated edition, Stuttgart 2004, p. 178.
16. ^ Heinrich Koller: Emperor Friedrich III. Darmstadt 2005, p. 81. See in detail Heinrich Koller: To assess the Reformatio Friderici. In: Klaus Herbers , Hans-Henning Kortüm , Carlo Servatius (eds.): Ex ipsis rerum documentis. Contributions to Medieval Studies. Festschrift for Harald Zimmermann on his 65th birthday. Sigmaringen 1991, pp. 591-606.
17. ↑ See in detail Alois Niederstätter: Der Alte Zürichkrieg. Studies on the Austrian-Federal conflict and the politics of King Friedrich III. in the years 1440 to 1446. Vienna 1995.
18. ^ Heinrich Koller: Emperor Friedrich III. Darmstadt 2005, p. 93.
19. ↑ Karl-Friedrich Krieger: The Habsburgs in the Middle Ages. From Rudolf I to Friedrich III. 2nd, updated edition, Stuttgart 2004, pp. 185f.
20. ↑ Alois Niederstätter: The Middle Century. At the turn of the Middle Ages to the modern age. Austrian history 1400–1522. Vienna 1996, p. 323.
21. ↑ Karl-Friedrich Krieger: The Habsburgs in the Middle Ages. From Rudolf I to Friedrich III. 2nd, updated edition, Stuttgart 2004, p. 185.
22. ↑ Bernd Schneidmüller: Borderline experience and monarchical order: Europe 1200–1500. Munich 2011, p. 211.
23. ^ Heinrich Koller: Emperor Friedrich III. Darmstadt 2005, p. 11.
24. ^ Heinrich Koller: Emperor Friedrich III. Darmstadt 2005, p. 106 f.
25. ^ Andreas Meyer: The Vienna Concordat of 1448 - a successful reform of the late Middle Ages. In: Sources and research from Italian archives and libraries , Vol. 66, 1986, pp. 108–152 ( online ).
26. ^ Heinrich Koller: Emperor Friedrich III. Darmstadt 2005, p. 109.
27. ↑ Karl-Friedrich Krieger: The Habsburgs in the Middle Ages. From Rudolf I to Friedrich III. 2nd updated edition, Stuttgart 2004, p. 233.
28. ↑ Joachim Laczny: Friedrich III. (1440–1493) traveling. The creation of the itinerary of a late medieval ruler using a Historical Geographic Information System (Historical GIS). In: Joachim Laczny, Jürgen Sarnowsky (Ed.): Perception and reception. Perception and interpretation in the Middle Ages and in modern times. Göttingen 2014, pp. 33–65, here: p. 61.
29. ^ Ralf Mitsch: The commission system under Emperor Friedrich III. , rev. Habilitation thesis Mannheim 2000 (JF Böhmer, Regesta Imperii. Works in Progress), Mainz 2015 ( electronic pdf resource ). Ralf Mitsch: The court and arbitration commissions of Emperor Friedrich III. and the enforcement of the ruler's claim to jurisdiction in constitutional reality between 1440 and 1493. In: Bernhard Diestelkamp (Ed.): Das Reichskammergericht. The way to its foundation and the first decades of its activity (1451–1527). Cologne et al. 2003, pp. 7-77.
30. ^ Ivan Hlaváček: Contributions to the study of the relationships of Frederick III. in Bohemia until the death of George of Podebrady (1471). In: Paul-Joachim Heinig (Ed.): Kaiser Friedrich III. in his time. Studies on the occasion of the 500th anniversary of death on August 19, 1493/1993. Cologne 1993, pp. 279-298, here: p. 288.
31. ^ Heinrich Koller: Emperor Friedrich III. Darmstadt 2005, pp. 57, 65.
32. ^ On Philip's policy towards Friedrich III. see Richard Vaughan: Philip the Good. London / New York 1970 (ND with updated introduction, Woodbridge 2002), pp. 285ff.
33. ^ Heinrich Koller: Emperor Friedrich III. Darmstadt 2005, p. 104.
34. ^ Heinrich Koller: Emperor Friedrich III. Darmstadt 2005, p. 249.
35. ^ Heinrich Koller: Emperor Friedrich III. Darmstadt 2005, p. 267.
36. ^ Heinrich Koller: Emperor Friedrich III. Darmstadt 2005, p. 137.
37. ^ Hartmut Boockmann, Heinrich Dormeier: Councils, Church and Imperial Reform 1410–1495. Stuttgart 2005, p. 151.
38. ↑ Karl-Friedrich Krieger: The Habsburgs in the Middle Ages. From Rudolf I to Friedrich III. 2nd, updated edition, Stuttgart 2004, p. 188.
39. ^ Heinrich Koller: Emperor Friedrich III. Darmstadt 2005, p. 122f.
40. ↑ Christine Reinle : Ulrich Riederer (approx. 1406–1462). Scholarly advice in the service of Emperor Friedrich III. Mannheim 1993.
41. ^ Heinrich Koller: Emperor Friedrich III. Darmstadt 2005, p. 116.
42. ↑ Konstantin Moritz A. Langmaier: Archduke Albrecht VI. of Austria (1418–1463). A prince caught between dynasty, regions and empire. Cologne et al. 2015, p. 316f. ( online ).
43. ^ Heinrich Koller: Emperor Friedrich III. Darmstadt 2005, p. 117.
44. ^ Heinrich Koller: Emperor Friedrich III. Darmstadt 2005, p. 123.
45. ^ Achim Thomas Hack: The reception ceremony at medieval Pope-Emperor meetings. Köln et al. 1999, especially pp. 13-247, 644-647, 670-680.
46. ↑ Rudolf Schieffer: Otto Imperator - In the middle of 2000 years of empire. In: Hartmut Leppin, Bernd Schneidmüller (Hrsg.): Empire in the first millennium. Scientific companion volume for the state exhibition “Otto the Great and the Roman Empire. Empire from antiquity to the Middle Ages. ” Regensburg 2012, pp. 355–374, here: p. 374.
47. ↑ On Friedrich's children, see Achim Thomas Hack: Eine Portugiesin in Österreich around the middle of the 15th century. Cultural exchange as a result of an imperial marriage? In: Franz Fuchs, Paul-Joachim Heinig, Martin Wagendorfer (eds.): King and Chancellery, Kaiser and Pope. Friedrich III. and Enea Silvio Piccolomini in Wiener Neustadt. Cologne 2013, pp. 181–204, here: p. 193, note 42.
48. ↑ Eberhard Holtz: Emperor Friedrich III. (1440–1493) - a third Friedrich? In: German Archive for Research into the Middle Ages. 75 (2019), pp. 111-119.
49. ↑ Karl-Friedrich Krieger: The Habsburgs in the Middle Ages. From Rudolf I to Friedrich III. 2nd, updated edition, Stuttgart 2004, p. 194. Cf. in detail Daniel Luger: Daz ... our Gedechtnuss is least longer and more blissfully held. The confirmation of the Privilegium maius by Emperor Friedrich III. In: Thomas Just-Kathrin, Kininger-Andrea Sommerlechner, Herwig Weigl (eds.): Privilegium maius. Autopsy, context and career of the forgeries of Rudolf IV of Austria. Vienna et al. 2018, pp. 245-258, here: pp. 254 ff.
50. ↑ Konstantin Moritz A. Langmaier: Archduke Albrecht VI. of Austria (1418–1463). A prince caught between dynasty, regions and empire. Cologne et al. 2015, p. 339 ff. ( Online ).
51. ↑ Karl-Friedrich Krieger: The Habsburgs in the Middle Ages. From Rudolf I to Friedrich III. 2nd, updated edition, Stuttgart 2004, pp. 196–198.
52. ↑ See Gabriele Annas: Kaiser Friedrich III. and the empire: The day at Wiener Neustadt in the spring of 1455. In: Franz Fuchs, Paul-Joachim Heinig, Martin Wagendorfer (eds.): King and Chancellor, Emperor and Pope: Friedrich III. and Enea Silvio Piccolomini in Wiener Neustadt . Cologne 2013, pp. 121–150.
53. ↑ Bernd Schneidmüller: Consensus - Territorialization - Self-interest. How to deal with late medieval history. In: Frühmittelalterliche Studien , Vol. 39, 2005, pp. 225–246, here: p. 240.
54. ^ Heinrich Koller: Emperor Friedrich III. Darmstadt 2005, p. 142.
55. ↑ Karl-Friedrich Krieger: The Habsburgs in the Middle Ages. From Rudolf I to Friedrich III. 2nd, updated edition, Stuttgart 2004, p. 196.
56. ↑ Karl-Friedrich Krieger: The Habsburgs in the Middle Ages. From Rudolf I to Friedrich III. 2nd, updated edition, Stuttgart 2004, p. 201.
57. ^ Paul-Joachim Heinig: Friedrich III. (1440-1493). In: Bernd Schneidmüller, Stefan Weinfurter (Hrsg.): The German rulers of the Middle Ages. Historical portraits from Heinrich I to Maximilian I. Munich 2003, pp. 495–517, here: p. 499.
58. ^ Paul-Joachim Heinig: Friedrich III. (1440-1493). In: Bernd Schneidmüller, Stefan Weinfurter (Hrsg.): The German rulers of the Middle Ages. Historical portraits from Heinrich I to Maximilian I. Munich 2003, p. 495–517, here: p. 500. Cf. in detail Paul-Joachim Heinig: Monarchism and Monarchists at the court of Friedrich III. In: Franz Fuchs, Paul-Joachim Heinig, Martin Wagendorfer (eds.): King and Chancellery, Emperor and Pope: Friedrich III. and Enea Silvio Piccolomini in Wiener Neustadt. Cologne 2013, pp. 151–179.
59. ^ Heinrich Koller: Emperor Friedrich III. Darmstadt 2005, p. 172.
60. ^ Achim Thomas Hack: The reception ceremony at medieval Pope-Emperor meetings. Cologne et al. 1999, pp. 239-247.
61. ^ Heinrich Koller: Emperor Friedrich III. Darmstadt 2005, p. 176.
62. ^ Johann Rainer: The second trip to Rome by Friedrich III. In: Reinhard Härtel (Hrsg.): History and its sources. Festschrift for Friedrich Hausmann on his 70th birthday. Graz 1987, pp. 183-190.
63. ↑ Ingrid Baumgärtner : The status survey of the law professor Barolomeo Cipolla. Venice at the Diet of Regensburg in 1471 and the Turkish threat. In: Dagmar Bussiek, Simona Göbel (ed.): Culture, politics and the public. Festschrift for Jens Flemming. Kassel 2009, pp. 35–67, here: p. 42.
64. ^ Heinrich Koller: Emperor Friedrich III. Darmstadt 2005, p. 168.
65. ^ Paul-Joachim Heinig: Emperor Friedrich III. (1440-1493). Court, government, politics. Vol. 2, Cologne 1997, p. 871.
66. ↑ Ingrid Baumgärtner: The status survey of the law professor Barolomeo Cipolla. Venice at the Diet of Regensburg 1471 and the Turkish threat. In: Dagmar Bussiek, Simona Göbel (Ed.): Culture, politics and the public. Festschrift for Jens Flemming. Kassel 2009, pp. 35–67, here: pp. 43–45.
67. ↑ Ingrid Baumgärtner: The status survey of the law professor Barolomeo Cipolla. Venice at the Diet of Regensburg in 1471 and the Turkish threat. In: Dagmar Bussiek, Simona Göbel (Ed.): Culture, politics and the public. Festschrift for Jens Flemming. Kassel 2009, pp. 35–67, here: p. 37.
68. ↑ Hartmut Boockmann, Heinrich Dormeier: Councils, Church and Imperial Reform 1410–1495. Stuttgart 2005, p. 123.
69. ^ Heinrich Koller: Emperor Friedrich III. Darmstadt 2005, p. 184.
70. ↑ Manfred Hollegger: Maximilian I (1459-1519). Ruler and man of a turning point. Stuttgart 2005, p. 25.
71. ^ Paul-Joachim Heinig: Emperor Friedrich III. (1440-1493). Court, government, politics. Vol. 2, Cologne 1997, p. 845.
72. ^ Paul-Joachim Heinig: Emperor Friedrich III. (1440-1493). Court, government, politics. Vol. 2, Cologne 1997, p. 852.
73. ^ Paul-Joachim Heinig: Emperor Friedrich III. (1440-1493). Court, government, politics. Vol. 2, Cologne 1997, p. 862.
74. ↑ Karl-Friedrich Krieger: The Habsburgs in the Middle Ages. From Rudolf I to Friedrich III. 2nd, updated edition, Stuttgart 2004, p. 236; Malte Prietzel: The Holy Roman Empire in the late Middle Ages. Darmstadt 2004, p. 138f.
75. ↑ Peter Moraw: From an open constitution to a structured compression. The empire in the late Middle Ages 1250 to 1490. Frankfurt am Main 1985, here summarized p. 411–421.
76. ↑ Karl-Friedrich Krieger: The Habsburgs in the Middle Ages. From Rudolf I to Friedrich III. 2nd, updated edition, Stuttgart 2004, p. 237.
77. ^ Jürgen Petersohn: Imperial law versus canon law. Emperor Friedrich III. in the struggle with Pope Sixtus IV. for the power of punishment over the Basel council sponsor Andreas Jamometić 1482–1484. Vienna et al. 2015, p. 44 ( online ).
78. ^ Jürgen Petersohn: Imperial law versus canon law. Emperor Friedrich III. in the struggle with Pope Sixtus IV. for the power of punishment over the Basel council sponsor Andreas Jamometić 1482–1484. Vienna et al. 2015, pp. 7 and 103 ( online ).
79. ^ Jürgen Petersohn: Imperial law versus canon law. Emperor Friedrich III. in the struggle with Pope Sixtus IV. for the power of punishment over the Basel council sponsor Andreas Jamometić 1482–1484. Vienna et al. 2015, pp. 35, 46, 51, 60 ( online ).
80. ^ Jürgen Petersohn: Imperial law versus canon law. Emperor Friedrich III. in the struggle with Pope Sixtus IV. for the power of punishment over the Basel council sponsor Andreas Jamometić 1482–1484. Vienna et al. 2015, p. 111 ( online ).
81. ^ Paul-Joachim Heinig: Forms of behavior and ceremonial aspects of the German ruling court at the end of the Middle Ages. In: Werner Paravicini (Ed.): Zeremoniell und Raum , Sigmaringen 1997, pp. 63–82, here: p. 69.
82. ^ Paul-Joachim Heinig: Emperor Friedrich III. (1440-1493). Court, government, politics. Vol. 2, Cologne 1997, p. 1321.
83. ^ Paul-Joachim Heinig: The court of Emperor Frederick III. - External impact and those acting outwards. In: Peter Moraw (Ed.): German royal court, court assembly and Reichstag in the later Middle Ages. Stuttgart 2002, pp. 137–161, here: p. 143 ( online ); Malte Prietzel: The Holy Roman Empire in the late Middle Ages. Darmstadt 2004, p. 149.
84. ^ Paul-Joachim Heinig: Friedrich III. In: Werner Paravicini (ed.): Courtyards and residences in the late medieval empire. A dynastic-topographical handbook , Vol. 1: Dynasties and courts. Ostfildern 2003, pp. 341–351, here: p. 343.
85. ^ Paul-Joachim Heinig: Emperor Friedrich III. (1440-1493). Court, government, politics. Vol. 1, Cologne 1997, p. 556.
86. ^ Paul-Joachim Heinig: The court of Emperor Frederick III. - External impact and those acting outwards. In: Peter Moraw (ed.): Deutscher Königshof, Hoftag and Reichstag in the later Middle Ages. Stuttgart 2002, pp. 137–161, here: p. 143; Malte Prietzel: The Holy Roman Empire in the late Middle Ages. Darmstadt 2004, p. 151.
87. ↑ Malte Prietzel: The Holy Roman Empire in the late Middle Ages. Darmstadt 2004, p. 137.
88. ^ Paul-Joachim Heinig: Emperor Friedrich III. (1440-1493). Court, government, politics. Vol. 2, Cologne 1997, p. 1319.
89. ^ Paul-Joachim Heinig: The court of Emperor Frederick III. - External effects and those working externally. In: Peter Moraw (Ed.): German royal court, court assembly and Reichstag in the later Middle Ages. Stuttgart 2002, pp. 137–161, here: p. 159.
90. ^ Paul-Joachim Heinig: Art .: Friedrich III. In: Werner Paravicini (ed.): Courtyards and residences in the late medieval empire. A dynastic-topographical handbook, Vol. I: Dynasties and courts. Ostfildern 2003, pp. 341–351, here: p. 342.
91. ^ Paul-Joachim Heinig: The court of Emperor Frederick III. - External impact and those acting outwards. In: Peter Moraw (ed.): Deutscher Königshof, Hoftag and Reichstag in the later Middle Ages. Stuttgart 2002, pp. 137-161, here: p. 143 .; Paul-Joachim Heinig: Emperor Friedrich III. (1440-1493). Court, government, politics. Vol. 1, Cologne 1997, p. 543.
92. ^ Paul-Joachim Heinig: Emperor Friedrich III. (1440-1493). Court, government, politics . Vol. 1, Cologne 1997, p. 177. Short summaries: Paul-Joachim Heinig: Der Hof Kaiser Friedrichs III. - External impact and those acting outwards. In: Peter Moraw (Ed.): German royal court, court assembly and Reichstag in the later Middle Ages. Stuttgart 2002, pp. 137–161, here: p. 143; Malte Prietzel: The Holy Roman Empire in the late Middle Ages. Darmstadt 2004, p. 137.
93. ^ Paul-Joachim Heinig: The court of Emperor Frederick III. - External effects and those working externally. In: Peter Moraw (ed.): Deutscher Königshof, Hoftag and Reichstag in the later Middle Ages. Stuttgart 2002, pp. 137–161, here: pp. 152f .; Brief summary: Malte Prietzel: The Holy Roman Empire in the late Middle Ages. Darmstadt 2004, p. 138.
94. ^ Paul-Joachim Heinig: Emperor Friedrich III. (1440-1493). Court, government, politics . Vol. 1, Cologne 1997, p. 570ff .; Paul-Joachim Heinig: To the office practice under Emperor Friedrich III. (1440-1493). In: Archiv für Diplomatik , Vol. 31 (1985), pp. 383-442.
95. ^ Heinrich Koller: Emperor Friedrich III. Darmstadt 2005, pp. 184, 253.
96. ^ Heinrich Koller: Emperor Friedrich III. Darmstadt 2005, p. 65.
97. ^ Paul-Joachim Heinig: Emperor Friedrich III. (1440-1493). Court, government, politics. Vol. 1, Cologne 1997, p. 747.
98. ^ Daniel Carlo Pangerl: Star interpretation as a scientific method of political advice. Astronomy and astrology at the court of Emperor Friedrich III. (1440-1493). In: Archiv für Kulturgeschichte , Vol. 92, 2010, pp. 309–327, especially p. 327.
99. ↑ Karl-Friedrich Krieger: The Habsburgs in the Middle Ages. From Rudolf I to Friedrich III. 2nd, updated edition, Stuttgart 2004, p. 213.
100. ↑ Petra Ehm: Burgundy and the Empire. Late medieval foreign policy using the example of the government of Charles the Bold (1465–1477). Munich 2002, especially p. 168ff. In general on the relationship between Friedrich and Karl see also Richard Vaughan: Charles the Bold. London / New York 1973; Woodbridge 2002 (reprint with updated introduction and bibliography), pp. 123ff.
101. ↑ Quoted from Hartmut Boockmann, Heinrich Dormeier: Councils, Church and Imperial Reform 1410–1495. Stuttgart 2005, S. 117. Malte Prietzel: The Holy Roman Empire in the late Middle Ages. Darmstadt 2004, p. 135.
102. ↑ Hartmut Boockmann / Heinrich Dormeier: Councils, Church and Imperial Reform 1410–1495. Stuttgart 2005, p. 117f.
103. ↑ Karl-Friedrich Krieger: The Habsburgs in the Middle Ages. From Rudolf I to Friedrich III. 2nd, updated edition, Stuttgart 2004, p. 217.
104. ^ Heinrich Koller: Emperor Friedrich III. Darmstadt 2005, p. 198.
105. ^ Heinrich Koller: Emperor Friedrich III. Darmstadt 2005, p. 201.
106. ^ Heinrich Koller: Emperor Friedrich III. Darmstadt 2005, p. 200.
107. ↑ Karl-Friedrich Krieger: The Habsburgs in the Middle Ages. From Rudolf I to Friedrich III. 2nd, updated edition, Stuttgart 2004, p. 220.
108. ^ Heinrich Koller: Emperor Friedrich III. Darmstadt 2005, p. 221.
109. ↑ Erich Meuthen: The 15th century. Revised by Claudia Märtl, 5th edition, Munich 2012, p. 48.
110. ↑ Karl-Friedrich Krieger: The Habsburgs in the Middle Ages. From Rudolf I to Friedrich III. 2nd, updated edition, Stuttgart 2004, p. 222.
111. ^ Susanne Wolf: The double government of Emperor Friedrich III. and King Maximilians (1486–1493). Cologne 2005, p. 545f. On the older view of Ernst Bock: The double government of Emperor Friedrich III. and King Maximilians in the years 1486 to 1493. In: From the Imperial Diets of the 15th and 16th centuries. Göttingen 1958, pp. 283-340.
112. ↑ See also Susanne Wolf: The double government of Emperor Friedrich III. and King Maximilians (1486–1493). Cologne 2005, pp. 100–128.
113. ^ Susanne Wolf: The double government of Emperor Friedrich III. and King Maximilians (1486–1493). Cologne 2005, p. 118.
114. ^ Manfred Hollegger: Maximilian I (1459-1519). Ruler and man of a turning point. Stuttgart 2005, p. 61.
115. ↑ Karl-Friedrich Krieger: The Habsburgs in the Middle Ages. From Rudolf I to Friedrich III. 2nd, updated edition, Stuttgart 2004, p. 224.
116. ^ Heinrich Koller: Emperor Friedrich III. Darmstadt 2005, p. 229. Susanne Wolf: The double government of Emperor Friedrich III. and King Maximilians (1486–1493). Cologne 2005, pp. 482-489.
117. ^ Heinrich Koller: Emperor Friedrich III. Darmstadt 2005, p. 249.
118. ^ Heinrich Koller: Emperor Friedrich III. Darmstadt 2005, p. 233; Karl-Friedrich Krieger: The Habsburgs in the Middle Ages. From Rudolf I to Friedrich III. 2nd, updated edition, Stuttgart 2004, p. 228; Harry Kühnel: The personal physicians of the Habsburgs until the death of Emperor Friedrich III. In: Communications from the Austrian State Archives. Vol. 11 (1958), pp. 1–36, here: p. 27.
119. ↑ Daniel Carlo Pangerl: "Item as one of the kayser Fridrichen sin foot section". The leg amputation on Emperor Friedrich III. on June 8, 1493 in Linz. In: Sudhoff's archive. Vol. 94 (2010), pp. 195-200, here: p. 197.
120. ↑ Daniel Carlo Pangerl: "Item as one of the kayser Fridrichen sin foot section". The leg amputation on Emperor Friedrich III. on June 8, 1493 in Linz. In: Sudhoff's archive. Vol. 94, 2010, pp. 195-200, here: p. 195; Daniel Carlo Pangerl: The leg of the Habsburg. A new source evaluation suggests how the leg amputation to Emperor Friedrich III. expired. In: Spektrum der Wissenschaft 2, 2014, pp. 76–79.
121. ↑ Michail Boytsov: The Vienna funeral for Emperor Friedrich III. In: Franz Fuchs, Paul-Joachim Heinig, Martin Wagendorfer (Eds.): King and Chancellery, Emperor and Pope: Friedrich III. and Enea Silvio Piccolomini in Wiener Neustadt. Cologne 2013, pp. 281–305, here: p. 281.
122. ^ Rudolf J. Meyer: King and Emperor burials in the late Middle Ages. From Rudolf von Habsburg to Friedrich III. Cologne 2000, p. 177.
123. ^ Rudolf J. Meyer: King and Emperor burials in the late Middle Ages. From Rudolf von Habsburg to Friedrich III. Cologne 2000, p. 178 f.
124. ^ Rudolf J. Meyer: King and Emperor burials in the late Middle Ages. From Rudolf von Habsburg to Friedrich III. Cologne 2000, pp. 186-188; Franz Zehetner: Insights into the interior of the Friedrichsgrabes. In: Renate Kohn (ed.): The Kaiser and his tomb 1517–2017. New research on the high grave of Friedrich III. in Vienna's St. Stephen's Cathedral. Vienna et al. 2017, pp. 419–426.
125. ^ Rudolf J. Meyer: King and Emperor burials in the late Middle Ages. From Rudolf von Habsburg to Friedrich III. Cologne 2000, p. 193.
126. ↑ Hartmut Boockmann / Heinrich Dormeier: Councils, Church and Imperial Reform 1410–1495. Stuttgart 2005, p. 12; Paul-Joachim Heinig: The Challenge of the "New Media" (CD-ROM, Image Disc and Internet). Future design issues and forms of publication using the example of the Regesta Imperii. In: Harald Zimmermann (Ed.): The Regesta Imperii in Progress and Progress. Cologne et al. 2000, pp. 129–148, here: p. 132. Paul-Joachim Heinig: Zur Kanzleipraxis under Kaiser Friedrich III. (1440-1493). In: Archiv für Diplomatik 31 (1985) pp. 383–442, here: p. 387.
127. ^ Heinrich Koller: Emperor Friedrich III. Darmstadt 2005, p. 25.
128. ^ Heinrich Koller: Emperor Friedrich III. Darmstadt 2005, p. 27.
129. ^ Heinrich Koller: Emperor Friedrich III. Darmstadt 2005, pp. 27, 30.
130. ↑ Bernd Schneidmüller: Consensus - Territorialization - Self-interest. How to deal with late medieval history. In: Frühmittelalterliche Studien , Vol. 39 (2005), pp. 225–246.
131. ↑ Hartmut Boockmann / Heinrich Dormeier: Councils, Church and Imperial Reform 1410–1495. Stuttgart 2005, p. 18.
132. ^ Paul-Joachim Heinig: Art .: Friedrich III. (1440-93). In: Werner Paravicini (ed.): Courtyards and residences in the late medieval empire. A dynastic-topographical handbook, Vol. I: Dynasties and courts. Ostfildern 2003, pp. 341–351, here: p. 341.
133. ↑ The originator of this phrase, which is still pithy today, is unclear. See Gabriele Annas: Hoftag - Common Day - Reichstag. Studies on the structural development of German imperial assemblies in the late Middle Ages (1349–1471). Vol. 1, Göttingen 2004, p. 421.
134. ^ Paul-Joachim Heinig: German commission for the processing of the Regesta imperiii e. V. At the Academy of Sciences and Literature (Mainz) In: Yearbook of historical research 2005, pp. 41–51, here: p. 43.
135. ^ Heinrich Koller: Emperor Friedrich III. Darmstadt 2005, p. 30.
136. ↑ Georg Voigt: Enea Silvio de Piccolomini, as Pope Pius the Second, and his age , vol. 1, Berlin 1856, reprint Berlin 1967. Quote: Paul-Joachim Heinig: German commission for the processing of the Regesta imperiii e. V. At the Academy of Sciences and Literature (Mainz) In: Yearbook of historical research 2005, pp. 41–51, here: p. 43.
137. ↑ Alphons Lhotsky: Emperor Friedrich III. His life and his personality. In: Friedrich III. Imperial residence Wiener Neustadt. Exhibition catalog. Vienna 1966, pp. 16–47. See Heinrich Koller: Kaiser Friedrich III. Darmstadt 2005, p. 31; Paul-Joachim Heinig: Friedrich III. 1493-1993. Instead of a foreword. In: Paul-Joachim Heinig (Ed.): Kaiser Friedrich III. (1440–1493) in his time. Studies on the 500th anniversary of death on August 19, 1493/1993. Cologne et al. 1993, pp. 7-22, here: p. 14.
138. ↑ Friedrich Baethgen: Schism and Council Period, Imperial Reform and the Rise of the Habsburgs. In: Gebhardt, Handbuch der deutschen Geschichte, edited by Herbert Grundmann, Stuttgart 1970, pp. 608–693, here: p. 675. See most recently: Hartmut Boockmann / Heinrich Dormeier: Councils, Church and Reichsreform 1410–1495. Stuttgart 2005, p. 96.
139. ^ Hartmut Boockmann, Heinrich Dormeier: Councils, Church and Imperial Reform 1410–1495. Stuttgart 2005, p. 21.
140. ^ Hartmut Boockmann, Heinrich Dormeier: Councils, Church and Imperial Reform 1410–1495. Stuttgart 2005, p. 23.
141. ^ Paul-Joachim Heinig (Ed.): Kaiser Friedrich III. in his time. Studies on the occasion of the 500th anniversary of death on August 19, 1493/1993. Cologne et al. 1993.
142. ↑ Karl-Friedrich Krieger: The Habsburgs in the Middle Ages. From Rudolf I to Friedrich III. 2nd, updated edition, Stuttgart 2004, p. 229.
143. ^ Paul-Joachim Heinig: Friedrich III. (1440-1493). Hof, Government and Politics , Vol. 1–3, Cologne et al. 1997.
144. ↑ Konstantin Moritz A. Langmaier: Archduke Albrecht VI. of Austria (1418–1463). A prince caught between dynasty, regions and empire. Cologne et al. 2015, p. 9 ( online ).

predecessor	Office	successor
Albrecht II.	Roman-German King from 1452, Emperor 1440–1493	Maximilian I.
Albrecht VI.	Duke of Austria 1463–1493	Maximilian I.
Ernst the Iron	Duke of Styria 1424–1493 (1424 – approx. 1436 as regent: Friedrich IV. )	Maximilian I.
Ernst the Iron	Duke of Carinthia 1424–1493 (1424 – approx. 1436 as regent: Friedrich IV. )	Maximilian I.

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