Marriages of Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor

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Anne of Brittany, Archduke of Austria, Bianca Maria Sforza, Emperor Maximilian I, House of Habsburg, Mary of Burgundy, Philip I of Castile, Philip of Burgundy, Pope Alexander VI, Pope Julius II, Royal Marriage

Emperor Maximilian was married three times, but only the first marriage produced offspring.

Maximilian I (March 22, 1459 — January 12, 1519) was King of the Romans from 1486 and Holy Roman Emperor from 1508 until his death. He was never crowned by the Pope, as the journey to Rome was blocked by the Venetians. He proclaimed himself elected emperor in 1508 (Pope Julius II later recognized this) at Trent, thus breaking the long tradition of requiring a papal coronation for the adoption of the Imperial title. Maximilian was the only surviving son of Friedrich III, Holy Roman Emperor, and Infanta Eleanor of Portugal. Since his coronation as King of the Romans in 1486, he ran a double government, (with a separate court), with his father until Friedrich III’s death in 1493.

Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor

Maximilian’s first wife was Mary of Burgundy (1457–1482).

Mary (February 13, 1457 – March 27, 1482), nicknamed the Rich, was a member of the House of Valois-Burgundy who ruled a collection of states that included the duchies of Limburg, Brabant, Luxembourg, the counties of Namur, Holland, Hainaut and other territories, from 1477 until her death in 1482.

As the only child of Charles I the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, and his wife Isabella of Bourbon, a daughter of Charles I, Duke of Bourbon and Agnes of Burgundy, Mary inherited the Burgundian lands at the age of 19 upon the death of her father in the Battle of Nancy on January 5, 1477. In order to counter the appetite of the French king Louis XI for her lands, she married Archduke Maximilian of Austria.

They were married in Ghent on August 19, 1477, and the marriage was ended by Mary’s death in a riding accident in 1482. Mary was the love of his life. Even in old age, the mere mention of her name moved him to tears (although, his sexual life, contrary to his chivalric ideals, was unchaste).

Mary of Burgundy

The grand literary projects commissioned and composed in large part by Maximilian many years after her death were in part tributes to their love, especially Theuerdank, in which the hero saved the damsel in distress like he had saved her inheritance in real life.

Beyond her beauty, the inheritance and the glory she brought, Mary corresponded to Maximilian’s ideal of a woman: the spirited grand “Dame” who could stand next to him as sovereigns. To their daughter Margaret, he described Mary: from her eyes shone the power (Kraft) that surpassed any other woman.

The marriage produced three children:

1. Philipp of Burgundy (1478–1506) who inherited his mother’s domains following her death, but predeceased his father. He married Joanna of Castile, becoming king-consort of Castile upon her accession in 1504, ruled Castile via the concept Jure uxoris (a Latin phrase meaning “by right of (his) wife”) and is known as King Felipe I of Castile. He and was the father of the Holy Roman Emperors Charles V and Ferdinand I.

The meeting of Maximilian and Mary of Burgundy

2. Margaret of Austria (1480–1530), who was first engaged at the age of 2 to the French dauphin (who became Charles VIII of France a year later) to confirm peace between France and Burgundy. She was sent back to her father in 1492 after Charles repudiated their betrothal to marry Anne of Brittany. She was then married to the crown prince of Castile and Aragon Juan, Prince of Asturias, and after his death to Philibert II of Savoy, after which she undertook the guardianship of her deceased brother Philipp’s children, and governed Burgundy for the heir, Charles.

3. Francis of Austria, who died shortly after his birth in 1481.

Maximilian’s second wife was Anne of Brittany (1477–1514) the eldest child of Duke Francis II of Brittany and his second wife Margaret of Foix, Infanta of Navarre.

Anne of Brittany

They were married by proxy in Rennes on December 18, 1490, but the contract was dissolved by Pope Alexander VI in early 1492, by which time Anne had already been forced by the French king, Charles VIII (the fiancé of Maximilian’s daughter Margaret of Austria) to repudiate the contract and marry him instead.

The drive behind this marriage, to the great annoyance of Maximilian’s father, Emperor Friedrich III (who characterized it as “disgraceful”), was the desire of personal revenge against the French (Maximilian blamed France for the great tragedies of his life up to and including Mary of Burgundy’s death, political upheavals that followed, troubles in the relationship with his son and later, Philipp’s death ).

Maximilian, as the young King of the Romans, had in mind a pincer grip against the Kingdom of France, while Friedrich III wanted him to focus on expansion towards the East and maintenance of stability in newly reacquired Austria. But Brittany was so weak that it could not resist French advance by itself even briefly like the Burgundian State had done, while Maximilian could not even personally come to Brittany to consummate the marriage.

Maximilian’s third wife was Bianca Maria Sforza (1472–1510). She was the eldest legitimate daughter of Duke Galeazzo Maria Sforza of Milan by his second wife, Bona of Savoy, daughter of Louis, Duke of Savoy and Anne de Lusignan of Cyprus.

Bianca Maria Sforza

They were married in 1493, the marriage bringing Maximilian a rich dowry and allowing him to assert his rights as imperial overlord of Milan. The marriage was unhappy, and they had no children. In Maximilian’s view, while Bianca might surpass his first wife Mary in physical beauty, she was just a “child” with “a mediocre mind”, who could neither make decisions nor be presented as a respectable lady to the society.

Benecke opines that this seems unfair, as while Bianca was always concerned with trivial, private matters (Recent research though indicates that Bianca was an educated woman who was politically active), she was never given the chance to develop politically, unlike the other women in Maximilian’s family including Margaret of Austria or Catherine of Saxony.

Despite her unsuitability as an empress, Maximilian tends to be criticized for treating her with coldness and neglect, which after 1500 only became worse. Bianca, on the other hand, loved the emperor deeply and always tried to win his heart with heartfelt letters, expensive jewels and allusions to sickness, but did not even get back a letter, developed eating disorders and mental illness, and died a childless woman.

Joseph Grünpeck, the court historian and physician, criticized the emperor, who, in Grünpeck’s opinion, was responsible for Bianca’s death through neglect.

In addition, he had several illegitimate children, but the number and identities of those are a matter of great debate. Johann Jakob Fugger writes in Ehrenspiegel (Mirror of Honour) that the emperor began fathering illegitimate children after becoming a widower, and there were eight children in total, four boys and four girls.

March 22, 1459: Birth of Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor

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Archduke Albrecht VI of Austria, Battle of Guinegate, Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, Emperor Friedrich III, Emperor Maximilian I, Infanta Eleanor of Portugal, King Albert II of Germany, King Louis XI of France, King Matthias Corvinus of Hungary, Mary of Burgundy, Philip the Handsome, Pope Julius II

Maximilian I (March 22, 1459 – January 12, 1519) was King of the Romans from 1486 and Holy Roman Emperor from 1508 until his death.

Archduke Maximilian of Austria was born at Wiener Neustadt on March 22, 1459, the only surviving son of Friedrich III, Holy Roman Emperor, and Infanta Eleanor of Portugal, daughter of King Duarte of Portugal and his wife Infanta Eleanor of Aragon, daughter of King Fernando I of Aragon and Eleanor of Alburquerque.

Emperor Maximilian I

His father named him for an obscure saint, Maximilian of Tebessa, who Friedrich believed had once warned him of imminent peril in a dream.

Habsburg Rivalries

In his childhood Maximilian and his parents were besieged in Vienna by Archduke Albrecht VI of Austria, younger brother of Emperor Friedrich III. As a scion of the Leopoldian line, Archduke Albrecht VI ruled over the Inner Austrian duchies of Styria, Carinthia and Carniola from 1424, from 1457 also over the entire Archduchy of Austria until his death, rivalling with his elder brother Emperor Frederick III.

Friedrich III, Holy Roman Emperor, and Infanta Eleanor of Portugal

In 1439 both Duke Friedrich IV of Further Austria and King Albrecht II of Germany (King of the Romans) Duke of Austria died. As heir of Inner Austria and regent of Further Austria, Tyrol and the Austria proper, Albrecht VI then ruled over all the dynasty’s hereditary lands. At that stage, Albrecht began quarreling with his brother Emperor Friedrich III (then known as Duke Friedrich V) and in 1446 claimed the lands of Further Austria from him.

The conflict between the brothers escalated when Duke Ladislaus Posthumous of Austria died childless in 1457 and Emperor Friedrich III, came into his inheritance. Albrecht VI rose up and in 1458 occupied the western part of the Austrian archduchy “above the Enns” (later known as Upper Austria), which he ruled at Linz as a separate principality (Fürstentum Österreich ob der Enns) and, quite small, his portion of Habsburg patrimony.

After laying siege to Friedrich in the Vienna Hofburg, he also took over the reign of Austria below the Enns (now Lower Austria) in 1462. Albrecht VI however died childless the next year and all his lands fell back to his elder brother.

One source relates that, during the siege’s bleakest days, the young prince Maximilian wandered about the castle garrison, begging the servants and men-at-arms for bits of bread.

Father and Mother

Maximilian’s father was elected and crowned King of the Romans in 1440. In 1452, at the age of 37, King Friedrich III travelled to Italy to receive his bride and to be crowned Holy Roman Emperor. Friedrich III’s reign of 53 years is the longest in the history of the Holy Roman Empire or the German monarchy.

Maximilian was the favourite child of his mother, whose personality was a contrast to his father (although there seemed to be communication problems between mother and son, as she spoke Portuguese). Reportedly she told Maximilian that, “If I had known, my son, that you would become like your father, I would have regretted having born you for the throne.” Her early death pushed him even more towards a man’s world, where one grew up first as a warrior rather than a politician.

First Marriage

The meeting of Maximilian and Mary of Burgundy

The Duke of Burgundy, Charles the Bold, was the chief political opponent of Maximilian’s father. Emperor Friedrich III was concerned about Burgundy’s expansionist tendencies on the western border of his Holy Roman Empire, and, to forestall military conflict, he attempted to secure the marriage of Charles’ only daughter, Mary of Burgundy, to his son Maximilian. After the Siege of Neuss (1474–75), he was successful. The wedding between Maximilian and Mary took place on August 19, 1477.

Perhaps as preparation for his task in the Netherlands, in 1476, at the age of 17, in the name of his father, apparently Maximilian commanded a military campaign against Hungary – the first actual battlefield experience in his life (command responsibility was likely shared with more experienced generals though).

Maximilian was elected King of the Romans on February 16, 1486 in Frankfurt-am-Main at his father’s initiative and crowned on April 9, 1486 in Aachen. Much of the Austrian territories and Vienna were under the rule of King Matthias Corvinus of Hungary, as a result of the Austrian–Hungarian War (1477–1488). Since his coronation as King of the Romans he ran a double government, or Doppelregierung (with a separate court), with his father until Friedrich’s death in 1493.

Emperor Maximilian I

Maximilian was now a king without lands. Matthias Corvinus offered Emperor Friedrich and his son Archduke Maximilian, the return of Austrian provinces and Vienna, if they would renounce the treaty of 1463 and accept Matthias as Friedrich’s designated heir and favoured successor as Holy Roman Emperor. Before this was settled though, Matthias died in Vienna in 1490. However, after Matthias Corvinus died from a stroke on April 9, 1490, civil war broke out in Hungary between the supporters of John Corvinus and the supporters of king Vladislaus of Bohemia.

Emperor

Upon Emperor Friedrich III’s death in 1493 he was succeeded by his son Maximilian who was never crowned by the Pope, as the journey to Rome was blocked by the Venetians. He proclaimed himself Elected Emperor in 1508 (Pope Julius II later recognized this) at Trent, thus breaking the long tradition of requiring a papal coronation for the adoption of the Imperial title.

Maximilian expanded the influence of the House of Habsburg through war and his marriage in 1477 to Mary of Burgundy, the ruler of the Burgundian State, heir of Charles the Bold, though he also lost his family’s original lands in today’s Switzerland to the Swiss Confederacy.

Maximilian’s wife had inherited the large Burgundian domains in France and the Low Countries upon her father’s death in the Battle of Nancy on 5 January 1477.

The Duchy of Burgundy was also claimed by the French crown under Salic law, with King Louis XI of France vigorously asserting his claim through military force. Maximilian at once undertook the defence of his wife’s dominions. Without support from the Empire and with an empty treasury left by Charles the Bold’s campaigns (Mary had to pawn her jewels to obtain loans), he carried out a campaign against the French during 1478–1479 and reconquered Le Quesnoy, Conde and Antoing. He defeated the French forces at the Battle of Guinegate, in modern Enguinegatte, on August 7, 1479.

Philipp the Handsome, Duke of Burgundy, King of Castile

His son, Philipp the Handsome of Austria, was ruler of the Burgundian Netherlands and titular Duke of Burgundy from 1482 to 1506. Through Philipp’s marriage to eventual Queen Joanna of Castile in 1496, he was the first Habsburg King of Castile (as Felipe I) for a brief time in 1506.

This helped Maximilian to establish the Habsburg dynasty in Spain, which allowed his grandson Charles of Burgundy to hold the thrones of both Castile and Aragon as King Carlos I of a united Spain.

Assessment

The historian Thomas A. Brady Jr. describes Emperor Maximilian I as “the first Holy Roman Emperor in 250 years who ruled as well as reigned” and also, the “ablest royal warlord of his generation.”

According to historian Joachim Whaley, if Maximilian ever saw the Empire as a source of income and soldiers only, he failed miserably in extracting both. His hereditary lands and other sources always contributed much more. On the other hand, the attempts he demonstrated in building the imperial system alone shows that he did consider the German lands “a real sphere of government in which aspirations to royal rule were actively and purposefully pursued.”

Emperor Maximilian I

Whaley notes that, despite struggles, what emerged at the end of Maximilian’s rule was a strengthened monarchy and not an oligarchy of princes. If he was usually weak when trying to act as a monarch and using imperial instituations like the Reichstag, Maximilian’s position was often strong when acting as a neutral overlord and relying on regional leagues of weaker principalities such as the Swabian league, as shown in his ability to call on money and soldiers to mediate the Bavaria dispute in 1504, after which he gained significant territories in Alsace, Swabia and Tyrol. His fiscal reform in his hereditary lands provided a model for other German princes.

When Maximilian I died on January 12, 1519 he was succeeded by his grandson, Charles, who became one of Europe’s most powerful Emperors who had inherited a greatly expanded Habsburg empire.

Emperor Charles V

Charles V (February 24, 1500 – September 21, 1558) was Holy Roman Emperor and Archduke of Austria from 1519 to 1556, King of Spain (Castile and Aragon) from 1515 to 1555, as King Carlos I, and Lord of the Netherlands as titular Duke of Burgundy from 1506 to 1555. Charles V was head of the rising House of Habsburg during the first half of the 16th century. His dominions in Europe included the Holy Roman Empire, extending from Germany to northern Italy with direct rule over the Austrian hereditary lands and the Burgundian Low Countries, and Spain with its possessions of the southern Italian kingdoms of Naples and Sicily and Sardinia.

March 17, 1473: Birth of King James IV of Scotland

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Battle of Flodden, Duke of Rothesay, Edinburgh Castle, Emperor Maximilian I, King Fernando II of Aragon, King James IV of Scotland, King Louis XII of France, Linlithgow Palace, Margaret Tudor of England, Palace of Holyroodhouse, Pope Alexander VI, Pope Julius II, Queen Isabella I of Castile, Stirling Castle, Treaty of Perpetual Peace

James IV (March 17, 1473 – September 9, 1513) Born at Stirling Castle, James was the eldest son of King James III of Scotland and Margrethe of Denmark, the daughter of Christian I, King of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, and Dorothea of Brandenburg.

As heir apparent to the Scottish crown, James became Duke of Rothesay at birth.

James was King of Scotland from June 11, 1488 until his death at the Battle of Flodden in 1513. He inherited the throne at the age of fifteen on the death of his father, King James III, at the Battle of Sauchieburn, following a rebellion in which the younger James was the figurehead of the rebels. King James IV is generally regarded as the most successful of the Stewart monarchs. He was responsible for a major expansion of the Scottish royal navy, which included the founding of two royal dockyards and the acquisition or construction of 38 ships, including the Michael, the largest warship of its time.

Spanish monarchs Fernando II of Aragon and Queen Isabella I of Castile were appointed to arbitrate future disputes and unresolved issues such as redress for damages caused by the recent invasions. The possibility was also raised of strengthening the peace between both kingdoms with the marriage of James IV to Henry VII’s eldest daughter, Margaret.

King James IV of Scotland

Scottish and English commissioners met at Richmond Palace on 24 January 24, 1502, where they agreed on the marriage between James IV and Margaret, with a dowry of £35,000 Scots, and a peace treaty between the two kingdoms.

Under the terms of the Treaty of Perpetual Peace, there was to be “good, real and sincere, true, sound, and firm peace, friendship, league and confederation, to last all time coming” between England and Scotland, neither king or their successors were to make war against the other, and if either king broke the treaty, the Pope would excommunicate them.

In a ceremony at the altar of Glasgow Cathedral on December 10, 1502, King James IV confirmed the Treaty of Perpetual Peace with King Henry VII, the first peace treaty between Scotland and England since 1328.

The marriage was completed by proxy on January 25, 1503 at Richmond Palace in the presence of the King and Queen of England, the Earl of Bothwell standing as a proxy for the Scottish king. Margaret left Richmond for Scotland on June 27 and, after crossing the border at Berwick upon Tweed on August 1, 1503, was received at Lamberton by the Archbishop of Glasgow and the Bishop of Moray.

On August 8, 1503, the marriage of the 30-year old Scottish king and his 13-year old English bride was celebrated in person in Holyrood Abbey. The rites were performed by Robert Blackadder, Archbishop of Glasgow and Thomas Savage, Archbishop of York.

Their wedding was commemorated by the gift of the Hours of James IV of Scotland, and was portrayed as the marriage of The Thrissil and the Rois (the thistle and rose – the flowers of Scotland and England, respectively) by the poet William Dunbar, who was then resident at James’ court.

It is possible that the consummation of the marriage was delayed. This was not uncommon when young medieval brides were married, with the couple maintaining separate households or simply avoiding consummation until the bride was a more acceptable age. Margaret did not bear her first child until she was 17, so it is likely that James IV respected this convention.

Margaret of England

King James IV’s marriage to Margaret meant that only the future King Henry VIII stood between the Scottish king and the English succession, as Henry’s lack of an heir made it possible that either James or one of his successors might succeed if the Tudors failed to produce heirs.

Margaret’s first pregnancy resulted in the birth of James, Duke of Rothesay at the Palace of Holyroodhouse in February 1507. However, this heir to the throne died a year later in February 1508. At this point Margaret was already pregnant with a second child, a daughter whose name is unknown, and who was born and died in July 1508. In October 1509, a second son was born and named Arthur, a name recalling Margaret’s late brother, Arthur, Prince of Wales, and reminding the still heirless Henry VIII that, if he were unable to produce a legitimate son to succeed him, it might be a son of Margaret Tudor who would succeed.

James was a patron of the arts and took an active interest in the law, literature and science, even personally experimenting in dentistry and bloodletting. With his patronage the printing press came to Scotland, and the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh and the University of Aberdeen were founded. He commissioned the building of the Palace of Holyroodhouse and Falkland Palace, and extensive building work at Linlithgow Palace, Edinburgh Castle and Stirling Castle. The education act passed by the Parliament of Scotland in 1496 introduced compulsory schooling.

During James’s 25 year reign, royal income doubled, the crown exercised firm control over the Scottish church, royal administration was extended to the Highlands and the Hebrides, and by 1493 James had overcome the last independent Lord of the Isles.

Relations with England were improved with the Treaty of Perpetual Peace in 1502 and James’s marriage to Margaret Tudor in 1503 (the marriage led to the Union of the Crowns in 1603, when Elizabeth I of England died without heirs and James IV’s great-grandson James VI succeeded to the English throne).

The long period of domestic peace after 1497 allowed James to focus more on foreign policy, which included the sending of several of his warships to aid his uncle, King Hans of Denmark, in his conflict with Sweden; amicable relations with Pope Alexander VI, Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I and Louis XII of France; and James’s aspiration to lead a European naval crusade against the Turks of the Ottoman Empire. James was granted the title of Protector and Defender of the Christian Faith in 1507 by Pope Julius II.

When Henry VIII of England invaded France in 1513 as part of the Holy League, James chose the Auld Alliance with the French over the ‘Perpetual Peace’ with the English, and answered France’s call for assistance by leading a large army across the border into England. James and many of his nobles were killed at the Battle of Flodden on September 9, 1513. He was the last monarch in Great Britain to be killed in battle, and was succeeded by his son James V.

History of The Kingdom of East Francia: Emperor Elect and King of the Romans

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Emperor Charles V, Emperor Friedrich III, Emperor Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor, King of the Romans, Kingdom of East Francia, Pope Clement VII, Pope Julius II

Although this series was to track the history of the Kingdom of East Francia and we’ve been recently focusing on how the Carolingian Kingdom of East Francia transitioned into a Germanic Kingdom. With that change the title of the King, prior to being crowned Emperor once the Ottonian Dynasty were granted the imperial title, was known as King of Germany or King of the Romans.

Although it is beyond my original intent of this series to continue to discuss the later usage of the title “King of the Romans” I will mention how the usage of that title evolved.

The title Romanorum Rex King of the Romans ceased to be used for ruling kings after 1508, when the Pope Julius II permitted King Maximilian I to use the title of Electus Romanorum Imperator (“elected Emperor of the Romans”) after he failed in a good-faith attempt to journey to Rome. This ended the centuries-old custom that the Holy Roman Emperor had to be crowned by the Pope.

Emperor Maximilian I

Maximilian’s predecessor Friedrich III was the last to be crowned Emperor by the Pope in Rome.

At this time Maximilian also took the new title “King in Germania” (Germaniae rex), but the latter was never used as a primary title.

Maximilian’s titles at this time were: by God’s grace Elected Roman Emperor, always Augustus, in Germany, of Hungary, Dalamatia, Croatia etc King […]”

After the death of Maximilian I his paternal grandson, Charles of Burgundy in 1519, inherited the Habsburg monarchy. Charles also became King Carlos I of Spain in 1516. Charles was also the natural candidate of the electors to succeed his grandfather as Holy Roman Emperor.

Pope Clement VII

He defeated the candidacies of Elector Friedrich III of Saxony, King François I of France, and King Henry VIII of England. According to some, Charles became emperor due to the fact that by paying huge bribes to the electors, he was the highest bidder.

Charles won the crown on June 28, 1519. On October 23, 1520, he was crowned in Germany and some ten years later, on 24 February 24, 1530, he was crowned Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Clement VII in Bologna, the last emperor to receive a papal coronation.

Beginning with his brother and successor, Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor, the rulers of the Empire no longer sought the Imperial coronation by the Pope and styled themselves “Emperors” without Papal approval, taking the title as soon as they were crowned in Germany or, if crowned in their predecessor’s lifetime, upon the death of a sitting Emperor.

Emperor Charles V

Heirs designate

As I mentioned previously the Holy Roman Empire was an elective monarchy. No person had an automatic legal right to the succession simply because he was related to the current Emperor. However, the Emperor could, and often did, have a relative (usually a son) elected to succeed him after his death.

With the Emperor no longer needing the title “King of the Romans” now that a Papal Coronation had become obsolete, the Emperor’s newly elected heir apparent henceforth bore the title “King of the Romans”.

During the Middle Ages, a junior King of the Romans was normally chosen only when the senior ruler bore the title of Emperor, so as to avoid having two, theoretically equal kings.

Only on one occasion (1147-1150) was there both a ruling King of the Romans (King Conrad III) and a King of the Romans as heir (Heinrch Berengar).

The election was in the same form as that of the senior ruler. In practice, however, the actual administration of the Empire was always managed by the Emperor (or Emperor elect), with at most certain duties delegated to the heir.

November 17, 1558: Death of Mary I, Queen of England and Ireland. Part I.

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Anne Boleyn, Cardinal Wolsey, Carlos I of Spain, François I of France, Henry VIII of England, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, Infanta Catherine of Aragon, Mary I of England, Mary Tudor, Pope Clement VII, Pope Julius II

Mary I (February 18, 1516 – November 17, 1558), also known as Mary Tudor, and as “Bloody Mary” by her Protestant opponents, was Queen of England and Ireland from July 1553 until her death in 1558.

Mary was born on February 18, 1516 at the Palace of Placentia in Greenwich, England. She was the only child of King Henry VIII and his first wife, Infanta Catherine of Aragon, to survive infancy. Her mother had suffered many miscarriages and stillbirths. Before Mary’s birth, four previous pregnancies had resulted in a stillborn daughter and three short-lived or stillborn sons, including Henry, Duke of Cornwall.

Mary was baptised into the Catholic faith at the Church of the Observant Friars in Greenwich three days after her birth.

Despite his affection for Mary, Henry was deeply disappointed that his marriage had produced no sons. By the time Mary was nine years old, it was apparent that Henry and Catherine would have no more children, leaving Henry without a legitimate male heir.

In 1525, Henry sent Mary to the border of Wales to preside, presumably in name only, over the Council of Wales and the Marches. She was given her own court based at Ludlow Castle and many of the royal prerogatives normally reserved for a Prince of Wales.

Vives and others called her the Princess of Wales, although she was never technically invested with the title. She appears to have spent three years in the Welsh Marches, making regular visits to her father’s court, before returning permanently to the home counties around London in mid-1528.

Throughout Mary’s childhood, Henry negotiated potential future marriages for her. When she was only two years old, Mary was promised to François, Dauphin of France, the infant son of King François I of France, but the contract was repudiated after three years.

In 1522, at the age of six, she was instead contracted to marry her 22-year-old cousin Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor (King Carlos I of Spain). However, Charles broke off the engagement within a few years with Henry’s agreement.

Cardinal Wolsey, Henry’s chief adviser, then resumed marriage negotiations with the French, and Henry suggested that Mary marry the French king François I, who was eager for an alliance with England. A marriage treaty was signed which provided that Mary marry either François I or his second son Henri, Duke of Orleans, but Wolsey secured an alliance with France without the marriage.

In 1528, Wolsey’s agent Thomas Magnus discussed the idea of her marriage to her cousin King James V of Scotland with the Scottish diplomat Adam Otterburn. According to the Venetian Mario Savorgnano, by this time Mary was developing into a pretty, well-proportioned young lady with a fine complexion.

Although these various possibilities for Mary’s marriage had been considered, the marriage of Mary’s parents was itself in jeopardy, which threatened her status. Disappointed at the lack of a male heir, and eager to remarry, Henry attempted to have his marriage to Catherine annulled, but Pope Clement VII refused his request.

Henry claimed, citing biblical passages (Leviticus 20:21), that the marriage was unclean because Catherine was the widow of his brother Arthur, Prince of Wales (Mary’s uncle). Catherine claimed that her marriage to Arthur was never consummated and so was not a valid marriage.

Pope Julius II had issued a dispensation on that basis. Clement VII may have been reluctant to act because he was influenced by Emperor Charles V, Catherine’s nephew and Mary’s former betrothed, whose troops had surrounded and occupied Rome in the War of the League of Cognac.

From 1531, Mary was often sick with irregular menstruation and depression, although it is not clear whether this was caused by stress, puberty or a more deep-seated disease. She was not permitted to see her mother, whom Henry had sent to live away from court.

In early 1533, Henry married Anne Boleyn, and in May, Thomas Cranmer, the Archbishop of Canterbury, formally declared the marriage with Catherine void and the marriage to Anne valid. Henry repudiated the pope’s authority, declaring himself Supreme Head of the Church of England.

Catherine was demoted to Dowager Princess of Wales (a title she would have held as Arthur’s widow), and Mary was deemed illegitimate. She was styled “The Lady Mary” rather than Princess, and her place in the line of succession was transferred to Henry and Anne’s newborn daughter, Elizabeth.

Mary’s household was dissolved; her servants (including the Countess of Salisbury) were dismissed and, in December 1533, she was sent to join her infant half-sister’s household at Hatfield, Hertfordshire.

Mary determinedly refused to acknowledge that Anne was the queen or that Elizabeth was a princess, further enraging King Henry VIII. Under strain and with her movements restricted, Mary was frequently ill, which the royal physician attributed to her “ill treatment”.

The Imperial ambassador Eustace Chapuys became her close adviser, and interceded, unsuccessfully, on her behalf at court. The relationship between Mary and her father worsened; they did not speak to each other for three years.

Although both she and her mother were ill, Mary was refused permission to visit Catherine. When Catherine died in 1536, Mary was “inconsolable”. Catherine was interred in Peterborough Cathedral, while Mary grieved in semi-seclusion at Hunsdon in Hertfordshire.

The Dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire. Part II.

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Emperor Charles V, Emperor Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor, Holy Roman Empire, House of Habsburg, Peace of Zsitvatörök, Pope Clement VII, Pope Julius II, Roman Catholic Church Emperor Peter the Great, Sultan Ahmed I, The Ottoman Empire

One of the foundational principles of the Holy Roman Empire is that the Emperor was the preeminent Monarch throughout Europe and that the Empire itself was a genuine extension of the ancient Roman Empire as proclaimed by the Roman Catholic popes.

Not only did the Holy Roman Emperors hold to the contention that they were the preeminent Monarch throughout Europe, they firmly asserted that they were the only Emperor’s entitled to hold the title of Emperor within Europe.

The problem with this view was the fact that throughout the history of the Empire other Emperors began to rise within Europe. Eventually they were formally recognized as Emperors by the Holy Roman Empire. The first was in 1606 when Sultan Ahmed I was recognized as Emperor in the Peace of Zsitvatörök which concluded a long war with Austria.

When Czar Peter I the Great of Russia was created Emperor of Russia in 1721 the Holy Roman Empire was one of the first European states to formally recognize the imperial title. These recognitions were conditional on the fact that the Holy Roman Emperor was always pre-eminent.

The ideal that the Emperor held pre-eminence was an expression of the theory that the Holy Roman Empire, was the universal Christian State within all of Europe. However, this principle was only theoretical because the Holy Roman Empire did not have rule over the entirety of Europe at any time within its history.

Emperor Charlemagne

Furthermore, it was held that Imperial authority was not simply vested in the fact that the Emperor ruled their own Crown lands, even though by the 18th and 19th century the Habsburgs did own a large amount of crown lands, the Imperial authority of the emperor was seen as the highest secular ruler of the world and the paramount Christian champion of the Catholic Church.

Through the evolution of European history many states such as England and France for example, developed centralized government thus creating a stabilized Nation. This centralization did not occur during the lifetime of the Holy Roman Empire. However, this lack of centralization and a dependence upon the emperor’s Crown lands did attempt to establish the idea at the Imperial title was universal because it was not associated with one specific area.

By evoking its preeminence the Holy Roman emperors were seen as the most powerful entities on the European continent, and in foreign affairs, internationally the Holy Roman emperors were recognized as heirs of the old Roman Empire and the foremost Christian rulers which they believed granted them preeminence over other European rulers and monarchs.

Maximilian I (1459 – 1519) was King of the Romans from 1486 and Holy Roman Emperor from 1508 until his death. He was never crowned by the pope, as the journey to Rome was blocked by the Venetians. He proclaimed himself Elected Emperor in 1508 (Pope Julius II later recognized this) at Trent, thus breaking the long tradition of requiring a Papal coronation for the adoption of the Imperial title.

Maximilian I’s grandson and successor, Emperor Charles V defended Vienna from the Ottoman Empire and obtained a coronation as King of Italy and Holy Roman Emperor from Pope Clement VII. This coronation by the pope was the last coronation sanctioned by the Holy See. Ever since that time emperors had been formally titled as “Elected Roman Emperor” without the need for a papal coronation.

The appearance of the universalist character of the empire was sustained through the emperor’s feudal authority extending beyond just the institutions that had been developed within the formal imperial borders.

Imperial territories held by rulers of other realms remained imperial vassals. For instance, the kings of both Sweden and Denmark accepted vassalage in regards to their German lands until 1806, when these lands were formally incorporated into their kingdoms.

August 8, 1503: King James IV of Scotland marries Margaret Tudor

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6th Earl of Angus, Archibald Douglas, Battle of Flodden, Elizabeth of York, Henry Stuart, Henry VII of England, Henry VIII of England, Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I, House of Stewart, House of Tudor, King James IV of Scotland, Lord Darnley, Louis XI of France, Margaret Tudor, Pope Julius II, Queen Mary I of Scotland

Margaret Tudor (November 28, 1489 – October 18, 1541) was Queen of Scotland from 1503 until 1513 by marriage to King James IV. She was the eldest daughter and second child of King Henry VII of England and Elizabeth of York, and the sister of King Henry VIII of England.

Margaret married James IV at the age of 13, in accordance with the Treaty of Perpetual Peace between England and Scotland. Together, they had six children, though only one of them reached adulthood. Margaret’s marriage to James IV linked the royal houses of England and Scotland, which a century later resulted in the Union of the Crowns.

Early life

Margaret was born on November 28, 1489 in the Palace of Westminster in London to King Henry VII and his wife, Elizabeth of York. She was their second child and firstborn daughter. Her siblings included Arthur, Prince of Wales, the future King Henry VIII, and Mary, who would briefly become Queen of France.

Margaret Tudor

Margaret was baptised in St. Margaret’s, Westminster on St Andrew’s Day. She was named after Margaret Beaufort, Countess of Richmond and Derby, her paternal grandmother. Her nurse was Alice Davy.

On September 30, 1497, James IV’s commissioner, the Spaniard Pedro de Ayala concluded a lengthy truce with England, and now the marriage was again a serious possibility. James IV was in his late twenties and still unmarried. The Italian historian Polydore Vergil said that some of the English royal council objected to the match, saying that it would bring the Stewarts directly into the line of English succession, to which the wily and astute Henry replied:

What then? Should anything of the kind happen (and God avert the omen), I foresee that our realm would suffer no harm, since England would not be absorbed by Scotland, but rather Scotland by England, being the noblest head of the entire island, since there is always less glory and honour in being joined to that which is far the greater, just as Normandy once came under the rule and power of our ancestors the English.

On January 24, 1502, Scotland and England concluded the Treaty of Perpetual Peace, the first peace agreement between the two realms in over 170 years. The marriage treaty was concluded the same day and was viewed as a guarantee of the new peace. Margaret remained in England, but was now known as the “Queen of Scots”.

Marriage and progress

The marriage was completed by proxy on January 25, 1503 at Richmond Palace. The Earl of Bothwell was proxy for the Scottish king and wore a gown of cloth-of-gold at the ceremony in the Queen’s great chamber. He was accompanied by Robert Blackadder, archbishop of Glasgow, and Andrew Forman, postulate of Moray.

The herald, John Young, reported that “right notable jousts” followed the ceremony. Prizes were awarded the next morning, and the tournament continued another day.

The new queen was provided with a large wardrobe of clothes, and her crimson state bed curtains made of Italian sarcenet were embroidered with red Lancastrian roses. Clothes were also made for her companion, Lady Catherine Gordon, the widow of Perkin Warbeck. The clothes were embroidered by John Flee.

James IV, King of Scotland

In May 1503, James IV confirmed her possession of lands and houses in Scotland, including Methven Castle, Stirling Castle, Doune Castle, Linlithgow Palace and Newark Castle in Ettrick Forest, with the incomes from the corresponding earldom and lordship lands.

Later in 1503, months after the death of her mother, Queen Elizabeth (of York) Margaret came to Scotland; her progress was a grand journey northward. She left Richmond Palace on June 27, with Henry VII, and they travelled first to Collyweston in Northamptonshire.

At York a plaque commemorates the exact spot where the Queen of Scots entered its gates. After crossing the border at Berwick upon Tweed on August 1, 1503, Margaret was met by the Scottish court at Lamberton. At Dalkeith Palace, James came to kiss her goodnight. He came again to console her on August 4 after a stable fire had killed some of her favourite horses. Her riding gear, including a new sumpter cloth or pallion of cloth-of-gold worth £127 was destroyed in the fire.

At a meadow a mile from Edinburgh, there was a pavilion where Sir Patrick Hamilton and Patrick Sinclair played and fought in the guise of knights defending their ladies.

On August 8, 1503, the marriage was celebrated in person in Holyrood Abbey. The rites were performed by the archbishop of Glasgow and Thomas Savage, archbishop of York. Two days later, on St Lawrence’s day, Margaret went to mass at St Giles’, the town’s Kirk, as her first public appointment. The details of the proxy marriage, progress, arrival, and reception in Edinburgh were recorded by the Somerset Herald, John Young.

The marriage led to the Union of the Crowns in 1603, when Elizabeth I of England died without heirs and James IV’s great-grandson James VI succeeded to the English throne.

The long period of domestic peace after 1497 allowed James IV to focus more on foreign policy, which included the sending of several of his warships to aid his uncle, King Hans of Denmark, in his conflict with Sweden; amicable relations with the Pope, Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I and Louis XII of France; and James’s aspiration to lead a European naval crusade against the Turks of the Ottoman Empire. James was granted the title of Protector and Defender of the Christian Faith in 1507 by Pope Julius II.

Following the death of James IV at the Battle of Flodden in 1513, Margaret, as queen dowager, was appointed as regent for their son, King James V.

A pro-French party took shape among the nobility, urging that she should be replaced by John, Duke of Albany, the closest male relative to the infant king. In seeking allies, Margaret turned to the Douglases, and in 1514 she married Archibald Douglas, 6th Earl of Angus, which alienated the nobility and saw her replaced as regent by Albany.

In 1524, Margaret, with the help of the Hamiltons, removed Albany from power in a coup d’état while he was in France, and was recognised by Parliament as regent, then later as chief counsellor to King James V.

Following her divorce from Angus in 1527, Margaret married her third husband, Henry Stewart, 1st Lord Methven. Through her first and second marriages, Margaret was the grandmother of both Queen Mary I of Scotland, and Mary’s second husband, Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley.

January 12, 1519: Death of Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor

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Charles V Holy Roman Emperor, Holy Roman Emperor Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I, Holy Roman Empire, King Louis XI of France, Mary of Burgundy, Pope Julius II

Maximilian I (March 22, 1459 – January 12, 1519).

Maximilian was the son of Friedrich III, Holy Roman Emperor, and Eleanor of Portugal, a Portuguese infanta (princess), daughter of King Duarte of Portugal and his wife Eleanor of Aragon.

He ruled jointly with his father for the last ten years of the latter’s reign, from c. 1483 until his father’s death in 1493.

Maximilian was elected King of the Romans on 16 February 16, 1486 in Frankfurt-am-Main at his father’s initiative and crowned on April 9, 1486 in Aachen. Much of th Austrian territories and Vienna were under the rule of king Matthias Corvinus of Hungary, as a result of the Austrian–Hungarian War (1477–1488). Maximilian was now a king without lands. After the death of king Matthias, from July 1490, Maximilian began a series of short sieges that reconquered cities and fortresses that his father had lost in Austria.

Maximilian was never crowned by the pope, as the journey to Rome was blocked by the Venetians.

In 1508, Maximilian, with the assent of Pope Julius II, took the title Erwählter Römischer Kaiser (“Elected Roman Emperor”), thus ending the centuries-old custom that the Holy Roman Emperor had to be crowned by the Pope.

Maximilian expanded the influence of the House of Habsburg through war and his marriage. In 1477 Maximilian married Mary of Burgundy, the only child of Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, and his wife Isabella of Bourbon, she inherited the Burgundian lands at the age of 19 upon the death of her father in the Battle of Nancy on 5 January 1477. She spent most of her reign defending her birthright; in order to counter the appetite of the French king Louis XI for her lands.

Maximilian and Mary’s wedding contract stipulated that their children would succeed them but that the couple could not be each other’s heirs. Mary tried to bypass this rule with a promise to transfer territories as a gift in case of her death, but her plans were confounded. After Mary’s death in a riding accident on March 27, 1482 near the Wijnendale Castle, Maximilian’s aim was now to secure the inheritance to his and Mary’s son, Philipp the Handsome.

Maximilian lost his family’s original lands in today’s Switzerland to the Swiss Confederacy. Through marriage of his son Philipp the Handsome to eventual Queen Joanna of Castile in 1498, Maximilian helped to establish the Habsburg dynasty in Spain, which allowed his grandson Charles to hold the thrones of both Castile and Aragon, and he was the eventual successor to the Imperial Throne of the Holy Roman Empire.

The historian Thomas A. Brady Jr. describes him as “the first Holy Roman Emperor in 250 years who ruled as well as reigned” and also, the “ablest royal warlord of his generation.”

After 1517 Maximilian began to focus entirely on the question of his succession. His goal was to secure the throne for a member of his house and prevent François I of France from gaining the imperial throne.

In 1501, Maximilian fell from his horse and badly injured his leg, causing him pain for the rest of his life. Some historians have suggested that Maximilian was “morbidly” depressed: from 1514, he travelled everywhere with his coffin.

Maximilian died in Wels, Upper Austria, on January 12, 1519 at the age of 59. The death of Maximilian seemed to put the succession at risk. However, The Fugger family provided Maximilian a credit of one million gulden, which was used to bribe the prince-electors. However, the bribery claims have been challenged. At first, this policy seemed successful, and Maximilian managed to secure the votes from Mainz, Cologne, Brandenburg and Bohemia for his grandson Charles.

Maximilian’s son, Philipp the Handsome (King Felipe I of Castile by right of his wife) had died in 1506. The resulting “election campaign” was unprecedented due to the massive use of bribery. Within a few months the election of his grandson as Holy Roman Emperor Charles V was secured. Charles had also succeeded his maternal grandfather, King Fernando II-V of Aragon and Castile in 1516 and became King Carlos I of a united Spain. With his election as Emperor, Charles V ruled an empire as vast and as powerful as that of Charlemagne ‘s centuries earlier.

Archduchess Margaret of Austria, Governor of the Austrian Netherlands

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Archduchess Margaret of Austria, Carlos I of Spain, Felipe I of Castile and Spain, Governor of the Austrian Netherlands, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I, King François I of France, Pope Julius II, The Holy League

By 1504, however, Margaret’s husband, Philiberto II of Savoy, died of pleurisy. Grief-stricken, Margaret became suicidal and she threw herself out of a window, but was saved. After being persuaded to bury her husband, she had his heart embalmed so she could keep it with her forever. Her court historian and poet Jean Lemaire de Belges gave her the title “Dame de deuil” (Lady of Mourning).

Governor of the Habsburg Netherlands

Queen Isabella I of Castile died in late 1504, and Archduke Philipp and Infanta Juana went to Castile to claim the crown. Archduke Philipp of Austria is considered Felipe I of Castile (Spain).

At the death of Philipp (Felipe) in 1506, Charles was recognized Lord of the Netherlands with the title of Charles II of Burgundy. During his childhood and teen years, Charles lived in Mechelen together with his sisters Mary, Eleanor, and Isabella at the court of his aunt Margaret of Austria, Duchess of Savoy. Despite being at his aunt’s court Charles was young and alone. Juana could not return to act as regent because her unstable mental state and her Castilian subjects would not allow their ruler to abandon the kingdom.

Fernando II of Aragon took control of all the Spanish kingdoms, under the pretext of protecting Charles’s rights, which in reality he wanted to elude, but his new marriage with Germaine de Foix failed to produce a surviving Trastámara heir to the throne. With his father dead and his mother confined, Charles became Duke of Burgundy and was recognized as Prince of Asturias (heir presumptive of Spain) and honorific Archduke (heir apparent of Austria).

Preoccupied with German affairs, Margaret’s father, ruler of the Holy Roman Empire Maximillian I, named Margaret governor of the Low Countries and guardian of Charles in 1507, along with her nieces Eleanor, Isabella and Mary. She became the only woman elected as its ruler by the representative assembly of Franche-Comté, with her title confirmed in 1509.

Some report that Margaret was considered a foreigner because of her childhood at the French court. According to Blockmans and others though, Margaret, Philip as well as Charles were considered autochthonous; only Maximilian was always a foreigner. The Governess served as an intermediary between her father and her nephew’s subjects in the Netherlands from her newly built palace at Mechelen. During a remarkably successful career, she broke new ground for women rulers.

Margaret soon found herself at war with France over the question of Charles’s requirement to pay homage to the French king for the County of Flanders (which was outside the Empire; and while a long-standing portion of the inherited Burgundian titles & provinces, legally still within France).

In response, she persuaded Emperor Maximilian to end the war with King Louis XII. On November 1508, she journeyed to Cambrai to assist in the formation of the League of Cambrai, which ended (for a time) the possibility of a French invasion of the Low Countries, redirecting French attention to Northern Italy.

By 1512, she told her father that the Netherlands existed on peace and trade, and thus she would declare neutrality while using foreign armies and funds to wage wars. She played the key role in bringing together the participants of Holy League: Pope Julius II, the Swiss, Henry VIII of England, Fernando II of Aragon and her father Maximilian (he joined the League only as Emperor, as not as guardian of his grandson Charles and thus, the Low Countries’ neutrality was maintained). The league targeted France. The treaty also would not prevent the more adventurous Netherlands seigneurs from serving under Maximilian and Henry when they attacked the French later.

The Spanish inheritance, resulting from a dynastic union of the crowns of Castile and Aragon, included Spain as well as the Castilian West Indies and the Aragonese kingdoms of Naples, Sicily, and Sardinia. Joanna inherited these territories in 1516 in a condition of mental illness.

Charles, therefore, claimed the crowns for himself jure matris, thus becoming co-monarch of Joanna with the title of Carlos I of Castile and Aragon or Carlos I of Spain. Castile and Aragon together formed the largest of Charles’s personal possessions, and they also provided a great number of generals and tercios (the formidable Spanish infantry of the time). However, at his accession to the throne, Charles was viewed as a foreign prince.

In 1519, Margaret’s father, Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I died and his grandson, Charles II of Burgundy (Carlos I of Spain) inherited the Austrian hereditary lands in 1519, as Charles I of Austria, and obtained the election as Holy Roman Emperor against the candidacy of the French King François I. Since the Imperial election, he was known as Emperor Charles V even outside of the Empire and the Habsburg motto A.E.I.O.U. (“Austria Est Imperare Orbi Universo”; “it is Austria’s destiny to rule the world”) acquired political significance.

In 1520, Emperor Charles V made Margaret his governor-general in gratitude for her services. She was the only regent he ever re-appointed indefinitely from 1519 until her death in on 1 December 1530.

Her queenly virtues helped her to play the role of diplomat and peace-maker, as well as guardian and educator of future rulers, whom Maximilian called “our children” or “our common children” in letters to Margaret. This was a model that developed as part of the solution for the emerging Habsburg composite monarchy and would continue to serve later generations. As an older relative and former guardian, she had more power with Emperor Charles V than with her father Maximilian, who treated her cordially but occasionally acted in a threatening manner.

On November 15, 1530, Margaret stepped on a piece of broken glass. She initially thought little of the injury but gangrene set in and the leg had to be amputated. She decided to arrange all her affairs first, designating Charles V as her sole heir and writing him a letter in which she asked him to maintain peace with France and England. On the night of November 30, the doctors came to operate on her. They gave her a dose of opium to lessen the pain, but the dosage was reportedly so strong that she did not wake up again. She passed away between midnight and one o’clock. So basically her doctors accidentally overdosed her.

She was buried alongside her second husband at Bourg-en-Bresse, in the mausoleum of the Royal Monastery of Brou that she previously commissioned

December 5, 1496: King Manuel I of Portugal and the Expulsion of the Jews of Portugal.

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antisemitism, Expulsion, Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, Jews, John II of Portugal, King Manuel I of Portugal, Lisbon Massacre, Pope Julius II, Pope Leo X, The Golden Rose

Manuel I (May 31, 1469 – December 13, 1521), known as the Fortunate was King of Portugal from 1495 to 1521. A member of the House of Aviz, Manuel was Duke of Beja and Viseu prior to succeeding his cousin, João II of Portugal, as monarch.

Manuel was the ninth child of Ferdinand, Duke of Viseu and Beatriz of Portugal. His father, Ferdinand, was the son of Duarte, King of Portugal and the brother of Afonso V of Portugal, while his mother, Beatriz, was granddaughter of King João I of Portugal. In addition, his sister Eleanor of Viseu was the wife of King João II of Portugal.

As King Manuel ruled over a period of intensive expansion of the Portuguese Empire owing to the numerous Portuguese discoveries made during his reign. His sponsorship of Vasco da Gama led to the Portuguese discovery of the sea route to India in 1498, resulting in the creation of the Portuguese India Armadas, which guaranteed Portugal’s monopoly on the spice trade.

Manuel began the Portuguese colonization of the Americas and Portuguese India, and oversaw the establishment of a vast trade empire across Africa and Asia. He was also the first monarch to bear the title: By the Grace of God, King of Portugal and the Algarves, and the Sea from Both Sides of Africa, Lord of Guinea and the Conquest, Navigation and Commerce in Ethiopia, Arabia, Persia and India.

Manuel was a very religious man and invested a large amount of Portuguese income to send missionaries to the new colonies, among them Francisco Álvares, and sponsor the construction of religious buildings, such as the Monastery of Jerónimos. Manuel also endeavoured to promote another crusade against the Turks.

His relationship with the Portuguese Jews started out well. At the outset of his reign, he released all the Jews who had been made captive during the reign of João II. Unfortunately for the Jews, he decided that he wanted to marry Infanta Isabella of Aragon, then heiress of the future united crown of Spain (and widow of his nephew Prince Afonso).

Infanta Isabella’s parents were Fernando II of Aragon and Isabella of Cashad and they had expelled the Jews in 1492 and refused to marry their daughter to the king of a country that still tolerated their presence. In the marriage contract, Manuel I agreed to persecute the Jews of Portugal.

On December 5, 1496, it was decreed that all Jews either convert to Christianity or leave the country without their children. However, those expelled could only leave the country in ships specified by the king. When those who chose expulsion arrived at the port in Lisbon, they were met by clerics and soldiers who tried to use coercion and promises in order to baptize them and prevent them from leaving the country.

This period of time technically ended the presence of Jews in Portugal. Afterwards, all converted Jews and their descendants would be referred to as “New Christians”, and they were given a grace period of thirty years in which no inquiries into their faith would be allowed; this was later extended to end in 1534.

During the course of the Lisbon massacre of 1506, people invaded the Jewish Quarter and murdered thousands of accused Jews; the leaders of the riot were executed by Manuel.

The Lisbon massacre (alternatively known as the Lisbon pogrom or the 1506 Easter Slaughter) took place in April, 1506, in Lisbon in the Kingdom of Portugal. A crowd of Catholics, and foreign sailors who were anchored in the Tagus, persecuted, tortured, killed, and burnt at the stake hundreds of people who were accused of being Jews, and consequently deemed guilty of deicide and heresy.

Ironically Manuel I was awarded the Golden Rose by Pope Julius II in 1506 and by Pope Leo X in 1514. Manuel I became the first individual to receive more than one Golden Rose after Emperor Sigismund von Luxembourg.

The Golden Rose is a gold ornament, which popes of the Catholic Church have traditionally blessed annually. It is occasionally conferred as a token of reverence or affection. Recipients have included churches and sanctuaries, royalty, military figures, and governments.