Frederick III of the Holy Roman Empire

Frederick III of Habsburg (21 September 1415, Innsbruck - 19 August 1493, Linz) was Duke of Upper Austria as Frederick V (1439-1453), Archduke of Austria (1453 -1493) and Holy Roman Emperor as Frederick III (from 1440 until his death), thus becoming the third Emperor of the House of Habsburg and the first in the long line of Habsburg emperors that would reach 1918. He was the son of the Duke Ernest I the Iron and of Cimburgia de Masovia.

Biography

Early years and beginning of his political career

Frederick III was the eldest son of Ernst the Iron, 1st Duke of Inner Austria, and Cimburgia of Masovia (daughter of Siemowit IV, Prince of Płońsk and Kuyavia), who was known for her exceptional strength.

At the age of nine, after his father's death, Frederick inherited the thrones of the duchies of Styria, Carinthia, and Carniola. In 1440 he was elected King of Germany by the imperial electors as head of the House of Habsburg. At the same time, he established custody of him over the young Ladislaus the Posthumous, Duke of Austria; after the latter's premature death in 1457, Frederick added Austria to his possessions, thus uniting most of the Habsburg lands (except the County of Tyrol).

Reign in Germany and relations with the pope

Frederick III is considered the last emperor of the Middle Ages. The general crisis of the governing bodies of the empire, the inefficiency of imperial power, and the almost complete independence of the German princes—which had gradually increased during the last century—were most fully manifested during his reign. Frederick III was unable to raise significant financial resources in Germany to pursue his own policy or to strengthen the emperor's power. On the other hand, he also did not attempt to reform imperial institutions and preserved the emperor's system of relations with princes and imperial cities (against the assertion of royal power in Renaissance monarchies). The larger states of Germany repeatedly opposed Frederick III, but things did not come to the removal of the emperor from the throne, possibly due to the electors' disinterest in the reforms.

Frederick III showed extremely weak involvement in Church affairs. During the pope's struggle with the Basel cathedral, the king's intervention in this confrontation was minimal, in stark contrast to the activity of his predecessor, Emperor Sigismund. In 1446 Frederick concluded the Vienna Concordat with the Holy See, which regulated the relations of the Austrian monarchs and the pope and remained in force until 1806. Under an agreement with the pope, Frederick received the right to distribute 100 church beneficiaries and appoint 6 bishops.

In 1452 Frederick III traveled to Italy and was crowned in Rome by Pope Nicholas V. This was the last coronation of the German emperors in Rome. Frederick III was the last German emperor to maintain his former claim to Italy. Under Maximilian I (1508-1519) the coronation in Rome was already impossible, and from 1512 the empire received its new official name: "Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation".

Government in Austria

At the same time, realizing the limitations of imperial power, Frederick III sought to strengthen the independence of the duchy of Austria. In 1453 he approved the Privilegium Maius of Rudolf IV, a forged document from the 14th century that elevated the duchy to Archduchy of Austria. In this way he confirmed the right of the Austrian monarchs to the title of archduke and the special position of Austria in the empire, from which he broke away to stand beside him. Thus, Frederick came to use a new title in which the Austrian possessions were listed in equal detail and separately from the title of emperor.

Until 1457, the duke of Austria proper had been Ladislao, the young nephew of Frederick III. But in reality, the emperor held Ladislaus captive, whose royal powers he usurped as guardian. Frederick's ineffective policy provoked opposition to his power among the Austrian nobility, bolstered by lean years. Austrian magnates approached the Hungarian 'party', which advocated the return of Wladyslaus to the Hungarian throne. In 1452, while Frederick III was in Rome, an uprising broke out in Vienna. Under pressure from the opposition, the emperor released Ladislaus, recognized him as King of Bohemia and Hungary, and transferred to him the functions of governing Austria. With Wladyslaw's death in 1457, the Albertine line of the Habsburg dynasty died out and Frederick III annexed the (arch)duchy of Austria to his possessions.

At the same time, in 1457, Frederick's confrontation with his younger brother Albert VI, who was claiming part of the Habsburg legacy, intensified. In 1458 Frederick was forced to cede Upper Austria to his brother. Wars soon began with the Magyar nobles, to whom the emperor was unable to provide effective resistance. Austrian lands were devastated. An attempt to mint unsecured money by Frederick III failed; peasant discontent increased. In 1461 the emperor was besieged by his own brother in Vienna. Only after Albert VI's death in 1463 did Frederick become the sole ruler of Austria.

Constant conflicts with property, relatives, and raids by Hungarians forced the emperor to constantly move from one city to another, avoiding the Austrian capital. His court was located in Graz, then in Linz and then in Wiener Neustadt (where he built a castle and a monastery). The establishment of relations with the pope enabled Frederick III in 1469 to obtain the consent of Rome to establish bishoprics in Vienna and Wiener Neustadt, which his predecessors on the Austrian throne had sought without success. However, as in the empire, Frederick III avoided decisive transformations in Austria and did not try to make significant changes in the Dominical administration.

Foreign Policy

Relations with Bohemia and Hungary

During the childhood of Wladyslaus, who had claims to the Hungarian and Bohemian thrones, Frederick III tried to establish his authority over these kingdoms. However, he was unable to create a strong pro-Habsburg faction. In both kingdoms wars began that brought to power representatives of the autochthonous middle nobility: Jorge de Podiebrad in Bohemia and Juan Hunyadi in Hungary. The Hungarian invasion, together with the rise of the Austrian states in 1452, forced Frederick to release Wladislaus and return the royal regalia. The influence in these countries was lost. Furthermore, the emperor refused to help the Hungarians in their fight against the Turks. After Wladyslaw's death in 1457, it was also not possible to keep the kingdoms of Bohemia and Hungary in the orbit of the Habsburg monarchy. Frederick was forced to admit George of Podiebrad as king of Bohemia in 1459, after an unsuccessful war for Austria. He also had to sell the Crown of Saint Stephen to Matthias Hunyadi for 80,000 gold guilders, although he remained the nominal King of Hungary until July 17, 1463. Once he ascended the Hungarian throne, Hunyadi launched large-scale military operations. against the emperor.

In the 1460s, incessant Hungarian raids on Austrian lands began, to which Frederick III, experiencing chronic shortage of funds, was unable to provide effective resistance. Austria was devastated and in 1485 Hunyadi's troops captured Vienna and Wiener Neustadt. They then occupied Lower Austria and part of Upper Austria, as well as the eastern regions of Styria, Carinthia and Krajina. Only the death of Matías Hunyadi in 1490 allowed the Habsburgs to take these lands, which was entrusted to Federico's son, Maximilian. He also ensured the conclusion of the Treaty of Pozhonsky, which stipulated the right of the Habsburgs to inherit the Hungarian throne after the end of the Jagiellon dynasty. Success in the Hungarian leadership at the end of the reign of Frederick III was achieved only thanks to the energetic actions of his son, while the emperor himself at the end of his life practically moved away from politics.

Relations with Switzerland

Frederick III's policy toward the Swiss Confederation also proved ineffective. Attempts to use the Kingdom of France to return the Swiss lands under Habsburg rule failed: in 1444 the French king Charles VII was defeated at Saint-Gottard. As a result, Thurgau, a former possession of the Habsburg family, became part of Switzerland. The emperor's intervention in the 1468 war between the Swiss cantons also ended in failure. At the same time, the strengthening of Burgundy in the 1470s forced Frederick III to ally with the Swiss in 1474.

Burgundy Legacy

The death of Duke Charles the Bold at the Battle of Nancy (1477) opened the question of the Burgundian inheritance. The enormous possessions of the dukes of Burgundy (including Franche-Comté; the counties of Flanders, Hainaut, Namur, Holland, and Zeeland; and the duchies of Brabant and Luxembourg) were inherited by the duke's only daughter, Marie of Burgundy, who soon she married Federico's son, Maximilian. The entry of such vast and rich lands into the Habsburg monarchy immediately put the dynasty first in European politics and served as the occasion for the birth of the famous motto of the House of Habsburgs: "Others make war, you, happy Austria, marry!” (Bella gerant alii, you, felix Austria, cloud!).

However, the French king also claimed the Burgundian inheritance. In 1479 the French troops of Louis XI invaded the lands of the Habsburgs; however, they were defeated that same year at the Battle of Guinegate. In 1482 the Treaty of Arras was concluded, according to which France received the Duchy of Burgundy proper and Picardy, while the Habsburgs retained the other lands of the Burgundian Crown. In 1486 the conflict with France resumed as part of the War of Succession for the Duchy of Brittany. This time events unfolded unfavorably for Austria: an uprising broke out in the Netherlands, and Maximilian was captured in Bruges. For the release of his son, Frederick III was forced to accept the establishment of the admiralty in the Netherlands in 1489, which marked the beginning of the Dutch Navy.

Start of the Austro-Turkish Wars

In 1469 Turkish troops invaded the borders of the Austrian archduchy. Since then the regular predatory raids of the Ottoman Empire into the lands of Styria, Carinthia and Carniola began. In 1492, at the Battle of Villach, Austrian troops under Maximilian's command defeated the Turks, but this did not eliminate the Ottoman threat.

Last years and death

In his last years Frederick stayed in the Danube region, in Vienna and in Linz. In 1492 he was elected Knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece. From February 1493 his health deteriorated more and more. In Lent 1493, doctors diagnosed the emperor's left leg with a symptom then known as the fire of age, which according to current medical terminology is considered the result of arteriosclerosis. On June 8, 1493, a surgery that was led by the surgeon Hans Seyff in the Linz castle amputated the area of the leg affected by the disease. This leg amputation is considered one of the most famous and well-documented surgical procedures of the entire Middle Ages. Despite this Frederick survived the procedure well at first, but died on August 19, 1493 in Linz.

General results of his government

In the reign of Frederick III, the letter combination AEIOU came into use for the first time. Frederick III did not decipher this combination in any way, but there were later accusations that, shortly before his death, it was said to be an abbreviation for Austriae est imperare orbi universo ('Austria must rule the world'). These claims stood in stark contrast to the generally disastrous reign of the emperor, who was unable to carry out any serious transformation of his holdings or strengthen the state apparatus. The Kingdoms of Bohemia and Hungary were lost, and the imperial rights to Italy ended. Austria was devastated by numerous internal conflicts and wars with the Hungarians and Turks. The country's financial system was in a protracted crisis. However, it was Frederick III, who arranged the marriage of his son to the Burgundian heiress, who succeeded in laying the foundations of the future Habsburg multinational empire, which extended its possessions throughout the world.

Marriage and children

He married Eleanor of Portugal and Aragon (1434-1476), daughter of Eduardo I. They had five children:

• Christopher, Archduke of Austria (1454-1455).
• Maximilian (Vienna, March 22, 1459 - Wels, January 12, 1519).
• Helena, Archduchess of Austria (1460-1461).
• Cunegunda (1465-1520), married to Alberto IV de Baviera.
• John, Archduke of Austria (1466-1467).

Tomb in the Cathedral of St. Stephen in Vienna, masterpiece of the Gothic of Nikolaus Gerhaert

His elaborately decorated tomb, carved by Nikolaus Gerhaert in St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna, is one of the most important examples of sculptural art from the late Middle Ages. The tomb (in which he was buried with his amputated leg) was not completed until 1513, twenty years after his death, and is still in its original state.

Ancestors