Maximilian, the son of Emperor Frederick III …

Years: 1476 - 1476

Maximilian, the son of Emperor Frederick III and Eleanor of Portugal, was born at Wiener Neustadt on March 22, 1459.

His father, Frederick III, named him for an obscure saint whom Frederick believed had once warned him of imminent peril in a dream.

In his infancy, he and his parents were besieged in Vienna by Albert of Austria.

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

The Dukes of Burgundy, a cadet branch of the French royal family, with their sophisticated nobility and court culture, are the rulers of substantial territories on the eastern and northern boundaries of modern-day France.

The reigning duke of Burgundy, Charles the Bold, is Frederick’s chief political opponent.

Frederick is concerned about Burgundy's expansive tendencies on the western border of his Holy Roman Empire and, to forestall military conflict, he attempts to secure the marriage of Charles's only daughter, Mary of Burgundy, to his son Maximilian.

After the Siege of Neuss, he is successful.

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