Ep. 217: Maximilian I (1493-1519) – When Mary Met Maxi
History of the Germans
Dirk Hoffmann-Becking
4.9 • 550 Ratings
🗓️ 4 December 2025
⏱️ 40 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
How often have you heard this phrase “Let others wage war; you, happy Austria, marry". It goes back to a whole string of marriages, first Maximilian of Habsburg married the heiress of the duchy of Burgundy, then his son married the heiress of Spain and finally his grandson married the heiress of Hungary and Bohemia. And bish bash bosh, an empire is created in the horizontal.
That is nice and neat but not exactly true. Sure the marriages happened, but not in the way at least I have been told. There was a lot more drama and a lot more agency than you think. For a whole six months Maximilian, the Last Knight in his shining armour, left Marie of Burgundy to fend off invasions, revolutions and conspiracies on her own. She was imprisoned, her ministers were hanged and she was told marriage to a 7-year old hunchback was her only wayout. How she managed through that and found herself in the very first truly passionate marriage we have heard about in the History of the Germans Podcast, well, that is what we are talking about today.
The music for the show is Flute Sonata in E-flat major, H.545 by Carl Phillip Emmanuel Bach (or some claim it as BWV 1031 Johann Sebastian Bach) performed and arranged by Michel Rondeau under Common Creative Licence 3.0.
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Salian Emperors and Investiture Controversy
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to the history of the Germans, episode 217, when Mary met Maxi, or the Burgundian wedding. |
| 0:13.4 | So how often have you heard this phrase? |
| 0:15.6 | Let others wage war you happy Austria and marry. |
| 0:19.1 | It goes back to a whole string of marriages. |
| 0:21.2 | First Maximilian of Habsburg married the heirs of the Duchy of Burgundy, that his son |
| 0:25.5 | married the heirs of Spain, and finally his grandson married the heirs of Hungary and Bohemia. |
| 0:31.5 | And this way, Bish-Bash-Bosh, an empire is created in the horizontal. That is nice and neat, but I'm afraid not exactly true. |
| 0:42.0 | Sure, these marriages happen, but not in the way, at least I have been told. |
| 0:46.8 | There was a lot more drama and a lot more agency than you think. |
| 0:51.0 | For a whole six months, Maximilian, the last night, in his shining armor, left Marie of |
| 0:57.3 | Burgundy to fend off invasions, revolutions and conspiracies all on her own. |
| 1:02.9 | She was imprisoned, her ministers were hanged, and she was told marriage to a seven-year-old |
| 1:07.7 | hunchback was her only way out. |
| 1:09.7 | How she managed through that and found |
| 1:12.5 | herself in the very first truly passionate marriage we have heard about in the history of |
| 1:17.8 | the Germans podcast, well that is what we're going to be talking about today. |
| 1:22.4 | But before we start a quick question, I've been given an opportunity to organize a history |
| 1:28.8 | of the Germans trip down the mine and the Rhine at the end of June, beginning of July. |
| 1:35.3 | Is this something any of you would be interested? |
| 1:38.0 | And where would you particularly like to go? |
| 1:40.6 | If so, let me know. |
| 1:42.3 | That would help me enormously in making a decision. |
... |
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