relations for the rest of the empire’s duration, leading to
the continuing decline of papal infl uence on episcopal
elections. Partially fi nanced with money provided by the
pope, Frederick went to Rome, where he was crowned
emperor on March 19, 1452. He was the last emperor
to undergo this traditional ceremony there. On a later
trip to Rome in 1468, he gained the foundation of the
diocese of Vienna.
Most important for Frederick was his position in his
hereditary lands. He promoted its interests, for example,
by accepting as genuine the forged Privilegium Maius
(May Privilege), which claimed broad prerogatives for
the Habsburgs and Austria. Yet dynastic quarrels with
his relatives and rebellions by the estates continued to
squander his resources. On his return from his imperial
coronation in 1452, he found Austria in rebellion. Soon
besieged in Wiener Neustadt, he had to release Ladis-
laus from his guardianship. Again in 1462 the citizens
of Vienna and then his brother Albrecht VI besieged
Frederick. While Albrecht VI’s unexpected death in
1463 quieted the situation, Frederick’s territories re-
mained exhausted.
And new, more energetic rivals appeared after the
death of his nephew Ladislaus Posthumous in 1457.
In Hungary Matthias Corvinus (r. 1458–1490) and
in Bohemia George von Podiebrady (r. 1458–1471)
became kings at the head of nationalistic movements.
While George’s infl uence was limited by his closeness
to the Hussite heresy, Matthias of Hungary became a
major force in Central Europe. Frederick at fi rst tried
to come to terms with Matthias, selling him back the
famed Hungarian national Crown of St. Stephen in 1463.
Matthias soon drove George from power in Bohemia.
Then in 1477 Matthias went to war with Frederick by
1485 conquering Vienna itself. In 1487 Matthias took
Wiener Neustadt and lower Austria, forcing the emperor
to retreat to Linz in Upper Austria.
Meanwhile in the west of the empire the dukes of
Burgundy had been expanding what was once a French
royal appanage into a vast territorial complex between
France and Germany. Duke Charles the Rash, who
hoped to transform his possessions into a kingdom,
undertook negotiations with. Frederick in Trier during
- Although the negotiations at fi rst failed, Fred-
ericks son Maximilian eventually gained the promise
of marriage to Charles’s daughter, Mary (although she
had already been engaged six times). After Charles’s
death at the Battle of Nancy, Maximilian had to defend
Mary’s inheritance largely without any help from his
father. Only when Maximilian was captured and held
prisoner in Bruges in 1488 did Frederick arrive at the
head of an imperial army and intimidate the city into
freeing his son.
Slowly Frederick’s position began to improve as
Maximilian asserted his own authority. In 1490, Mat-
thias Corvinus’s death provided the opportunity for
Maximilian to drive the Hungarian forces out of Austria.
Maximilian seemed to be achieving success after suc-
cess when his father, Frederick, died in Linz on August
19, 1493. He was fi nally interred in a magnifi cent tomb
in St. Stephan’s Cathedral in Vienna years later.
Although Frederick III had the longest reign of any
German monarch, many historians have complained
that he accomplished little. He has long been mocked
as the Heiliges Römisches Reiches Erzschlafmütze
(Holy Roman Empire’s Arch-sleepingcap). Some say
his greatest accomplishment was merely to outlive his
enemies. Others maintain that while such an attitude
may apply to the empire at large, in his own dynastic
lands Frederick III was able to build for the future. By
patiently insisting on his rights, helping to arrange his
son’s marriage, and insisting on his imperial prestige,
Frederick helped to establish the future success of the
Habsburgs.Further Reading
Hödl, Günther. “Habsburg und Österreich,” in Gestalten und
Gestalt des österreichischen Spatmittelalters. Vienna: Böhlau
Verlag, 1988, pp. 173–193.
Nehring, Karl. Matthias Corvinus, Kaiser Friedrich III., und
das Reich: zum hunyadisch-habsburgischen Gegensatz im
Donauraum. Südosteuropäische Arbeiten 72. Munich: R.
Oldenbourg, 1975.
Rill, Bernd. Friedrich III.: Habsburgs europäischer Durchbruch.
Graz: Verlag Styria, 1987.
Thomas, Heinz. Deutsche Geschichte des Spätmittelalters. Stutt-
gart: Kohlhammer, 1983.
Brian A. PavlacFRIEDRICH VON HAUSEN
(fl. late 12th c.)
By adopting and adapting the forms and motifs of Oc-
citan lyrics, melding them with German ones, Friedrich
von Hausen (present-day Rheinhausen, now a part of
Mannheim) expanded and modernized German minne-
song. Better documented as an historical fi gure, a min-
isteriale (court clerk) of Emperor Friedrich Barbarossa,
than most minnesingers, he witnessed documents from
1171 to shortly before his death as a crusader in Anato-
lia in 1190 and was mentioned in many contemporary
chronicles. His importance as a minnesinger can be seen
in many apparent borrowings from his songs by others.
The death of the minnesinger qua singer is lamented, a
generation or so after the fact, in several songs and in
Heinrich von dem Türlin’s Crône. However, his contem-
porary fame, as attested, was as a political fi gure. From
the twelfth to the fi fteenth century, whenever singers
are documented historical fi gures, their singing is never
mentioned in offi cial historical documents, and Hausen
is no exception to this rule.FRIEDRICK VON HAUSEN