Matthias had sufficiently established his position against
his foreign and domestic enemies for his coronation to
take place. In 1469 he was also elected king of Bohemia,
but after years of fighting he was forced to relinquish his
claim to Ladislaus of Poland.
Frederick III offered to recognize Matthias as king of
Hungary on condition that he should succeed him if
Matthias died without an heir. Matthias declared war
(1481) and drove Frederick from Vienna (1485), which he
occupied henceforth as his capital. He also extended his
territories by conquest and consolidated his position by
alliances, thus making himself the principal power in cen-
tral Europe. He was still attempting to secure the succes-
sion for his illegitimate son János Corvinus (1473–1504),
a plan fiercely resisted by his childless third wife, Beatrice
of Naples, when he unexpectedly died.
Matthias was a ruler of outstanding qualities, com-
bining statesmanship with military prowess, administra-
tive adroitness with a passion for learning and the arts. He
was also a noted patron of music, employing Netherlan-
dish musicians and a renowned choir in his chapel royal.
It was on his initiative that the university of Budapest was
founded in 1475. Some of the greatest Italian scribes
copied books for Matthias’s royal library; one Florentine
aptly wrote in 1489 that Matthias “means to outdo every
other ruler in respect of his library—as he does in all other
respects.” Such a tribute is a measure of Matthias’s success
in presenting himself upon the European stage as the ideal
of a Renaissance prince.
Mattioli, Pier Andrea (1501–1577) Italian physician and
botanist
He was born in Siena, studied in Padua, and traveled
widely in Italy to collect plants. His lengthy Commentarii
on the herbal of Dioscorides (c. 40–c. 90 CE) were in-
tended as practical advice for physicians. The book was
first published in Venice in 1544 and went into many edi-
tions and translations, the first in Latin, following three
Italian ones, in 1554. The commentaries go beyond
Dioscorides’ plants to include Mattioli’s own discoveries
and reports from his correspondents.
The two series of illustrations, one first published in
the Venice edition of 1554, the larger ones appearing in a
Prague version of 1562, and both copied repeatedly, are
unusual in representing massed foliage, fruit, and flowers
instead of single twigs or plants. The pearwood blocks of
over 1000 of the large illustrations were bought in the
1750s by a French botanist, H.-L. Duhamel du Monceau,
who used some of them to illustrate his own book on trees
and shrubs. The rest remained in the possession of his
family, and the last of them (about 120) were sold in Lon-
don in 1989.
Maurice of Nassau (1567–1625) Prince of Orange
(1618–25) and Count of Nassau (1584–1625)
The son of WILLIAM(I) THE SILENTand Anne of Saxony, he
succeeded his father as commander-in-chief of the Dutch
forces and became stadtholder of most Dutch provinces.
In a brilliant military campaign he took Breda (1590) and
had driven the Spanish out of the northern and eastern
provinces by 1598. After years of inconclusive struggle he
reluctantly agreed a 12-year truce with Spain in 1609, and
was then embroiled in a bitter religious and political con-
flict with his former loyal supporter, the great statesman
and advocate of the truce, Johan van OLDENBARNEVELDT.
Maurice gained an infamous triumph by Oldenbarne-
veldt’s execution (1619). In 1621 he resumed the fight
against Spain, but with little success.Mauro, Fra See CAMALDOLESE CHARTMaximilian I (1459–1519) Holy Roman Emperor
(1493–1519)
The son of FREDERICK IIIand Eleonora of Portugal, Maxi-
milian had great abilities; he was a daring huntsman and a
brave knight, an expert on infantry, and a man of letters
who probably wrote part of an allegory and a treatise on
hunting. He was a popular ruler, but also a gullible man
who embarked on unrealistically ambitious ventures. In
the empire at large his reforms failed, but in Austria they
laid the foundations of a unified administration. His dy-
nastic arrangements greatly strengthened Hapsburg power
and influence.
Maximilian’s marriage (1477) to Mary, heiress of Bur-
gundy, brought war with Louis XI of France, but in the
name of his son, Philip, he secured Flanders and the
Netherlands (1482) and Franche-Comté and Artois
(1493). Maximilian expelled the Hungarians who were
occupying much of Austria (1490) and drove the Turks
out of Carinthia (1492). His second marriage, to Bianca
Maria Sforza of Milan (1494), encouraged his Italian am-
bitions, but after years of futile and expensive effort he
had to abandon Milan to France and Verona to Venice
(1516). The Swiss effectively established their political in-
dependence from the empire in 1499.
In his attempts at reform, Maximilian persuaded the
imperial diet to promulgate public peace (1495), which
banned private warfare. He set up the AULIC COUNCILand
his own court of justice, but his constant absences from
Germany and obstruction from its princes foiled his ef-
forts. He was strong enough to block the efforts of the
princes to increase their power in the empire and was
largely responsible for the failure of the Reichsregiment, an
executive committee of princes established in 1500.
Perhaps Maximilian’s greatest achievements were dy-
nastic. In addition to securing most of the Burgundian
inheritance he obtained Tyrol (1490) peacefully by nego-
tiation with his cousin. He arranged the marriage of hisMMaaxxiimmiilliiaann II 3 30077