General Notes

Frederick III, b. Sept. 9, 1415, d. Aug. 19, 1493, German king from 1440, was
the first Habsburg to be crowned Holy Roman emperor by the pope and the last
emperor to be crowned in Rome (1452). Aware of the limitations of his
authority within Germany and always short of funds, he concentrated his
energies on family matters. Early in his reign he lost control of both Bohemia
and Hungary, which his cousin and predecessor, Albert II, had acquired.
By the Concordat of Vienna (1448) Frederick regulated control of church
offices and helped force dissolution of the Council of Basel, which was
asserting conciliar supremacy over the popes. He hired as a
secretary Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini (later Pope Pius II), who first brought
Renaissance influences to Germany. Frederick's greatest dynastic achievement
was to arrange the marriage (1477) of Mary of Burgundy to his son Maximilian
(later Emperor Maximilian I), thus setting the stage for the Habsburg
domination of Europe in the 16th century.