Austria, Frederick III. and Burgundy

As a result of the death of Duke Charles the Bold of Burgundy and the marriage of his only daughter Mary to Maximilian, the heir of Emperor Frederick III, the economically and culturally prospering lands of Flanders and Brabant became hereditary possessions of the Habsburgs. With this, the foundations were laid for the Habsburg house`s hegemony. In order to reach this important dynastic and political goal - the acquisition of the duchy of Burgundy, Emperor Frederick III made efforts for about 10 years (1467-1477) with mixed results. Many written documents of these negotiations, which were preserved in the Habsburg Royal Archive, are now in the Haus-, Hof- und Staatsarchiv in Vienna. Until now only documents up to the year 1466 have been compiled in the "Regesta Imperii - Regesten Friedrichs III." (The Registers of Frederick III). Therefore, one of the goals of this proposed project will be to continue the systematic collection and registration of the letters and documents of this important emperor up to the year 1477. This fundamental work on the sources will open up access to an important archive for this era and will serve as the foundation for formulating new research questions with which to investigate the late Middle Ages. The compiled material from this project should also serve as a basis for a study of the progress and structure of the negotiations bringing about the Habsburg-Burgundian marriage. It will show how both sides for about 10 years strove, with mixed results, to achieve this union under the best possible conditions. At the same time it will be necessary to investigate political communication during the transition from the late Middle Ages to the early Modern era in order to understand the phenomenon that we would call foreign affairs. On the basis of the Habsburg-Burgundian embassies and their resulting written documents it should be possible to demonstrate the forms and functions of political diplomacy. The comparison will uncover and highlight the differences and similarities in the diplomacy of two differently developed cultural spheres of the late Middle Ages. Above all formal and compositional analyses of the diplomatic papers will provide information about the various media of diplomatic communication. At the same time we will also learn more about the objectives, the scope of possibilities, and the successes of diplomacy. Investigation of the personal connections among the actors in these arenas will reveal the institutional structure that made it possible for networks of aristocratic, civic, and juridical elites to develop at this time. These networks determined the flow of information and influenced decision-making in all of Europe.

During the 15th century the dukes of Burgundy kept expanding their territory and thereby became part of the feudal system of the Holy Roman Empire, although without being officially recognized. Because of that circumstance numerous negotiations were held under the reign of emperor Frederick III (+ 1493) with duke Philip the Good of Burgundy (+ 1467) and his son Charles the Bold (+ 1477) to reach a legal contract with the Empire. Negotiations about a marriage between the emperor`s son Maximilian and the future heiress of Charles the Bold, Mary of Burgundy, in the 1460s/1470s played a vital part in this context - this marriage should legalise the controversial sovereignty of the usurped territories. When duke Charles the Bold died unexpectedly and the marriage took place shortly afterwards, great parts of Western Europe came under the reign of the Hapsburgs. This considerable territorial laid the cornerstone for European supremacy and paved their way to world power. To be able to describe this development in detail, a new base of sources was required: So during the course of the project all existent documents and letters by Frederick III which can be found in selected inventories of the Haus-, Hof- und Staatsarchiv in Vienna were registered and recorded, meeting the requirements of the "Regesten Kaiser Friedrichs III.", which are affiliated with the international and renowned enterprise "Regesta Imperii". Thereby the chronological series, of which numerous volumes already exist, was continued. 500 scientifically well-founded Regesta were the final out-put - many of them exceeding the initial subject. The up to now largely unknown material covers a broad variety of subjects and provides a new basis for research, not only for local and medieval historians but also for ecclesiastical, economic and social history as well as the history of art and ideas. Soon after the project is accomplished, two volumes of the "Regesten Kaiser Friedrichs III." will be published, as well as a substantial volume of papers ("Außenpolitisches Handeln im 15. Jahrhundert: Akteure und Ziele") that will include not only the studies of the project collaborators, but also of fourteen other Austrian and foreign historians, focusing on the relations of Frederick III to Burgundy and, generally, his and his son`s, Maximilian I, foreign policy.