Die Inszenierung der heroischen Monarchie by Martin Wrede

Author:Martin Wrede [Wrede, Martin]
Language: deu
Format: epub
Publisher: De Gruyter Oldenbourg
Published: 2014-04-15T00:00:00+00:00

II. Maximilian and the Transformation of the Burgundian Model

The culture of Burgundian-Netherlandish political institutions did not change overnight after 1477, but the prestige of Burgundian court culture and its influence on the new ruler, Maximilian of Austria, in the long run led to a remarkable re-interpretation of the Burgundian notions of political competence. Austrian historians have been enthusiastic in putting forward the claim that much of „Maximilian’s propaganda“ was inspired by Maximilian’s Burgundian experience.957 Hermann Wiesflecker insisted that Maximilian’s universal imperial claims, his ‚militarism‘ and his court historiography, marked by a striving for world domination, were all results of the „Burgundian experience“ („burgundische Erlebnis“).958 However, very little attention has been given so far to the way in which Maximilian’s representation distorted the model of political competence which had been developed in the Burgundian Netherlands, undermining the aspect of that model which insisted on the institutional and negotiable nature of politics. Instead, Maximilian’s representation, especially his representation in the German lands, emphasised sheer military force.

Wiesflecker seems to suggest simply that the court historiography and Publizistik of the Burgundian Netherlands had served as the model for Maximilian’s literary patronage and dynastic propaganda.959 The fact that no outstanding works of historiography, similar to those of Chastelain or Molinet, were produced as a result, is explained by Wiesflecker simply by the mediocre talents of chronicle writers employed by Maximilian.960

However, a reader of Chastelain and Molinet would easily notice that there are some prominent features in Burgundian court historiography that historical works produced in Germany under Maximilian’s patronage never shared. Two such features are particularly worth mentioning here: the critical distance that Burgundian court historiographers in the last quarter of the fifteenth century maintained towards the actions of their princes, and the relative separation of the genre of prose history from elements of literary fiction. Both of these features are relevant for understanding the difference between Maximilian’s representation in the Netherlands and his representation in the works of his German court.961

While Chastelain and occasionally even Molinet had inserted critical passages in their chronicles or at least had indicated that not all the actions of Charles the Bold deserved glorification, such striving for critical distance can hardly be discovered in the works of court historiography glorifying Maximilian I. Grünpeck’s Latin histories of Maximilian’s deeds offer little in the way of critique of the ruler’s actions. The more fictionalised German biographies „Theuerdank“, and „Weisskunig“ show even less tendency towards critical distance.962 These examples show that Burgundian influence on Maximilian’s literary and historiographical representation was limited, and Maximilian’s literary „apparatus“ did not share some of the basic norms of Burgundian court historiography.

It seems that Maximilian’s encounter with Burgundian literary culture did not include the more recent works of court historiography, or if it did, that encounter left little trace in his own literary programme of self-promotion.963 If the works of Grünpeck and Molinet can be at least tentatively placed within the same genre, this cannot be said of the later fictional histories of Maximilian. In them, fictional characters

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.