ABSTRACT
The 1490s were the crucial decade in Maximilian’s career when he came into his own as sole federal ruler of Germany and overall head of the Habsburg dynastic complex centred on the Tirol and Eastern Swabia at Innsbruck and Augsburg. After 1500 Maximilian became the propagandist of his own life and exploits, creating myth and cult out of his autobiography. Maximilian had to keep a watch on federal peace and try to minimise feudal civil war by arbitrating in perennial conflicts over inheritance, debt and high jurisdiction among Germany’s leading noble and urban families especially in South and West. A whole variety of chancellery business was automatically signed and sealed in Maximilian’s name. Maximilian had to keep making new rules of administration for himself because he could never stick to any arrangement for very long. Maximilian also used the technique of producing draft letters whilst on his travels, signing and directing them to Innsbruck by dispatch rider for government processing.
