The Tournament and its Role in the Court Culture of Emperor Maximilian I (1459-1519)

27 
 
opinion originally put forth by Cuspinanus that Maximilian ‘had been rather badly educated’, 
and that he lacked knowledge of great affairs (although he does at least partly attribute this to 
his youth and coming to live in a land strange to him – i.e. Burgundy).
33
 In general, de 
Commynes portrays Maximilian as incompetent, with never enough men or wise advisers in 
his service, and, following the death of Mary, unable to fully command or hold the hearts of 
the Burgundians.
34
 Gone is the flattering portrait of Grünpeck or Cuspinianus, or even the 
moderately approving one of Molinet.  
Another Burgundian chronicler and courtier who served the dukes of that land was 
Olivier de la Marche. His own Mémoires feature Maximilian, in whose household he held the 
post of grand et premier maître d’hôtel.
35
 La Marche is of particular interest as a narrative source, as 
he was highly involved in both Valois and Habsburg court life, but also the world of the 
tournament. Indeed, he spent his early years as a page in the household of Anthoine de Croy, a 
knight in the household of the Burgundian duke Philip the Good and a member of the Order 
of the Golden Fleece. There la Marche would have learned weaponry, horsemanship, and 
hawking as part of his education, giving him an intimate familiarity with the chivalric lifestyle 
of the nobleman, something which would be reflected in many of his later writings.
36
  
La Marche also wrote a treatise entitled État de la maison du duc
 Charles de Bourgogne, 
which was essentially a guide for the running of a princely household based on that of Charles 
                                                 
33
 de Commynes, Memoirs, vol. 2, p. 383. 
34
 de Commynes, Memoirs, vol. 2, p. 411. 
35
 Alistair Miller, ‘Olivier de la Marche and the Court of Burgundy, c.1425-1502’ (unpublished 
doctoral thesis, University of Edinburgh, 1996), p. 43. La Marche would go on to hold this same title in 
the household of Maximilian’s oldest son, Philip. 
36
 Miller, ‘Olivier de la Marche and the Court of Burgundy, c.1425-1502’, pp. 14-16. La Marche 
was also exposed to numerous tournaments as a young man, and he would, in turn, later write about 
many himself. For example, in 1470 he wrote an account of a pas d’armes of famous Burgundian 
tournament fighter Claude de Vauldrey, who would later fight Maximilian in 1495: the Traictie d'un 
Toumoy tenu a Gand par Claude de Vauldrey seigneur de l'Aigle l'an 1469 [o.s.]. 

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the Bold of Burgundy, the father of Mary. La Marche wrote a second, shorter treatise in 1500 
entitled Advis des grans officers que doit avoir
 ung Roy et de leur pouvoir et entreprise, which was 
addressed specifically to Maximilian and which provided an analysis of all the principal officers 
which a king should employ. These two treatises reflect Maximilian’s desire to emulate the 
Burgundian court lifestyle and illustrate ways in which he could have done so. If some 
chroniclers, like de Commynes, held a low opinion of the Holy Roman emperor and the 
Germanic court, then these writings would have offered Maximilian a way to elevate his 
household and, by extension, his reputation.
37
  
 
In addition, Maximilian features in other, more unexpected contemporary sources. He 
is even mentioned in Niccolò Machiavelli’s (1469-1527) famous work, The Prince. Unfortunately 
for the emperor, Machiavelli is critical of Maximilian and features him as an example of how a 
ruler should not behave. The Italian describes him as too secretive and unwilling to take 
advice, as well as too easily diverted:  
Because the Emperor is a secretive man, he communicates his 
plans to no one, nor does he take their advice. However, when he 
is carrying out his plans and they begin to be recognized and 
uncovered, they begin to be criticized by those around him; and 
he, just as if it were a simple matter, lets himself be diverted. From 
this results the fact that those things he does one day, he undoes 
the next; and that no one ever understands what he wants or what 
plans he is making, and that no one can rely on his decisions.
38
 
 
Again, the theme of Maximilian’s indecisiveness and susceptibility to diversion is brought to 
the fore, a complaint fairly common throughout the sources. Such a description harks back to 
complaints about Frederick III. Yet still, incredibly, Maximilian found a way to escape this 
reputation, largely through the aid of his tournament culture, as will be seen.  
                                                 
37
 Miller, ‘Olivier de la Marche and the Court of Burgundy, c.1425-1502’, pp. 59-65. 
38
 Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince, trans. and ed. by Peter Bondanella (Oxford: Oxford University 
Press, 2005), p. 81. 

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29 
 
Maximilian also appears in English sources and a comparison of two English 
diplomats’ opinions of him encapsulates the contradictory emotions which the emperor could 
evoke. The first of these is Richard Pace (1482-1536). Pace was an English diplomat who was 
engaged in negotiations with Maximilian on behalf of Henry VIII regarding the emperor’s wars 
with the French in northern Italy. Like Machiavelli and some of the Burgundian chroniclers, 
Pace offers readers a critical view of Maximilian, accusing him of extravagance. According to 
one of his biographers Jervis Wegg, Pace regarded Maximilian as a ‘needy adventurer’ and, 
from his early years in Italy, developed a lifelong dislike of the emperor.
39
 Pace, again, makes 
no secret of his low opinion of Maximilian’s financial dealings, saying, ‘Whenever the King’s 
[Henry VIII] money passed where the Emperor was he would always get some portion of it by 
force or false promises of restitution’.
40
 Pace also shares the opinion of others that Maximilian 
was indecisive, saying that he ‘doth as often times change his mind as the weathercock doth 
change his turn’.
41
  
In contrast to such disparaging remarks is the view of English diplomat Robert 
Wingfield (1464-1539). Although, despite his more positive view, Wingfield does still lend 
credence to Maximilian’s reputation as a man constantly short of money when he reported that 
‘Maximilian has lately mortgaged a great portion of his lands’.
42
 Still, Wingfield thought very 
                                                 
39
 Jervis Wegg, Richard Pace: A Tudor Diplomatatist (London: Methuen & Co. Ltd, 1932), p. 7. For 
a more recent study of Pace, see the works of Cathy Curtis. 
40
 Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, ed. by J.S. Brewer, vols 1-2 (London: 1864-
 
1920), vol. 2, p. 517. 
41
 Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, vol. 2, p. 602. 
42
 Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, vol. 2, p. 989. For more on the relationship 
between Wingfield and Maximilian, see Michael Chisholm, ‘Robert Wingfield: English Ambassador to 
the Holy Roman Empire (1510-1517)’, in Maximilian I. (1459-1519): Wahrnehmung – Übersetzungen – 
Gender, ed. by Heinz Noflascher, Michael Chisholm, and Bertrand Schnerb, Innsbrucker Historische 
Studien, 27 (Innsbruck: Studienverlag, 2011), pp. 71-84. 

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