The White King

Weißkunig (White King)

or

Anything you can do, I can do better

by Kaiser Max*.

The cover of my facsimile edition

I read somewhere that social media sites like Facebook are showcases for people's carefully curated public images.

Kaiser Max had that covered 500 years ago, namely in his illustrated 'autobiography' called Weißkunig. Several prominent artists worked on the woodcuts, including Hans Burgkmair the Elder and Leonhard Beck.

Apparently Maximilian didn't write it himself, but rather dictated it to his secretary, Marx Treitzsaurwein. 

Kaiser Max dictating to his secretary,
Marx Treitzsaurwein

(Yikes, I hope the secretary had a good chiropractor on speed dial.)

I'm sure Maximilian had his share of personal problems, but low self esteem was not among them. Some of the details in this book are SO over the top as to be truly laughable. For example, the woodcut which shows baby Max astonishing everyone by standing up in the tub during his first bath, the day after he was born***. Did anyone really buy that??

Some more choice examples: a comet was visible at the time Max was born, which signified the wonderful reign and achievements he was destined for. His birth was also supposedly quick and painless. Suppose we ask Empress Eleanor about that? 

When the time came for little Max to begin his education, “he put to [his teachers] questions they were not able to answer,” and soon became “so full of knowledge, and humility, and all fine qualities.” He learned the seven liberal arts in a very short amount of time, “and in them became unsurpassably learned, understanding more than was set forth in books, at which all learned men were, beyond measure, astonished.”**

He also learned to paint

and how to work with wood and metal

and all about musical instruments

And hunting

And jousting

And fighting on foot

And what do you know? He was the best at everything.

Believe it or not, there were a few things he couldn't do. When he went to Flanders in 1477 to marry Mary of Burgundy, he couldn't speak French or Flemish, and she couldn't speak German. But a few minutes spent gesturing to each other on a park bench solved all of that. ;-)

Weißkunig wasn't Maximilian's only autobiographical work. He also wrote/dictated a romanticized version of his journey to Flanders called Theuerdank, and a book about tournaments and mummeries called Freydal. Only Theuerdank was published during his lifetime.

*In case you have just stumbled upon this blog (welcome!), Kaiser Max refers to Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor from the Habsburg dynasty, who lived from 1459-1519. He is a main character in a book of historical fiction I am writing at this time.

**Translations taken from “The High and Puissant Princess Marguerite of Austria” by Christopher Hare (1907)

***Actually, that woodcut, by Albrecht Altdorfer, is from a different book entirely: Historia Friderici et Maximiliani. My bad.