Pope Max: I thought you'd like it. If you want to try Maximilian's Renaissance German as well, here's what he wrote after meeting his wife Mary of Burgundy (remember, they married under dramatic circumstances involving her being under siege from both the French and some of her own subjects (because she's a A WOMAN who inherited the richest duchy on the continent from Charles the Bold and clearly can't make her own decisions): Sie ist von leib klein viel kleiner denn die Rosina und schneeweis; ein prauns haar, ein kleins nasl, ein kleins häuptl und antlitz, praun und grabe augen gemischt, schön und lauter. Der Mund ist etwas hoch doch rein und rot. Sonst viel schöne jungfrowen alls ich all mein taag be einer gesehen hab und frölich.
("Of her body, she's much smaller than Rosina and has skin white as snow; brown hair, a small nose, a small head and face, eyes brown and grey mixed, beautiful and clear. The mouth is a bit high but clear and red. She's just the most beautiful noble maiden I've ever seen in my life, and cheerful to boot." Note that the forms Maximilian uses for "nose" and "head" with the "l" attached - "nasl" instead of "Nase" and "Häuptl" instead of "Haupt" - are actually Austrian dialect. Rosina was a former mistress of his. He's writing a friend, and continues about Mary's stepmother Margaret of York (sister to Edward IV and Richard III), whom all subsequent Margarets owe their first name to: "Die alt fraw unser mutter ist eine feine schöne fraw zu ihr maß und listig viel."
("The old lady our Mother is a fine beautiful lady, well shaped, and devilishly smart.")
"The old Lady": Margaret of York was born 1446, Mary and Maximilian married in 1477, so Margaret was just 31. She had more of a big sister relationship with her stepdaughter, whom she was very close to and an important supporter of, as she'd been to Maximilian after Mary's all too early death. Hence the pair naming their daughter after her.
Back to Maximilian's enthusiastic letter back home to Vienna: "Mein gemahl ist eine gantze Waidtmännin mit valckhen und hundten. Sie hat ein weiß windtspil, daz laufft fast bald. Daz liegt zu meisten theil alle nacht bey uns."
("My wife is a terrific huntress with falcons and dogs. She has a white greyhound which runs very fast. It usually lies with us all through the night.")
Maximilian, Mary and all their children and grandchildren loved to hunt. It has to be said, though, that their methods of hunting were different from the way it was practiced in the 18th century when Fritz loathed it. For one thing, gunfire was only just starting to be used, and Maximilian was very much against it, considering it unsportsmanlike and giving the hunter way too much of an advantage. His favourite animals to hunt were the boar and the ibex, the later not least because you could pursue it high into the mountains and had to be a stealth climber to manage, and his weapons of choice for these two animals crossbow and pike (to throw). Mary of Burgundy - like all the Margarets and Mary of Hungary - had loved to hunt with falcons, but because she died during such a hunt, Maximilian, who until that death had loved it as well, came off it. (Remember, he never got over her death and being a Habsburg had willed his heart after his own death decades later brought to her tomb in the Netherlands so it could be with her.)
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Maximilian, letter writer
Date: 2021-11-07 06:39 am (UTC)("Of her body, she's much smaller than Rosina and has skin white as snow; brown hair, a small nose, a small head and face, eyes brown and grey mixed, beautiful and clear. The mouth is a bit high but clear and red. She's just the most beautiful noble maiden I've ever seen in my life, and cheerful to boot." Note that the forms Maximilian uses for "nose" and "head" with the "l" attached - "nasl" instead of "Nase" and "Häuptl" instead of "Haupt" - are actually Austrian dialect. Rosina was a former mistress of his. He's writing a friend, and continues about Mary's stepmother Margaret of York (sister to Edward IV and Richard III), whom all subsequent Margarets owe their first name to: "Die alt fraw unser mutter ist eine feine schöne fraw zu ihr maß und listig viel."
("The old lady our Mother is a fine beautiful lady, well shaped, and devilishly smart.")
"The old Lady": Margaret of York was born 1446, Mary and Maximilian married in 1477, so Margaret was just 31. She had more of a big sister relationship with her stepdaughter, whom she was very close to and an important supporter of, as she'd been to Maximilian after Mary's all too early death. Hence the pair naming their daughter after her.
Back to Maximilian's enthusiastic letter back home to Vienna: "Mein gemahl ist eine gantze Waidtmännin mit valckhen und hundten. Sie hat ein weiß windtspil, daz laufft fast bald. Daz liegt zu meisten theil alle nacht bey uns."
("My wife is a terrific huntress with falcons and dogs. She has a white greyhound which runs very fast. It usually lies with us all through the night.")
Maximilian, Mary and all their children and grandchildren loved to hunt. It has to be said, though, that their methods of hunting were different from the way it was practiced in the 18th century when Fritz loathed it. For one thing, gunfire was only just starting to be used, and Maximilian was very much against it, considering it unsportsmanlike and giving the hunter way too much of an advantage. His favourite animals to hunt were the boar and the ibex, the later not least because you could pursue it high into the mountains and had to be a stealth climber to manage, and his weapons of choice for these two animals crossbow and pike (to throw). Mary of Burgundy - like all the Margarets and Mary of Hungary - had loved to hunt with falcons, but because she died during such a hunt, Maximilian, who until that death had loved it as well, came off it. (Remember, he never got over her death and being a Habsburg had willed his heart after his own death decades later brought to her tomb in the Netherlands so it could be with her.)