successful. His only principle was to grasp whatever
opportunity seemed to offer. Thus at one time he seriously proposed to
have himself elected pope. His marriage with Mary, the daughter of
Charles the Bold, added to the estates of his house Burgundy--the land
comprising what is now Belgium, Luxemburg, most of Holland and large
portions of north-eastern France. On the death of Mary, in 1482,
Maximilian had much trouble in getting himself acknowledged as regent
of her lands for their son Philip the Handsome. A part of the domain
he also lost in a war with France. This was more than made up,
however, by the brilliant match he made for Philip in securing for him
the hand of Mad Joanna, the daughter and heiress of Ferdinand and
Isabella of Spain. This marriage produced two sons, Charles and
Ferdinand. The deaths of Isabella (1504), of Philip (1506) and of
Ferdinand of Aragon (1516) left Charles at the age of sixteen the ruler
of Burgundy and of Spain with its immense dependencies in Italy and in
America. [Sidenote: Charles V, 1500-1558] From this time forth the
policy of Maximilian concentrated in the effort to {77} secure the
succession of his eldest grandson to the imperial throne.

When Maximilian died on January 12, 1519, there were several candidates
for election. So little was the office considered national that the
kings of France and England entered the lists, and the former, Francis
I, actually at one time secured the promise of votes from the majority
of electors. Pope Leo made explicit engagements to both Charles and
Francis to support their claims, and at the same time instructed his
legate to labor for the choice of a German prince, either Frederic of
Saxony, if he would in return give up Luther, or else Joachim of
Brandenburg. But at no time was the election seriously in doubt. The
electors followed the only possible course in choosing Charles on June
28. They profited, however, by the rivalry of the rich king of France
to extort enormous bribes and concessions from Charles. The banking
house of Fugger supplied the necessary funds, and in addition the
agents of the emperor-elect were obliged to sign a "capitulation"
making all sorts of concessions to the princes. One of these, exacted
by Frederic of Saxony in the interest of Luther, was that no subject
should be outlawed without being heard.

The settlement of the imperial election enabled the pope once more to
turn his attention to the sup