Maximilian I (22 March 1459 – 12 January 1519) was Holy Roman Emperor from 1508 until his death. An ambitious, energetic leader who was active in many fields and lived in a time of great upheaval between the Medieval and Early Modern worlds, Maximilian's reputation in historiography is many-sided, often contradictory: the last knight or the first modern foot soldier and "first cannoneer of his nation"; the first Renaissance prince (understood either as a Machiavellian politician or omnicompetent, universal genius) or a dilettante; a far-sighted state builder and reformer, or an unrealistic schemer whose posthumous successes were based on luck, or a clear-headed, prudent statesman. While Austrian researchers often emphasize his role as the founder of the early modern supremacy of the House