It was only his death that saved Frederick’s rule and perhaps the imperial rule of the Habsburgs.. He inheritsucceed-ed the Free County of Burgundy from his father-in-law, Charles the Ba
Trang 1ter struggle with his brother, Albrecht VI, over Austria
He also fought with his nephew, Ladislaus Posthumus,
over Bohemia and Hungary But the main threat came
after Ladislaus’s death, with the ascension of Mat th ias
Corvinus (1458–90) to the Hungarian throne This
powerful king seized various Habsburg possessions in
Austria, Moravia, and Silesia In 1485 Corvinus
cap-tured Vienna and resided there until his death in 1490
It was only his death that saved Frederick’s rule and
perhaps the imperial rule of the Habsburgs
Frederick’s son Maximilian (r 1493–1519)
succeed-ed his father, controlling vast territories He inheritsucceed-ed
the Free County of Burgundy from his father-in-law,
Charles the Bald, together with some parts of the Low
Countries In 1490 he acquired Tyrol and parts of
Aus-tria from his half-uncle, Sigismund, son of Frederick IV
of Austria Maximilian’s rule over the Free County of
Burgundy provoked tensions with the French Crown,
which led to the Italian Wars (1494–1559) In 1499
Maximilian’s army was badly beaten by the Swiss
Con-federation, resulting in the imperial recognition of the
Swiss independence His grandson, Charles V of Spain,
succeeded Maximilian During his reign (1519–56),
the Habsburg house rose to the premier authority and
infl uence in Europe, holding dominions in the central
Europe, Germany, the Low Countries, parts of
Burgun-dy, and Spain with its vast American colonies After his
death, the Habsburg holdings were divided among his
heirs The Habsburg dynasty ruled Spain until the death
of Charles II in 1700, while the Austrian lineage did not
cease until 1918, when the last emperor Karl, or Charles,
resigned and Austria was proclaimed a republic
See also Holy Roman Empire
Further reading: Armstrong, Edward The Emperor Charles
V London: The Macmillan Company, 1910; Bryce, James
The Holy Roman Empire New York: The Macmillan
Com-pany, 1911; Du Boulay, F R H Germany in the Later Middle
Ages London: The Athlone Press, 1983; Friedrich, Karl
Ru-dolf von Habsburg Darmstadt: Primus, 2003; Heer,
Fried-rich The Holy Roman Empire Trans Janet Sondheimer
London: Phoenix Giants, 1995 Heinig, Paul-Joachim
Kai-ser Friedrich III (1440–1493): Hof, Regierung und Politik
Köln: Böhlau, 1997; Hödl, Günther Albrecht II : Königtum,
Reichsregierung und Reichsreform 1438–1439 Wien: H
Böhlaus, 1978; Redlich, Oswald Rudolf von Habsburg Das
Deutsche Reich nach dem Untergange des alten Kaisertums
Aalen: Scientia, 1965; Wies, Ernst Willhelm Kaiser
Maximil-ian I.: ein Charakterbild München: Bechtle, 2003.
Philip Slavin
Hafi z
(1320–1389) Persian poet
Hafi z, a pen name for Khajeh Shamseddin Mohammad Shirazi, was born in Shiraz in present-day Iran Follow-ing the death of his father, a merchant, Hafi z lived in poverty until his poetry earned him the patronage of several Persian rulers He is perhaps the most admired poet among Persians, who, up to the present day, mem-orize and quote extensively from his lyric poems He is
best known for his over 500 Ghazals (sonnets) collected
in his Diwan His lyricism is captured in the following
portions of the sonnet “My Bird”:
My soul is a scared bird, the highest heaven his next Fretting within its body-bars, it fi nds on earth its nest Hafi z often wrote about his favored hometown of Shiraz Other poems are highly erotic, while others are clearly infl uenced by Islamic mysticism or Sufi sm His many references to wine and drinking from the cup are believed by many to be symbolic of Sufi belief in mysti-cal intoxication Others argue that the language is not symbolic Hafi z had an enormous infl uence on Arabic and Turkish literature and his poems have also been translated into many Western languages Authors as diverse as the American essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson and the German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe admired the poetry of Hafi z
See also Islam: literature and music in the
gold-en age
Further reading: Hafi z Drunk on the Wine of the Beloved:
Poems of Hafi z Bucharest: Shambhala, 2001; Morrison, George, Julian Baldick, and Shafi i Kadkani History of Per-sian Literature from the Beginning of the Islamic Period to the Present Day Leiden: Brill, 1981.
Janice J Terry
Hangzhou (Hangchou)
Hangzhou is situated near the West Lake and the coast
in southern China In 605 Emperor Yangdi (Yang-ti) of the Sui dynasty had the Grand Canal extended from Yangzhou (Yangchou) on the Yangzi (Yangtze) River to Hangzhou As a result an already fast-developing area
of the lower Yangzi and the southeastern coast grew by leaps and bounds Hangzhou became the capital of a prefecture of the same name
Hangzhou 155