Theuerdank

[2] Maximilian I, and his father Frederick III, were part of what was to become a long line of Holy Roman Emperors from the House of Habsburg.

During his reign Maximilian commissioned a number of humanist scholars and artists to assist him in completing a series of projects, in different art forms, intended to glorify for posterity his life and deeds and those of his Habsburg ancestors.

[3][4] He referred to these projects as Gedechtnus ("memorial"),[4][5] and included a series of stylised autobiographical works, of which Theuerdank was one, the others being the poem Freydal and the chivalric novel Weisskunig.

[1] The first 1517 edition was small, with most copies expensively printed on vellum for distribution to German princes and other dignitaries and close associates of Maximilian.

[8][14] The story is mainly about the bridal journey of the young knight Theuerdank, who overcomes many trials and tribulations to reach his bride, Queen Ehrenreich.

[8][15][16] In his journey, Theuerdank is endangered by three Burgundian captains (who reprepresents Three Ages of man: Fürwittig (or Fürwitz) stands for youth and the rashness associated with young men; Unfalo (or Unfall) represents the accidents that the mature man will encounter; and Neidelhart (or Neidhart) symbolizes the envy caused by the position old age will bring.

Hartmann opines that while Maximilian was a modernizer in politics and the application of new printing techniques, the work's content, character building and structure of narrative do not necessarily follow this spirit, but are quite traditionalist.

The main female character (Ehrenreich or Mary of Burgundy) is the initiator: the story begins with her birth and it is her who orders the titular character (the bridegroom, Theuerdank) to come and serve her, instead of him wooing her; she is presented as the dominant partner while he is active and glorified but subservient; the fact the queen remains a virgin at the end of the story gives her an aura of mystification: on one hand, she is the progenitrix; on the other hand, she remains immaculate and unrestricted.

Hartmann notes that Anastasius Grün perceived this meaning when describing the scene of Maximilian's death in Der letzte Ritter (1830) as well.