Frederick III. or IV.,

Frederick III. or IV., emperor of Germany, and the fifth Duke of Austria of that name, was born at Innsbruck, 21st September 1415, being the son of Duke Ernest, of the Styrian branch of the House of Hapsburg. At the age of twenty he assumed the government of Styria, Carniola, and Carinthia. On the death of the Emperor Albert II. in 1440, Frederick was elected king of the Germans; twelve years later he received the imperial crown at the hands of the pope at Rome, and in 1453 he secured the archducal title to his family. Owing to the indolence and indecision of his character his reign was a period of anarchy, wars raging on all the frontiers of the empire, and internal disorders vexing its peace within. During the course of his long and inglorious reign Frederick lost his hold upon Switzerland; purchased peace from his brother Albert, who ruled in Upper Austria, by the payment of a large sum of money; suffered Sforza to possess himself of Milan, George Podiebrad to seat himself on the throne of Bohemia, and Matthias Corvinus on that of Hungary; surrendered the empire to the pope by the Vienna Concordat of 1448; remained apathetic when the Turks in 1469 penetrated as far as Carniola, and again in 1475, when they almost reached Salzburg; and finally in 1485 provoked Matthias of Hungary to invade his territories. Nevertheless, by the marriage of his son, Maximilian I., to Mary, daughter of Charles the Bold of Burgundy, he laid the foundation of the subsequent greatness of the Hapsburgs. Frederick died on 19th August 1493. Though he neglected the interests and duties of the imperial crown to indulge in his favourite studies, alchemy, astrology, and botany, he never lost an opportunity of promoting the aggrandisement of his own family. He was temperate, devout, parsimonious, scrupulous about trifles, simple in his habits, mild and phlegmatic in his disposition, and naturally averse to exertion or excitement. From his time the imperial dignity continued almost hereditary in the House of Austria, which has perpetuated the use of his favourite device, A. E. I. O. U.—Austria Est Imperare Orbi Universo ('It is Austria's destiny to rule the entire world'). See Chmel's Friedrich IV. (2 vols. Hamburg, 1840–43).