ntil he first should be crowned.
Frederic, on the other hand, did not dare to crown the duke until the
marriage was solemnized, for he had no confidence that the duke, after
having attained the regal dignity, would fulfill his pledge.

Charles was for hurrying the coronation, Frederic for pushing the
marriage. A magnificent throne was erected in the cathedral at Treves,
and preparations were making on the grandest scale for the coronation
solemnities, when Frederic, who did not like to tell the duke plumply to
his face that he was fearful of being cheated, extricated himself from
his embarrassment by feigning important business which called him
suddenly to Cologne. A scene of petty and disgraceful intrigues ensued
between the exasperated duke and emperor, and there were the marching
and the countermarching of hostile bands and the usual miseries of war,
until the death of Duke Charles at the battle of Nancy on the 5th of
January, 1477.

The King of France now made a desperate endeavor to obtain the hand of
Mary for his son. One of the novel acts of this imperial courtship, was
to send an army into Burgundy, which wrested a large portion of Mary's
dominions from her, which the king, Louis XI., refused to surrender
unless Mary would marry his son. Many of her nobles urged the claims of
France. But love in the heart of Mary was stronger than political
expediency, and more persuasive than the entreaties of her nobles. To
relieve herself from importunity, she was hurriedly married, three
months after the death of her father, by proxy to Maximilian.

In August the young prince, but eighteen years of age, with a splendid
retinue, made his public entry into Ghent. His commanding person and the
elegance of his manners, attracted universal admiration. His subjects
rallied with enthusiasm around him, and, guided by his prowess, in a
continued warfare of five years, drove the invading French from their
territories. But death, the goal to which every one tends, was suddenly
and unexpectedly reached by Mary. She died the 7th of August, 1479,
leaving two infant children, Philip and Margaret.

The Emperor Frederic also succeeded, by diplomatic cunning, in convening
the diet of electors and choosing Maximilian as his successor to the
imperial throne. Frederic and Maximilian now united in the endeavor to
recover Austria from the King of Hungary. The German princes, however,
notwithstanding the summons of the emperor, refused to take a