To modern observers, the political system of pre-modern Europe may easily appear to be the exact opposite of a nationalist order. Monarchs primarily pursued dynastic ambitions, not nationalist agendas. They married their children and grandchildren off to families of foreign rulers, and, as a result, regularly ruled – on perfectly legal grounds – over peoples with whom they shared neither culture nor language. Indeed, dynastic politics was at odds with nationalism in many respects, not least because it was based on hereditary rights established in the early medieval period, when the concept of the nation was not envisaged.

However, the late medieval and early modern period offers ample evidence, too, that dynastic politics both shaped nationalist culture and was shaped by it in return. Emperor Maximilian’s impact on humanist nationalism in Germany was no exception in this regard. Many kings portrayed themselves as paragons of patriotic statesmanship and as defenders of national honour while cultivating their family ties and fostering their territorial claims all over Europe.