Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor (1459-1519)
Filed under the name Maximilian · July 14, 2026
I don't know a great deal about the Holy Roman Empire, if I'm honest, but Maximilian I supporting the spread of printing during his reign catches my attention as a former schoolteacher, because nothing changed education and everyday people's access to ideas quite like the printing press did. Anybody who helped that technology take root, even a few centuries before it fully bloomed, was investing in something that would eventually put books in the hands of children like the ones I taught for 38 years, kids who'd otherwise never have had one of their own. I'm skeptical of a lot of newer technology myself, computers included, but printing is the one invention I'd never grumble about, since it's the whole reason a poor farm family's daughter like me could get an education at all eventually. Modernizing an empire is a big, vague-sounding accomplishment, but supporting the tools that spread learning is the part of it I can actually appreciate in plain, practical terms, same as I'd appreciate anybody who built a schoolhouse instead of just talking about one.