A horde of Turks had penetrated
Styria and Carniola, laying every thing waste before them as far as
Carniola. Maximilian, sounding the alarm, inspired his countrymen with
the same energy which animated his own breast. Fifteen thousand men
rallied at the blast of his bugles. Instead of intrusting the command of
them to his generals, he placed himself at their head, and made so
fierce an onset upon the invaders, that they precipitately fled.
Maximilian returned at the head of his troops triumphant to Vienna,
where he was received with acclamations such as had seldom resounded in
the metropolis. He was hailed as the deliverer of his country, and at
once rose to the highest position in the esteem and affection of the
Austrians.
Maximilian had encountered innumerable difficulties in Burgundy, and was
not unwilling to escape from the vexations and cares of that distant
dukedom, by surrendering its government to his son Philip, who was now
sixteen years of age, and whom the Burgundians claimed to be their ruler
as the heir of Mary. The Swiss estates were also sundered from Austrian
dominion, and, uniting with the Swiss confederacy, were no longer
subject to the house of Hapsburg.
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