Freiburger historische Bestände - digital

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gay clothes at all; and judging from his portrait, which
shows him with hair hanging down to the shoulders and
clean-shaven, he certainly had not adopted the Portuguese
practice of cutting the hair short and allowing the beard
to grow. Dr. Giinther (p. 35) speaks of the Nurem-
bergers of that age as being in a measure narrow-minded
(spiessbiirgerlich),1 most punctilious in the fulfilment of
the duties of their rank and calling, but out of sympathy
with a man of the type of a Martin Behaim, and with
views of life which did not accord in every respect with
their own. Dr. Giinther, I believe, is unjust to the
inhabitants of his native town. Conrad Celtes, who had a
good knowledge of the town, and who certainly was
neither a bigot nor a saint, admits that the inhabitants
were keen business men, but at the same time credits
them with qualities which are not reconcilable with
narrow-mindedness. As to myself I agree with W. M.
Thackeray when he protests against the theory " that men
of letters, and what is called genius, are to be exempt
from the prose duties of this daily, bread-wanting, tax-
paying life, and are not to be made to work and pay like
their neighbours."

But whatever the relations between Martin and his
kinsmen, he must have felt very comfortable at Nuremberg,
or he would not have lingered there long beyond the
time needed for the settlement of his legal business and
the production of his globe, seemingly forgetful that he
had left a wife in Fayal who may have been anxiously
looking forward to his return.

Departure.

At length, in July 1493, and after a stay of nearly
three years, Martin Behaim left Nuremberg, carrying
with him not only his "goods," but also a letter of his
friend Dr. H. Monetarius to King John of Portugal, in
which he directs the King's attention to the bearer as a
person well qualified to be employed in an exploring
voyage to the west.2

XIII. A MISSION TO FLANDERS, 1493.

Flanders in 1493, Perkin Warbeck.

Martin Behaim had hardly returned to Portugal with
all his " goods " when he went forth again to Flanders,
chiefly no doubt for the purpose of collecting the money
which was owing to his father-in-law for sugar, but also,
as he asserts, on a secret mission to the " King's son " which
King John had confided to him. All we know about this

1 Spiessbiirger, lit. " pikeman," a term of contempt applied to narrow-
minded citizens or cits.

2 The letter is printed, Appendix IX., p. 113.

mission we learn from a poorly indited letter which
Behaim wrote to his cousin Michael (Appendix X.). No
Portuguese author refers to such a mission, and no
document referring to it has ever been discovered, but
such a mission might well have been confided to this
foreigner if King John in a letter written by his own
hand had really told him " quia perspecta nobis iam diu
integritas tua nos inducit ad credendum, quod ubi tu es
est persona nostra "—that is, "We are induced to trust
thee because we have been aware for a long time of thy
well-known integrity, and where thou art, there is our
own person ! " Murr (p. 114) quotes this passage merely
as a " family tradition," and thinks it incredible that the
King should have written in this strain, and I quite agree
with him.

At the time of this supposed " mission" Archduke
Philip, son of Maximilian, the King of the Romans,
resided at Mechlin. He was then only sixteen years of
age, and government was carried on by a Council of State,
influenced not only by Maximilian, but also by the
Duchess Margareta of York, a sister of the Yorkist King
Edward IV. of England, and since 1477 widow of Duke
Charles of Burgundy, both of whom were intensely hostile
to Henry VII. of the House of Tudor; Maximilian
because he felt that Henry VII., his former ally, had
faithlessly deserted him by signing a separate treaty of
peace with Charles VIII. of France at Etaples on
November 3, 1493 ; Margaret as the staunch supporter of
Perkin Warbeck, who claimed to be a son of Edward IV.
falsely reported to have been murdered in the Tower
by his uncle Richard III., and therefore the legitimate
King of England. When this impostor, the " Young
King of England," as Behaim calls him, was expelled from
France in November 1492, he found a refuge with this
Dowager Duchess of Burgundy, who hailed him as the
"White" (Yorkist) rose of England, and embraced
him as if he were really her nephew. Maximilian, who
first saw Perkin at Vienna in the autumn of 1493,
countenanced this imposture and trusted to his promise
that, once seated upon the throne of England, he would
stand by him in his wars with France. Perkin returned
to Flanders with Maximilian in the summer of 1494,
and was present at the festivities held at Mechlin on
August 21, and subsequently at Antwerp and elsewhere,
in celebration of his son's accession to the throne of
Burgundy. Henry VII., in July 1493, not unnaturally
remonstrated against the countenance given to this
impostor at the court of Burgundy, and when Philip's
council declined to interfere, he, in November, expelled
all Flemings from England. Upon this Philip retaliated
by expelling the English, and all trade between the two
countries was stopped until April 1496, when Perkin was
disavowed by Ph lip.3

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3 Perkin Warbeck, aided financially by Maximilian, first invaded
England and Ireland in lift. He was hanged at Tyburn in 1499
(J. Gairdner, ' The Houses of Lancaster and York,' London, 1887).

a 2