[December 1518]

For some time, one could say the Emperor had been obsessed with death. Since 1514 he had carried a coffin with him wherever he went, and would take the opportunity to inform any who would listen of his macabre instructions for what should be done with his body. This obsession with death and indeed his lingering feeling that it drew nearer and nearer to him would be reinforced by the appearance of a solar eclipse on December 2nd, 1518. The aging Emperor would resolve to return to his beloved Innsbruck where he would remain for his final days.

Or so he thought.

Upon his entourage's arrival in Innsbruck on the 4th, they would be stopped at the doors of the inns and informed that unless Maximilian was prepared to return the 24,000 guelden he owed to various families and business owners in the city, his entourage would not be hosted.

This event sent Maximilian into a rage so fierce, he suffered a stroke amid his indignation. This affront would sum up the reign of the Young White King, propagandized as so in the Weisskunig, who had boasted of not being "a King of money".

Maximilian would travel down the Inn River to Kufstein, and from there by board down to Rosenheim, thence eastward to Austria, complaining of a sore throat, stubborn stomach, and of course his limping leg. On the 10th of December, the Emperor would reach his last station; the Castle Wels on the Danube. He would be bedridden from then-on, though, the flurry of bureaucratic work never stopped flowing from his chambers till the very end.

While at Castle Wels, Maximilian prepared for the succession; to Charles went his Empire, that which he 'expended my blood, my money and my youth for', Burgundy of course, and further, both he and his brother Ferdinand would be made Archdukes of Austria which they would rule jointly then on. Ferdinand's title of Count of Tirol would be subsumed once more into the Archduchy upon his confirmation.

Maximilian would then give his final statement on how his body was to be treated after his death: his hair was to be cut off, and his teeth knocked out. The body was to be whipped, then covered with lime and ash, wrapped in linen, and 'publicly displayed to show the perishableness of all earthly glory.'

And there lay the August Emperor Maximilian. Waiting at Castle Wels for death to come to him, this death that he has anticipated with some mixture of anxiety and longing since 1499. Since Mary's death.

The mere thought of Mary brought a final tear to the Emperor's eye. Soon, he would be with her once more.