Maximilian armor is a modern term applied to the style of early 16th-century German plate armor associated with, and possibly first made for Emperor Maximilian I (1459-1519).

As for Emperor Maximilian I, he was the great Habsburg ruler who outlived King Matthias Corvinus. He was the one who brought about the Habsburgs’ rule in almost every corner of Europe. When the Hungarian Estates refused to give him the Sacred Crown of Hungary in 1505 under the pretext that he was not Hungarian, he scornfully remarked that he spoke Hungarian fluently and he was born in Bécsújhely (Wiener Neustadt) that had belonged to the Kingdom of Hungary. Moreover, he said to have been related to the ancient Hungarian kings as well.


 

Regarding the Maximilian armor, it is still white armor, made in plain steel, but it is decorated with many flutings that may also have played a role in deflecting the points and blades of assailants and increasing the structural strength of the plates. It is a transitional stage in the decoration of armor, after the plain steel surfaces of 15th-century armor and before the elaborate decoration and coloring with etching and other techniques of Renaissance armor.

Here are a few examples of the two Maximillian emperors’ armors: