Maximilian was born in Wiener Neustadt on 12 October 1558 as the third son of the Emperor Maximilian II. From 1585 Maximilian was an administrator of Prussia. Two years later he was a candidate for the Polish throne after the death of Stefan Batory, but this was disputed by the other claimant Sigismund III Vasa. Maximilian attempted to win the crown by force by bringing in his army and starting the War of the Polish Succession, but he was defeated at the Battle of Byczyna and imprisoned. Maximilian was only released after Pope Sixtus V intervened, and he renounced his rights to the crown in 1589. That his brother the Emperor Rudolph II, failed to act in the affair contributed greatly to Rudolph's bad reputation.