Germany
Rudolf of Hapsburg
The Habsburgs were a very minor noble family from the area of Tyrol, in southern Germany. Rudolf seemed a perfect choice to the electors, for his relative poverty meant that he could not threaten their freedoms while at the same time he was indisputably German. The electors had not cared for having a non-German as their king.
Their intuition was correct. Rudolf was an ideal emperor for the time. Having someone on the throne brought a measure of stability to German politics, but Rudolf did not interfere with the princes. He mainly negotiated with them to gain recognition for his son, Albert, to succeed him. He willingly granted privileges to various princes to get his way, but was never able to get his son crowned.
Other than that, Rudolf is notable mainly for bringing an end to a period, rather than for starting anything new. He does represent a new type, however. Most of the emperors we will meet in the ensuing two centuries will be like him, their interests focused on extending their family dynasty, trying to regain some sort of influence in Italy, and willing to grant to the German princes whatever they wanted in order to further the first two aims.