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Not to be
confused with Roman Empire or Western Roman Empire.
The Holy Roman Empire (Latin: Sacrum Romanum Imperium; German: Heiliges Römisches Reich) was a multi-ethnic complex
of territories in Western and Central Europe that
developed during the Early Middle Ages and
continued until its dissolution in 1806 during the Napoleonic Wars.[3] The
largest territory of the empire after 962 was the Kingdom of Germany, though it also
came to include the neighboring Kingdom of Bohemia, the Kingdom of Burgundy, the Kingdom of Italy, and numerous
other territories.[4][5][6]
On 25 December
800, Pope Leo III crowned
the Frankish kingCharlemagne as Emperor, reviving the
title in Western Europe, more than
three centuries after the fall of the
earlier ancient Western Roman Empire in 476.
The title continued in the Carolingian family until 888
and from 896 to 899, after which it was contested by the rulers of Italy in a
series of civil wars until the death of the last Italian claimant, Berengar I, in 924. The
title was revived again in 962 when Otto I was crowned
emperor, fashioning himself as the successor of Charlemagne[7] and
beginning a continuous existence of the empire for over eight centuries.[8][9][10] Some
historians refer to the coronation of Charlemagne as the origin of the empire,[11][12] while
others prefer the coronation of Otto I as its beginning.[13][14] Scholars
generally concur, however, in relating an evolution of the institutions and
principles constituting the empire, describing a gradual assumption of the
imperial title and role.[5][11]
The exact term
"Holy Roman Empire" was not used until the 13th century, but the
concept of translatio imperii,[d] the notion
that he—the sovereign ruler—held supreme power inherited from the ancient
emperors of Rome, was
fundamental to the prestige of the emperor.[5]The office
of Holy Roman Emperor was
traditionally elective, although frequently controlled by dynasties. The mostly
German prince-electors, the
highest-ranking noblemen of the empire, usually elected one of their peers as
"King of the Romans", and he
would later be crowned emperor by the Pope; the tradition
of papal coronations was discontinued in the 16th century.
The empire never
achieved the extent of political unification as was formed to the west in France, evolving
instead into a decentralized, limited elective monarchy composed of hundreds of sub-units: kingdoms, principalities, duchies, counties, prince-bishoprics, Free Imperial Cities, and other
domains.[6][15] The power
of the emperor was limited, and while the various princes, lords, bishops, and
cities of the empire were vassals who owed
the emperor their allegiance, they also possessed an extent of privileges that
gave them de facto independence within their territories.
Emperor Francis II dissolved the empire
on 6 August 1806 following the creation of the Confederation of the
Rhine by emperor Napoleon I the month
before.
Contents
·
1Name
·
2History
o
2.1Early Middle Ages
§ 2.1.1Carolingian forerunners
§ 2.1.2Formation
o
2.2High Middle Ages
§ 2.2.1Investiture controversy
o
2.3Holy Roman Empire under
Hohenstaufen dynasty
§ 2.3.1Kingdom of Bohemia
§ 2.3.2Interregnum
§ 2.3.3Changes in political
structure
o
2.4Late Middle Ages
§ 2.4.1Rise of the territories
after the Hohenstaufens
§ 2.4.2Imperial reform
o
2.5Reformation and
Renaissance
o
2.6Baroque period
o
2.7Modern period
§ 2.7.1Prussia and Austria
§ 2.7.2French Revolutionary Wars
and final dissolution
·
3Institutions
o
3.1Imperial estates
o
3.2King of the Romans
o
3.3Imperial Diet (Reichstag)
o
3.4Imperial courts
o
3.5Imperial circles
o
3.6Army
o
3.7Administrative centres
·
4Demographics
o
4.1Population
o
4.2Largest cities
o
4.3Religion
·
5See also
·
6Notes
·
7References
·
8Further reading
o
8.1In German
·
9External links
o
9.1Maps
Double-headed
eagle with coats of arms of individual states, the symbol of the Holy Roman
Empire (painting from 1510)
In various
languages the Holy Roman Empire was known as: Latin: Sacrum Romanum Imperium, German: Heiliges Römisches Reich, Italian: Sacro Romano Impero (before Otto I), Italian: Sacro Romano Impero Germanico (by Otto
I), Czech: Svatá říše římská, Polish: Święte imperium rzymskie, Slovene: Sveto rimsko cesarstvo, Dutch: Heilige Roomse Rijk, French: Saint-Empire romain (before Otto I), French: Saint-Empire romain germanique (by Otto
I).[16] Before
1157, the realm was merely referred to as the "Roman Empire".[17] The
term sacrum ("holy", in the sense of
"consecrated") in connection with the medieval Roman Empire was used
beginning in 1157 under Frederick I Barbarossa ("Holy
Empire"): the term was added to reflect Frederick's ambition to
dominate Italy and the Papacy.[18] The form
"Holy Roman Empire" is attested from 1254 onward.[19]
In a decree
following the 1512 Diet of Cologne, the name was
changed to the "Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation" (German: Heiliges Römisches Reich Deutscher Nation, Latin: Imperium Romanum Sacrum Nationis Germanicæ),[20][21] a form
first used in a document in 1474.[18] The new
title was adopted partly because the Empire had lost most of its Italian and
Burgundian (Kingdom of Arles) territories to
the south and west by the late 15th century,[22] but also
to emphasize the new importance of the German Imperial Estates in ruling
the Empire due to the Imperial Reform.[23] By the end
of the 18th century, the term
"Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation" had fallen out of official
use. Besides, contradicting the traditional view concerning that designation,
Hermann Weisert has stated in a study on imperial titulature that, despite the claim of many textbooks, the
name "Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation" never
had an official status and points out that documents were thirty times as
likely to omit the national suffix as include it.[24] This, or
the shortened "Roman Empire of the German Nation", is often used
in Germany to refer
to the Holy Roman Empire.
In a famous
assessment of the name, the political philosopher Voltaire (1694–1778)
remarked sardonically: "This body which was called and which still calls
itself the Holy Roman Empire was in no way holy, nor Roman, nor an
empire."[25]
Early Middle Ages[edit]
Carolingian forerunners[edit]
Further information: Carolingian Empire
As Roman power
in Gaul declined
during the 5th century, local Germanic tribes assumed control.[26] In the
late 5th and early 6th centuries, the Merovingians, under Clovis I and his
successors, consolidated Frankish tribes and
extended hegemony over others to gain control of northern Gaul and the
middle Rhine river valley
region.[27][28] By the
middle of the 8th century, however, the Merovingians
had been reduced to figureheads, and the Carolingians, led by Charles Martel, had become
the de facto rulers.[29] In 751,
Martel's son Pepin became
King of the Franks, and later gained the sanction of the Pope.[30][31] The
Carolingians would maintain a close alliance with the Papacy.[32]
In 768 Pepin's
son Charlemagne became
King of the Franks and began an extensive expansion of the realm. He eventually
incorporated the territories of present-day France, Germany, northern Italy,
and beyond, linking the Frankish kingdom with Papal lands.[33][34]
In 797,
the Eastern Roman Emperor Constantine VI was
removed from the throne by his mother Irene who
declared herself Empress. As the Church regarded a male Roman Emperor as the
head of Christendom, Pope Leo III sought a new candidate for the dignity.
Charlemagne's good service to the Church in his defense of Papal possessions
against the Lombards made him
the ideal candidate. On Christmas Day of 800, Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne
emperor, restoring the title in the West for the first time in over three
centuries.[35][36] In 802,
Irene was overthrown by Nikephoros I and
henceforth there were two Roman Emperors.
After
Charlemagne died in 814, the imperial crown passed to his son, Louis the Pious. Upon Louis'
death in 840, it passed to his son Lothair, who had been
his co-ruler. By this point the territory of Charlemagne had been divided into
several territories, and over the course of the later ninth century the title
of Emperor was disputed by the Carolingian rulers of Western Francia and Eastern Francia, with first the western king (Charles the Bald) and then the
eastern (Charles the Fat), who briefly
reunited the Empire, attaining the prize.[citation needed] After the
death of Charles the Fat in 888, however, the Carolingian Empire broke apart,
and was never restored. According to Regino of Prüm, the parts of
the realm "spewed forth kinglets", and each part elected a kinglet
"from its own bowels".[37] After the
death of Charles the Fat, those crowned emperor by the pope controlled
only territories in Italy.[citation needed] The last
such emperor was Berengar I of Italy, who died in
924.
Formation[edit]
Around 900, autonomous stem duchies (Franconia, Bavaria, Swabia, Saxony, and Lotharingia) reemerged in
East Francia. After the Carolingian king Louis the Child died
without issue in 911, East Francia did not turn to
the Carolingian ruler of West Francia to take over
the realm but instead elected one of the dukes, Conrad of Franconia, as Rex
Francorum Orientalium.[38]:117 On his deathbed, Conrad yielded the crown to his main
rival, Henry the Fowler of Saxony
(r. 919–36), who was elected king at the Diet of Fritzlar in 919.[38]:118 Henry
reached a truce with the raiding Magyars, and in 933 he
won a first victory against them in the Battle of Riade.[38]:121
Henry died in
936, but his descendants, the Liudolfing (or Ottonian) dynasty, would continue
to rule the Eastern kingdom for roughly a century. Upon Henry the Fowler's
death, Otto, his son and
designated successor,[39] was
elected King in Aachen in 936.[40]:706He overcame a
series of revolts from a younger brother and from several dukes. After that,
the king managed to control the appointment of dukes and often also employed
bishops in administrative affairs.[41]:212–13
The Holy Roman Empire from 962 to
1806
In 951, Otto came to the aid of Adelaide, the widowed
queen of Italy, defeating her enemies, marrying her, and taking control over
Italy.[41]:214–15 In 955,
Otto won a decisive victory over the Magyars in
the Battle of Lechfeld.[40]:707 In 962,
Otto was crowned Emperor by Pope John XII,[40]:707 thus
intertwining the affairs of the German kingdom with those of Italy and the
Papacy. Otto's coronation as Emperor marked the German kings as successors to
the Empire of Charlemagne, which through the concept of translatio imperii, also made them
consider themselves as successors to Ancient Rome.
The kingdom had no permanent capital city.[42] Kings
traveled between residences (called Kaiserpfalz) to discharge
affairs. However, each king preferred certain places; in Otto's case, this was
the city of Magdeburg. Kingship
continued to be transferred by election, but Kings often ensured their own sons
were elected during their lifetimes, enabling them to keep the crown for their
families. This only changed after the end of the Salian
dynasty in the 12th century.
In 963, Otto
deposed the current Pope John XII and chose Pope Leo VIII as the new
pope (although John XII and Leo VIII both claimed the papacy until 964 when
John XII died). This also renewed the conflict with the Eastern Emperor in
Constantinople, especially after Otto's son Otto II (r.
967–83) adopted the designation imperator Romanorum.
Still, Otto II formed marital ties with the east when he married the Byzantine
princess Theophanu.[40]:708 Their
son, Otto III, came to the
throne only three years old, and was subjected to a power struggle and series
of regencies until his age of majority in 994. Up to that time, he had remained
in Germany, while a deposed Duke, Crescentius II, ruled over
Rome and part of Italy, ostensibly in his stead.
In 996 Otto III
appointed his cousin Gregory V the first
German Pope.[43] A foreign
pope and foreign papal officers were seen with suspicion by Roman nobles, who
were led by Crescentius II to
revolt. Otto III's former
mentor Antipope John XVI briefly
held Rome, until the Holy Roman Emperor seized the
city.[44]
Otto died young
in 1002, and was succeeded by his cousin Henry II, who focused on
Germany.[41]:215–17
Henry II died in 1024 and Conrad II, first of the Salian Dynasty, was elected king only after some debate among dukes and
nobles. This group eventually developed into the college of Electors.
The Holy Roman
Empire became eventually composed of four kingdoms. The kingdoms were:
·
Kingdom of Germany (part of the empire since 962),
·
Kingdom of Italy (from 962 until 1648),
·
Kingdom of Bohemia (since 1002 as the Duchy of Bohemia and raised to a kingdom in 1198),
·
Kingdom of Burgundy (from 1032 to 1378).
High Middle Ages[edit]
Investiture controversy[edit]
Kings often employed bishops in
administrative affairs and often determined who would be appointed to ecclesiastical
offices.[45]:101–134 In the wake of the Cluniac Reforms, this involvement
was increasingly seen as inappropriate by the Papacy. The reform-minded Pope Gregory VII was
determined to oppose such practices, which led to the Investiture Controversy with
King Henry IV (r.
1056–1106).[45]:101–34 He
repudiated the Pope's interference and persuaded his bishops to excommunicate
the Pope, whom he famously addressed by his born name "Hildebrand",
rather than his regnal name "Pope Gregory VII".[45]:109 The Pope,
in turn, excommunicated the king, declared him deposed, and dissolved the oaths
of loyalty made to Henry.[8][45]:109 The king
found himself with almost no political support and was forced to make the
famous Walk to Canossa in 1077,[45]:122–24 by which
he achieved a lifting of the excommunication at the price of humiliation.
Meanwhile, the German princes had elected another king, Rudolf of Swabia.[45]:123 Henry
managed to defeat him but was subsequently confronted
with more uprisings, renewed excommunication, and even the rebellion of his
sons. After his death, his second son, Henry V, reached an
agreement with the Pope and the bishops in the 1122 Concordat of Worms.[45]:123–34 The political power of the Empire was maintained, but the
conflict had demonstrated the limits of the ruler's power, especially in regard
to the Church, and it robbed the king of the sacral status he had previously
enjoyed. The Pope and the German princes had surfaced as major players in the
political system of the empire.
Holy Roman Empire
under Hohenstaufen dynasty[edit]
The Hohenstaufen-ruled Holy Roman Empire and Kingdom of Sicily. Imperial and
directly held Hohenstaufen lands in the Empire are shown in bright yellow.
When the Salian dynasty ended with Henry V's death in 1125, the princes
chose not to elect the next of kin, but rather Lothair, the moderately
powerful but already old Duke of Saxony. When he died in 1137, the princes
again aimed to check royal power; accordingly they did not elect Lothair's favoured heir, his
son-in-law Henry the Proud of
the Welf family,
but Conrad III of
the Hohenstaufen family,
the grandson of Emperor Henry IV and thus a nephew of Emperor Henry V. This led
to over a century of strife between the two houses. Conrad ousted the Welfs from their possessions, but after his death in 1152,
his nephew Frederick I
"Barbarossa" succeeded him and made peace
with the Welfs, restoring his cousin Henry the Lion to his –
albeit diminished – possessions.
The Hohenstaufen
rulers increasingly lent land to ministerialia,
formerly non-free servicemen, who Frederick hoped would be more reliable than
dukes. Initially used mainly for war services, this new class of people would
form the basis for the later knights, another basis
of imperial power. A further important constitutional move at Roncaglia was the establishment of a new peace mechanism
for the entire empire, the Landfrieden, with the first
imperial one being issued in 1103 under Henry IV at Mainz.[46][47] This was
an attempt to abolish private feuds, between the many dukes and other people,
and to tie the Emperor's subordinates to a legal system of jurisdiction and
public prosecution of criminal acts – a predecessor of the modern concept of
"rule of law". Another
new concept of the time was the systematic foundation of new cities by the
Emperor and by the local dukes. These were partly caused by the explosion in
population, and they also concentrated economic power at strategic locations.
Before this, cities had only existed in the form of old Roman foundations or
older bishoprics. Cities that were founded in the 12th century include Freiburg, possibly the
economic model for many later cities, and Munich.
Frederick I, also called Frederick Barbarossa, was crowned Emperor in
1155. He emphasized the "Romanness" of the
empire, partly in an attempt to justify the power of the Emperor independent of
the (now strengthened) Pope. An imperial assembly at the fields of Roncaglia in 1158 reclaimed imperial rights in reference
to Justinian's Corpus Juris Civilis. Imperial rights had been referred to as regalia since
the Investiture Controversy but were enumerated for the first time at Roncaglia. This comprehensive list included public roads,
tariffs, coining, collecting punitive fees, and the
investiture or seating and unseating of office holders. These rights were now
explicitly rooted in Roman Law, a far-reaching
constitutional act.
Frederick's policies were primarily directed at Italy,
where he clashed with the increasingly wealthy and free-minded cities of the
north, especially Milan. He also
embroiled himself in another conflict with the Papacy by supporting a candidate
elected by a minority against Pope Alexander III (1159–81).
Frederick supported a succession of antipopes before
finally making peace with Alexander in 1177. In Germany, the Emperor had
repeatedly protected Henry the Lion against complaints by rival princes or
cities (especially in the cases of Munich and Lübeck). Henry gave
only lackluster support to Frederick's policies, and in a critical situation
during the Italian wars, Henry refused the Emperor's plea for military support.
After returning to Germany, an embittered Frederick opened proceedings against
the Duke, resulting in a public ban and the confiscation of all his
territories. In 1190, Frederick participated in the Third Crusade and died
in the Armenian Kingdom of
Cilicia.[48]
During the
Hohenstaufen period, German princes facilitated a successful, peaceful eastward settlement of lands
that were uninhabited or inhabited sparsely by West Slavs. German speaking farmers,
traders, and craftsmen from the western part of the Empire, both Christians and
Jews, moved into these areas. The gradual Germanization of these
lands was a complex phenomenon that should not be interpreted in the biased
terms of 19th-century nationalism. The eastward
settlement expanded the influence of the empire to include Pomerania and Silesia, as did the
intermarriage of the local, still mostly Slavic, rulers with German spouses.
The Teutonic Knights were
invited to Prussia by
Duke Konrad of Masovia to Christianize the Prussians in 1226.
The monastic state of the
Teutonic Order (German: Deutschordensstaat) and its later German successor
state of Prussia were,
however, never part of the Holy Roman Empire.
Under the son
and successor of Frederick Barbarossa, Henry VI, the
Hohenstaufen dynasty reached its apex. Henry added the Norman kingdom of Sicily
to his domains, held English king Richard the Lionheart captive,
and aimed to establish a hereditary monarchy when he died in 1197. As his
son, Frederick II, though already
elected king, was still a small child and living in Sicily, German princes chose
to elect an adult king, resulting in the dual election of Frederick
Barbarossa's youngest son Philip of Swabiaand Henry the
Lion's son Otto of Brunswick, who competed
for the crown. Otto prevailed for a while after Philip was murdered in a
private squabble in 1208 until he began to also claim Sicily.
The Reichssturmfahne, a
military banner during the
13th and early 14th centuries.
Pope Innocent III, who feared the threat posed by a union of the empire and
Sicily, now supported by Frederick II, who marched to Germany and defeated
Otto. After his victory, Frederick did not act upon his promise to keep the two
realms separate. Though he had made his son Henry king of Sicily before
marching on Germany, he still reserved real political power for himself. This
continued after Frederick was crowned Emperor in 1220. Fearing Frederick's
concentration of power, the Pope finally excommunicated the Emperor. Another
point of contention was the crusade, which Frederick had promised but
repeatedly postponed. Now, although excommunicated, Frederick led the Sixth Crusade in 1228, which ended in negotiations and a temporary
restoration of the Kingdom of Jerusalem.
Despite his
imperial claims, Frederick's rule was a major turning point towards the
disintegration of central rule in the Empire. While concentrated on
establishing a modern, centralized state in Sicily, he was mostly absent from
Germany and issued far-reaching privileges to Germany's secular and
ecclesiastical princes: In the 1220 Confoederatio cum principibus ecclesiasticis, Frederick
gave up a number of regalia in favour
of the bishops, among them tariffs, coining, and fortification. The 1232 Statutum in favorem principum mostly
extended these privileges to secular territories. Although many of these
privileges had existed earlier, they were now granted globally, and once and
for all, to allow the German princes to maintain order north of the Alps while
Frederick concentrated on Italy. The 1232 document marked the first time that
the German dukes were called domini terræ, owners of their lands, a
remarkable change in terminology as well.
Kingdom of Bohemia[edit]
Lands of the Bohemian Crownsince
the reign of Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV
The Kingdom of Bohemia was a
significant regional power during the Middle Ages. In 1212,
King Ottokar I (bearing
the title "king" since 1198) extracted a Golden Bull of Sicily (a formal
edict) from the emperor Frederick II, confirming the
royal title for Ottokar and his descendants and the
Duchy of Bohemia was raised to a kingdom. Bohemian kings would be exempt from
all future obligations to the Holy Roman Empire except for participation in the
imperial councils. Charles IV set Prague to be the
seat of the Holy Roman Emperor.
Interregnum[edit]
Main article: Interregnum (HRE)
After the death
of Frederick II in 1250, the German kingdom was divided between his son Conrad IV (died
1254) and the anti-king, William of Holland (died
1256). Conrad's death was followed by the Interregnum, during which
no king could achieve universal recognition, allowing the princes to
consolidate their holdings and become even more independent rulers. After 1257,
the crown was contested between Richard of Cornwall, who was
supported by the Guelph party, and Alfonso X of Castile, who was
recognized by the Hohenstaufen party but never set foot on German soil. After
Richard's death in 1273, the Interregnum ended with the unanimous election
of Rudolf I of Germany, a minor pro-Staufen count.
Changes in political structure[edit]
Further information: Medieval commune, Städtebund, Hanseatic League, Imperial immediacy, and Feudalism in the Holy
Roman Empire
An illustration
from Schedelsche Weltchronik depicting
the structure of the Reich: The Holy Roman Emperor is sitting; on his right are
three ecclesiastics; on his left are four secular electors.
During the 13th century, a general structural change in
how land was administered prepared the shift of political power towards the
rising bourgeoisie at the
expense of aristocratic feudalism that would
characterize the Late Middle Ages. Instead of
personal duties, money increasingly became the common means to represent
economic value in agriculture. Peasants were increasingly required to pay
tribute to their lands. The concept of "property" began to replace
more ancient forms of jurisdiction, although they were still very much tied
together. In the territories (not at the level of the Empire), power became
increasingly bundled: Whoever owned the land had jurisdiction, from which other
powers derived. It is important to note, however, that jurisdiction at this
time did not include legislation, which virtually did not exist until well into
the 15th century. Court practice heavily relied on traditional customs or rules
described as customary.
During this time
territories began to transform into the predecessors of modern states. The
process varied greatly among the various lands and was most advanced in those
territories that were almost identical to the lands of the old Germanic
tribes, e.g. Bavaria. It was slower in those scattered
territories that were founded through imperial privileges.
Late Middle Ages[edit]
Further information: Late Middle Ages and Pomerania during the Late
Middle Ages
Rise of the territories after the Hohenstaufens[edit]
The difficulties
in electing the king eventually led to the emergence of a fixed college
of prince-electors (Kurfürsten), whose composition and procedures were
set forth in the Golden Bull of 1356, which remained
valid until 1806. This development probably best symbolizes the emerging
duality between emperor and realm (Kaiser und Reich),
which were no longer considered identical. The Golden Bull also set forth the
system for election of the Holy Roman Emperor. The emperor now was to be
elected by a majority rather than by consent of all seven electors. For
electors the title became hereditary, and they were given the right to mint
coins and to exercise jurisdiction. Also their sons were to know the imperial
languages – German, Latin, Italian, and Czech.[49][2]
The shift in
power away from the emperor is also revealed in the way the post-Hohenstaufen
kings attempted to sustain their power. Earlier, the Empire's strength (and
finances) greatly relied on the Empire's own lands, the so-called Reichsgut, which always belonged to the king of the
day and included many Imperial Cities. After the 13th century, the relevance of
the Reichsgut faded, even though
some parts of it did remain until the Empire's end in 1806. Instead, the Reichsgut was increasingly pawned to local
dukes, sometimes to raise money for the Empire, but more frequently to reward
faithful duty or as an attempt to establish control over the dukes. The direct
governance of the Reichsgut no
longer matched the needs of either the king or the dukes.
The kings
beginning with Rudolf I of Germany increasingly
relied on the lands of their respective dynasties to support their power. In
contrast with the Reichsgut, which was
mostly scattered and difficult to administer, these territories were relatively
compact and thus easier to control. In 1282, Rudolf I thus lent Austria
and Styria to his own
sons. In 1312, Henry VII of
the House of Luxembourgwas crowned as the
first Holy Roman Emperor since Frederick II. After him all kings and emperors
relied on the lands of their own family (Hausmacht): Louis IV of Wittelsbach (king
1314, emperor 1328–47) relied on his lands in Bavaria; Charles IV of
Luxembourg, the grandson of Henry VII, drew strength from his own lands in
Bohemia. It was thus increasingly in the king's own interest to strengthen the
power of the territories, since the king profited from such a benefit in his
own lands as well.
Imperial reform[edit]
Further information: Vehmic court
The Holy Roman Empire in 1400
The "constitution" of the
Empire still remained largely unsettled at the beginning of the 15th century.
Although some procedures and institutions had been fixed, for example by
the Golden Bull of 1356, the rules of
how the king, the electors, and the other dukes should cooperate in the Empire
much depended on the personality of the respective king. It therefore proved
somewhat damaging that Sigismund of Luxemburg (king
1410, emperor 1433–1437) and Frederick III of Habsburg (king
1440, emperor 1452–1493) neglected the old core lands of the empire and mostly
resided in their own lands. Without the presence of the king, the old
institution of the Hoftag, the assembly
of the realm's leading men, deteriorated. The Imperial Diet as a
legislative organ of the Empire did not exist at that time. The dukes often
conducted feuds against each other – feuds that, more often than not, escalated
into local wars.
Simultaneously, the Catholic Church
experienced crises of its own, with wide-reaching effects in the Empire. The
conflict between several papal claimants (two anti-popes and the
"legitimate" Pope) ended only
with the Council of Constance (1414–1418);
after 1419 the Papacy directed much of its energy to suppress the Hussites. The medieval
idea of unifying all Christendom into a
single political entity, with the Church and the Empire as its leading
institutions, began to decline.
With these
drastic changes, much discussion emerged in the 15th century about the Empire
itself. Rules from the past no longer adequately described the structure of the
time, and a reinforcement of earlier Landfrieden was
urgently needed. During this time, the concept of "reform" emerged,
in the original sense of the Latin verb re-formare –
to regain an earlier shape that had been lost.
When Frederick III needed the
dukes to finance a war against Hungary in
1486, and at the same time had his son (later Maximilian I) elected king,
he faced a demand from the united dukes for their participation in an Imperial
Court. For the first time, the assembly of the electors and other dukes was now
called the Imperial Diet (German Reichstag)
(to be joined by the Imperial Free Citieslater). While
Frederick refused, his more conciliatory son finally convened the Diet at Worms in 1495, after his
father's death in 1493. Here, the king and the dukes agreed on four bills, commonly
referred to as the Reichsreform (Imperial Reform): a set of legal
acts to give the disintegrating Empire some structure. For example, this act
produced the Imperial Circle Estates and
the Reichskammergericht (Imperial
Chamber Court), institutions that would – to a degree – persist until the end
of the Empire in 1806.
However, it took a few more decades for the new regulation
to gain universal acceptance and for the new court to begin to function
effectively; only in 1512 would the Imperial Circles be finalized. The King
also made sure that his own court, the Reichshofrat,
continued to operate in parallel to the Reichskammergericht.
Also in 1512, the Empire received its new title, the Heiliges
Römisches Reich Deutscher
Nation ("Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation").
Reformation and Renaissance[edit]
Further information: German Reformation and German Renaissance
See also: Charles V, Holy Roman
Emperor
Carta itineraria europae
(by Waldseemüller, 1520 dedicated
to Emperor Charles V.)
In 1516, Ferdinand II of Aragon, grandfather of
the future Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, died.[50] Due to a
combination of (1) the traditions of dynastic succession in Aragon, which
permitted maternal inheritance with no precedence for female rule; (2) the
insanity of Charles's mother, Joanna of Castile; and (3) the
insistence by his remaining grandfather, Maximilian I, that he take
up his royal titles, Charles initiated his reign in Castile and Aragon, a union
which evolved into Spain, in conjunction
with his mother. This ensured for the first time that all the realms of what is
now Spain would be united by one monarch under one nascent Spanish crown. The
founding territories retained their separate governance codes and laws. In 1519,
already reigning as Carlos I in Spain, Charles took up the
imperial title as Karl V. The balance (and imbalance) between these
separate inheritances would be defining elements of his reign and would ensure
that personal union between the Spanish and German crowns would be short-lived.
The latter would end up going to a more junior branch of the Habsburgs in the
person of Charles's brother Ferdinand, while the
senior branch continued to rule in Spain and in the Burgundian inheritance in
the person of Charles's son, Philip II of Spain.
In addition to conflicts between his Spanish and German
inheritances, conflicts of religion would be another source of tension during
the reign of Charles V. Before Charles's reign in the Holy Roman Empire began,
in 1517, Martin Luther launched
what would later be known as the Reformation. At this time,
many local dukes saw it as a chance to oppose the hegemony of Emperor Charles V. The empire
then became fatally divided along religious lines, with the north, the east,
and many of the major cities – Strasbourg, Frankfurt, and Nuremberg –
becoming Protestant while the
southern and western regions largely remained Catholic.
Baroque period[edit]
Main articles: Germany in the early
modern period and Pomerania during the
Early Modern Age
Further information: Baroque, Protestant Union, Catholic League (German), and Thirty Years' War
The Holy Roman
Empire around 1600, superimposed over current state borders
Charles V
continued to battle the French and the Protestant princes in Germany for much
of his reign. After his son Philip married Queen Mary of England, it appeared
that France would be completely surrounded by Habsburg domains, but this hope
proved unfounded when the marriage produced no children. In 1555, Paul IV was
elected pope and took the side of France, whereupon an exhausted Charles
finally gave up his hopes of a world Christian empire. He abdicated and divided
his territories between Philip and Ferdinand of Austria. The Peace of Augsburg ended the
war in Germany and accepted the existence of Protestantism in form
of Lutheranism, while Calvinism was still
not recognized. Anabaptist, Arminian and other
minor Protestant communities were also forbidden.
Religion in the
Holy Roman Empire on the eve of the Thirty Years' War
The Empire after
the Peace of Westphalia, 1648
Germany would enjoy relative peace for the next six
decades. On the eastern front, the Turks continued to loom large as a threat,
although war would mean further compromises with the Protestant princes, and so
the Emperor sought to avoid it. In the west, the Rhineland increasingly fell
under French influence. After the Dutch revolt against Spain erupted, the
Empire remained neutral, de facto allowing the Netherlands to
depart the empire in 1581, a secession acknowledged in
1648. A side effect was the Cologne War, which ravaged
much of the upper Rhine.
After Ferdinand
died in 1564, his son Maximilian II became
Emperor, and like his father accepted the existence of Protestantism and the
need for occasional compromise with it. Maximilian was succeeded in 1576
by Rudolf II, a strange man
who preferred classical Greek
philosophy to Christianity and lived an isolated existence
in Bohemia. He became afraid to act when the Catholic Church was forcibly
reasserting control in Austria and Hungary, and the Protestant princes became
upset over this. Imperial power sharply deteriorated by the time of Rudolf's
death in 1612. When Bohemians rebelled against the Emperor, the immediate
result was the series of conflicts known as the Thirty Years' War (1618–48),
which devastated the Empire. Foreign powers, including France and Sweden,
intervened in the conflict and strengthened those fighting Imperial power, but
also seized considerable territory for themselves. The long conflict so bled
the Empire that it never recovered its strength.
The actual end of the empire came in several steps.
The Peace of Westphalia in 1648,
which ended the Thirty Years' War, gave the territories almost complete
independence. Calvinism was now
allowed, but Anabaptists, Arminians and other
Protestant communities would still lack any support and continue to be
persecuted well until the end of the Empire. The Swiss Confederation, which had
already established quasi-independence in 1499, as well as the Northern Netherlands, left the
Empire. The Habsburg Emperors
focused on consolidating their own estates in Austria and elsewhere.
At the Battle of Vienna (1683),
the Army of the Holy Roman
Empire, led by the Polish King John III Sobieski, decisively
defeated a large Turkish army, stopping the western Ottoman advance and leading
to the eventual dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire in Europe.
The army was half forces of the Polish–Lithuanian
Commonwealth, mostly cavalry, and half forces of the Holy Roman
Empire (German/Austrian), mostly infantry.
Modern period[edit]
Main article: 18th-century history of
Germany
Prussia and Austria[edit]
Further information: Austria–Prussia rivalry, Kingdom of Prussia, and Habsburg Monarchy
By the rise
of Louis XIV, the Habsburgs
were chiefly dependent on their hereditary lands to counter
the rise of Prussia; some of whose
territories lay inside the Empire. Throughout the 18th century, the Habsburgs
were embroiled in various European conflicts, such as the War of the Spanish
Succession, the War of the Polish
Succession, and the War of the Austrian
Succession. The German dualism between Austria and Prussia dominated
the empire's history after 1740.
French
Revolutionary Wars and final dissolution[edit]
Main
article: Dissolution of the Holy
Roman Empire
The Empire on
the eve of the French Revolution, 1789
From 1792
onwards, revolutionary France was at war
with various parts of the Empire intermittently.
The German mediatization was the
series of mediatizations and secularizations that
occurred between 1795 and 1814, during the latter part of the era of the French Revolution and then
the Napoleonic Era. "Mediatization" was the process of annexingthe lands of
one imperial estate to
another, often leaving the annexed some rights. For example, the estates of
the Imperial Knights were
formally mediatized in 1806, having de facto been seized by
the great territorial states in 1803 in
the so-called Rittersturm.
"Secularization" was the abolition of the temporal power of an ecclesiastical ruler such
as a bishop or
an abbot and the
annexation of the secularized territory to a secular territory.
The empire was dissolved on 6 August
1806, when the last Holy Roman Emperor Francis II (from
1804, Emperor Francis I of Austria) abdicated, following a military defeat by
the French under Napoleon at Austerlitz (see Treaty of Pressburg). Napoleon reorganized much of the
Empire into the Confederation of the
Rhine, a French satellite. Francis' House of
Habsburg-Lorraine survived the demise of the
empire, continuing to reign as Emperors of Austria and Kings of Hungary until the
Habsburg empire's final dissolution in 1918 in the aftermath of World War I.
The Napoleonic Confederation of the Rhine was
replaced by a new union, the German Confederation, in 1815,
following the end of the Napoleonic Wars. It lasted
until 1866 when Prussia founded the North German
Confederation, a forerunner of the German Empire which
united the German-speaking territories outside of Austria and Switzerland under
Prussian leadership in 1871. This state developed into modern Germany.
The only princely member state of the Holy Roman
Empire that has preserved its status as a monarchy until today is the Principality of
Liechtenstein. The only Free Imperial Cities still being states
within Germany are Hamburg and Bremen. All other
historic member states of the HRE were either dissolved or are republican
successor states to their princely predecessor states.
The Holy Roman Empire was not a highly centralized
state like most countries today. Instead, it was divided into dozens –
eventually hundreds – of individual entities governed by kings,[51] dukes, counts, bishops, abbots, and other
rulers, collectively known as princes. There were
also some areas ruled directly by the Emperor. At no time could the Emperor
simply issue decrees and govern autonomously over the Empire. His power was
severely restricted by the various local leaders.
From the High Middle Ages onwards,
the Holy Roman Empire was marked by an uneasy coexistence with the princes of
the local territories who were struggling to take power away from
it. To a greater extent than in other medieval kingdoms such as France and England, the Emperors
were unable to gain much control over the lands that they formally owned.
Instead, to secure their own position from the threat of being deposed,
Emperors were forced to grant more and more autonomy to local rulers, both
nobles, and bishops. This process began in the 11th century with the Investiture Controversy and was
more or less concluded with the 1648 Peace of Westphalia. Several
Emperors attempted to reverse this steady dissemination of their authority but
were thwarted both by the papacy and by the
princes of the Empire.
Imperial estates[edit]
Main article: Imperial State
The number of
territories represented in the Imperial Diet was considerable, numbering about
300 at the time of the Peace of Westphalia. Many of
these Kleinstaaten ("little
states") covered no more than a few square miles, and/or included several
non-contiguous pieces, so the Empire was often called a Flickenteppich ("patchwork carpet"). An
entity was considered a Reichsstand(imperial estate) if, according to feudal law, it had no
authority above it except the Holy Roman Emperor himself. The imperial estates
comprised:
·
Territories ruled by a hereditary nobleman, such as a
prince, archduke, duke, or count.
·
Territories in which secular authority was held by a
clerical dignitary, such as an archbishop, bishop, or abbot. Such a cleric was
a prince of the church. In the common
case of a prince-bishop, this temporal
territory (called a prince-bishopric) frequently overlapped with his
often-larger ecclesiastical diocese, giving the
bishop both civil and clerical powers. Examples are the prince-archbishoprics
of Cologne, Trier, and Mainz.
·
Free imperial cities and Imperial villages, which were subject only to the jurisdiction of the
emperor.
·
The scattered estates of the free Imperial Knights and Imperial Counts, immediate to
the Emperor but unrepresented in the Imperial Diet.
A sum total of
1,500 Imperial estates has been reckoned.[52] For a list
of Reichsstände in 1792, see List of Imperial Diet
participants (1792).
King of the Romans[edit]
Main article: King of the Romans
The crown of the Holy Roman
Empire (2nd half of the 10th century), now held in
the Schatzkammer (Vienna)
A prospective Emperor had first to be elected King of the Romans (Latin: Rex
Romanorum; German: römischer
König). German kings had been
elected since the 9th century; at that point they were chosen by the leaders of
the five most important tribes (the Salian Franksof Lorraine, Ripuarian Franks of Franconia, Saxons, Bavarians, and Swabians). In the Holy
Roman Empire, the main dukes and bishops of the kingdom elected the King of the
Romans. In 1356, Emperor Charles IV issued
the Golden Bull, which limited
the electors to seven:
the King of Bohemia, the Count Palatine of the
Rhine, the Duke of Saxony, the Margrave of Brandenburg, and the
archbishops of Cologne, Mainz, and Trier. During
the Thirty Years' War, the Duke of Bavaria was given
the right to vote as the eighth elector, and the Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg (colloquially, Hanover) was
granted a ninth electorate; additionally, the Napoleonic Wars resulted in
several electorates being reallocated, but these new electors never voted
before the Empire's dissolution. A candidate for election would be expected to offer
concessions of land or money to the electors in order to secure their vote.
After being elected, the King of the Romans could
theoretically claim the title of "Emperor" only after being crowned
by the Pope. In many cases,
this took several years while the King was held up by other tasks: frequently
he first had to resolve conflicts in rebellious northern Italy or was
quarreling with the Pope himself. Later Emperors dispensed with the papal coronation
altogether, being content with the styling Emperor-Elect: the last
Emperor to be crowned by the Pope was Charles V in 1530.
The Emperor had to be male and of noble blood. No law
required him to be a Catholic, but as the majority of the Electors adhered to
this faith, no Protestant was ever elected. Whether and to what degree he had
to be German was disputed among the Electors, contemporary experts in
constitutional law, and the public. During the Middle
Ages, some Kings and Emperors were not of German origin, but since the
Renaissance, German heritage was regarded as vital for a candidate in order to
be eligible for imperial office.[53]
Imperial Diet (Reichstag)[edit]
Main article: Imperial Diet (Holy Roman
Empire)
The Seven Prince-electors
The Imperial
Diet (Reichstag, or Reichsversammlung)
was not a legislative body as we understand it today, as its members envisioned
it more like a central forum where it was more important to negotiate than to
decide.[54] The Diet
was theoretically superior to the emperor himself. It was divided into three
classes. The first class, the Council of Electors, consisted of
the electors, or the princes who could vote for King of the Romans. The second
class, the Council of Princes, consisted of
the other princes. The Council of Princes was divided into two
"benches", one for secular rulers and one for ecclesiastical ones.
Higher-ranking princes had individual votes, while lower-ranking princes were
grouped into "colleges" by geography. Each college had one vote.
The third class was the Council of Imperial Cities, which
was divided into two colleges: Swabia and
the Rhine. The Council of
Imperial Cities was not fully equal with the others; it could not vote on
several matters such as the admission of new territories. The representation of
the Free Cities at the Diet had become common since the late Middle
Ages. Nevertheless, their participation was formally acknowledged only as late
as in 1648 with the Peace of Westphalia ending
the Thirty Years' War.
Imperial courts[edit]
The Empire also had two courts: the Reichshofrat (also known in English as
the Aulic Council) at the court
of the King/Emperor, and the Reichskammergericht (Imperial
Chamber Court), established with the Imperial Reform of 1495.
Imperial circles[edit]
Map of the
Empire showing division into Circles in 1512
As part of the
Imperial Reform, six Imperial Circles were
established in 1500; four more were established in 1512. These were regional
groupings of most (though not all) of the various states of the Empire for the
purposes of defense, imperial taxation, supervision of coining, peace-keeping
functions, and public security. Each circle had its own parliament, known as
a Kreistag("Circle Diet"), and one or more directors, who
coordinated the affairs of the circle. Not all imperial territories were
included within the imperial circles, even after 1512; the Lands of the Bohemian
Crown were excluded, as were Switzerland, the imperial
fiefs in northern Italy, the lands of the Imperial Knights, and certain
other small territories like the Lordship of Jever.
Army[edit]
Main article: Army of the Holy Roman
Empire
The Army of the Holy Roman
Empire (German Reichsarmee, Reichsheer or Reichsarmatur;
Latin exercitus imperii)
was created in 1422 and came to an end even before the Empire as the result of
the Napoleonic Wars. It must not be
confused with the Imperial Army (Kaiserliche Armee)
of the Emperor.
Despite appearances to the contrary,
the Army of the Empire did not constitute a permanent standing army that was
always at the ready to fight for the Empire. When there was danger, an Army of
the Empire was mustered from among the elements constituting it,[55] in order
to conduct an imperial military campaign or Reichsheerfahrt.
In practice, the imperial troops often had local allegiances stronger than
their loyalty to the Emperor.
Administrative centres[edit]
Reichshofrat resided in Vienna.
Reichskammergericht resided
in Worms, Augsburg, Nuremberg, Regensburg, Speyer and Esslingen before it was moved permanently to Wetzlar.
Reichstag resided variously in Paderborn, Bad Lippspringe, Ingelheim am Rhein, Diedenhofen (now Thionville), Aachen, Worms, Forchheim, Trebur, Fritzlar, Ravenna, Quedlinburg, Dortmund, Verona, Minden, Mainz, Frankfurt am Main, Merseburg, Goslar, Würzburg, Bamberg, Schwäbisch Hall, Augsburg, Nuremberg, Quierzy-sur-Oise, Speyer, Gelnhausen, Erfurt, Eger (now Cheb), Esslingen, Lindau, Freiburg, Cologne, Konstanz and Trier before it was moved permanently to Regensburg.
The Holy Roman
Empire never had a capital city. Usually, the
Holy Roman Emperor ruled from a place of his own choice. This was called an
imperial seat. Seats of the Holy Roman Emperor included: Aachen (from
794), Palermo (1220–1254), Munich (1328–1347
and 1744–1745), Prague (1355–1437
and 1576–1611), Vienna (1438–1576,
1611–1740 and 1745–1806) and Frankfurt am Main (1742–1744)
among other cities.
Imperial elections were mostly held in Frankfurt am Main, but also took
place in Augsburg, Rhens, Cologne and Regensburg. Going as far as into the 16th century, the elected Holy
Roman Emperor was then crowned and appointed by the Pope in Rome, but individual coronations also happened in Ravenna, Bologna and Reims.
Population[edit]
Overall population figures for the Holy Roman Empire
are extremely vague and vary widely. Given the political fragmentation of the
Empire, there were no central agency that could
compile such figures. According to an overgenerous contemporary estimate of the
Austrian War Archives for the first decade of the 18th century, the Empire,
including Bohemia and the Spanish Netherlands had a population of close to 28
million with a breakdown as follow:[56]
·
65 ecclesiastical states with 14 per cent of the total
land area and 12 per cent of the population;
·
45 dynastic principalities with 80 per cent of the land
and 80 per cent of the population;
·
60 dynastic counties and lordships with 3 per cent of the
land and 3.5 per cent of the population;
·
60 imperial towns with 1 per cent of the land and 3.5 per
cent of the population;
·
Imperial knights' territories, numbering into the several hundreds, with 2 per cent of the land and 1 per cent of the
population.
German
demographic historians have traditionally worked on estimates of the population
of the Holy Roman Empire based on assumed population within the frontiers of
Germany in 1871 or 1914. More recent estimates use less outdated criteria, but
they remain guesswork. One estimate based on the frontiers of Germany in 1870
gives a population of some 15–17 million around 1600, declined to 10–13 million
around 1650 (following the Thirty Years' War). Other historians who work on
estimates of the population of the early modern Empire suggest the population
declined from 20 million to some 16–17 million by 1650.[57]
A credible
estimate for 1800 gives 27 million inhabitants for the Empire, with an overall
breakdown as follow:[58]
·
9 million Austrian subjects (including Silesia, Bohemia
and Moravia);
·
4 million Prussian subjects;
·
14–15 million inhabitants for the rest of the Empire.
Largest cities[edit]
Largest cities or towns of the Empire by year:
·
1050: Regensburg 40,000 people. Rome 35,000. Mainz 30,000. Speyer 25,000. Cologne 21,000. Trier 20,000. Worms 20,000. Lyon 20,000. Verona 20,000. Florence 15,000.[59]
·
1300–1350: Prague 77,000 people. Cologne 54,000 people. Aachen 21,000 people. Magdeburg 20,000 people. Nuremberg20,000 people. Vienna 20,000 people. Danzig (now Gdańsk) 20,000 people. Straßburg (now Strasbourg) 20,000 people. Lübeck 15,000 people. Regensburg 11,000 people.[60][61][62][63]
·
1500: Prague 70,000. Cologne 45,000. Nuremberg 38,000. Augsburg 30,000. Danzig (now Gdańsk) 30,000. Lübeck 25,000. Breslau (now Wrocław) 25,000. Regensburg 22,000. Vienna 20,000. Straßburg (now Strasbourg) 20,000. Magdeburg 18,000. Ulm 16,000. Hamburg 15,000.[64]
·
1600: Prague 100,000. Vienna 50,000. Augsburg 45,000. Cologne 40,000. Nuremberg 40,000. Hamburg 40,000. Magdeburg40,000. Breslau (now Wrocław) 40,000. Straßburg (now Strasbourg) 25,000. Lübeck 23,000. Ulm 21,000. Regensburg 20,000. Frankfurt am Main 20,000. Munich 20,000.[64]
Religion[edit]
Front page of
the Peace of Augsburg, which laid the
legal groundwork for two co-existing religious confessions (Roman Catholicism and Lutheranism) in the
German-speaking states of the Holy Roman Empire
Roman Catholicism constituted the single official religion of the
Empire until 1555. The Holy Roman Emperor was always a Roman Catholic.
Lutheranism was officially recognized in the Peace of Augsburg of 1555, and Calvinism in the Peace of Westphalia of 1648. Those two constituted the only officially
recognized Protestantdenominations,
while various other Protestant confessions such as Anabaptism, Arminianism, etc. coexisted illegally within the Empire. Anabaptism came in a variety of denominations, including Mennonites, Schwarzenau Brethren, Hutterites, the Amish, and multiple other groups.
In addition, a Jewish minority existed in
the Holy Roman Empire.
·
History of Germany
·
Holy Roman Emperor
·
List of Frankish kings
·
List of German monarchs
·
Carolingian Empire
·
Francia
·
Family tree of the German
monarchs
·
Gothic art
·
List of states in the
Holy Roman Empire
·
Papal States and the
Empire
·
Third Rome
·
Translatio imperii
·
Roman Empire
·
Western Roman Empire
·
House of Habsburg-controlled empires:
·
Habsburg Monarchy
·
Austrian Empire
·
Austria-Hungary
·
German confederations and states:
·
Confederation of the
Rhine (controlled
by the First French Empire)
·
German Confederation
·
German Empire (1848–49)
·
German Empire (sometimes considered a successor)
·
Third Reich (claims to succession of both HRE and the German Empire)
1.
^ Jump up to:a b c Some
historians refer to the beginning of the Holy Roman Empire as 800, with the
crowning of Frankish king Charlemagneconsidered as the
first Holy Roman Emperor. Others refer
to the beginning as the coronation of Otto I in 962.
2.
^ Regensburg, seat of the 'Eternal Diet' after 1663,
came to be viewed as the unofficial capital of the Empire by several European
powers with a stake in the Empire – France, England, the Netherlands, Russia,
Sweden, Denmark – and they kept more or less permanent envoys there because it
was the only place in the Empire where the delegates of all the major and
mid-size German states congregated and could be reached for lobbying, etc. The
Habsburg emperors themselves used Regensburg in the same way.[1]
3.
^ German, Low German, Italian, Czech, Polish, Dutch, French, Frisian, Romansh, Slovene, Sorbian, Yiddish and other languages. According to the Golden Bull of 1356 the sons of prince-electors were recommended to learn languages of German, Latin, Italian and Czech.[2]
4.
^ "transfer of rule"
1.
^ Karl Härter, "The
Permanent Imperial Diet in European Context, 1663–1806", in The
Holy Roman Empire, 1495–1806, Edited by R.J.W. Evans, Michael Schaich, and Peter H. Wilson, Oxford University Press, US,
2011, pp. 122–23, 132.
2. ^ Jump up to:a b Žůrek, Václav (31
December 2014). "Les langues du roi. Le rôle de la langue dans la
communication de propagande dynastique
à l'époque de Charles IV". Revue de l'Institut Français d'Histoire en Allemagne (in
French) (6). doi:10.4000/ifha.8045.
Retrieved 6 April 2016.
3.
^ Holy Roman Empire, Encyclopædia Britannica
Online. Retrieved 15 February 2014.
4.
^ James Bryce, The Holy Roman
Empire (The MacMillan Company, 1913), p. 183.
5.
^ Jump up to:a b c Joachim
Whaley, Germany and the Holy Roman Empire: Volume I: Maximilian I to the Peace
of Westphalia, 1493–1648 (2012), pp. 17–20.
6.
^ Jump up to:a b Lonnie R.
Johnson, Central Europe: Enemies, Neighbors, Friends (1996),
Oxford University Press, p. 23.
7.
^ Norman F. Cantor (1993), Civilization of the
Middle Ages, pp. 212–215
8. ^ Jump up to:a b Bamber Gascoigne. "History of the Holy
Roman Empire". HistoryWorld.
9.
^ Norman Davies, A History of Europe (Oxford, 1996),
pp. 316–317.
10. ^ While Charlemagne and his successors assumed
variations of the title emperor, none termed themselves Roman
emperor until Otto II in 983. Holy Roman Empire, Encyclopædia Britannica
Online. Retrieved 15 February 2014.
11.
^ Jump up to:a b Bryce, pp. 2–3
12.
^ Heer, Friedrich
(1967). The Holy Roman Empire. New York: Frederick A. Praeger.
pp. 1–8. ISBN 978-0297176725.
13.
^ Davies, pp. 317, 1246.
14. ^ Martin Arbage, "Otto
I", in Medieval Italy: An
Encyclopedia,
Volume 2 (Routledge, 2004), p. 810: "Otto can be considered the first
ruler of the Holy Roman empire, though that term was not used until the twelfth
century."
15.
^ The Holy Roman Empire, Heraldica.org.
16.
^ Joachim Ehlers: Natio
1.5 Deutschland und Frankreich, in: Lexikon des Mittelalters, Bd. 6, Sp. 1037 f.
17.
^ Peter Hamish Wilson, The
Holy Roman Empire, 1495–1806, MacMillan Press 1999, London, p. 2.
18. ^ Jump up to:a b Whaley
2011, p. 17
19.
^ Peter Moraw, Heiliges Reich, in: Lexikon des Mittelalters, Munich & Zürich: Artemis 1977–1999, vol. 4, col.
2025–2028.
20.
^ Peter Hamish Wilson, The Holy Roman Empire,
1495–1806, MacMillan Press 1999, London, page 2; The Holy Roman Empire of
the German Nation at
the Embassy of the Federal Republic of
Germany in London website Archived 29 February 2012 at the Wayback Machine.
21.
^ "History of The Holy Roman Empire". historyworld.
Retrieved 28 June 2013.
22.
^ Whaley 2011, pp. 19–20
23. ^ Hans K. Schulze: Grundstrukturen
der Verfassung im Mittelalter, Bd. 3 (Kaiser und
Reich). Kohlhammer, Stuttgart [u. a.] 1998,
pp. 52–55.
24. ^ Peter H. Wilson, "Bolstering the Prestige of
the Habsburgs: The End of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806", in The International History Review, Vol. 28, No.
4 (Dec., 2006), p. 719.
25. ^ Original text: Ce corps qui s'appelait et qui s'appelle encore le saint empire romain
n'était en aucune manière ni saint, ni romain,
ni empire. In Essai
sur l'histoire générale et
sur les mœurs et l'esprit
des nations, Chapter 70 (1756)
26. ^ Matthew Innes, State and Society in the
Early Middle Ages: The Middle Rhine Valley, 400–1000 (Cambridge, 2004), pp. 167–70.
27.
^ Bryce (1913), p. 35.
28. ^ Davies (1996), pp. 232, 234.
29. ^ Bryce (1913), pp. 35–36, 38.
30. ^ Rosamond McKitterick, The Frankish Kingdoms under
the Carolingians, 751–987 (1983), pp. 48–50. – via Questia(subscription required)
31.
^ Encyclopædia
Britannica, France/Pippin III
32.
^ Bryce (1913), pp. 38–42.
33. ^ Johnson (1996), p. 22.
34. ^ George C. Kohn, Dictionary of Wars (2007), pp. 113–14.
35.
^ Bryce, pp. 44, 50–52
36. ^ McKitterick (1983), p. 70.
37. ^ Paul Collins, The Birth of the West: Rome,
Germany, France, and the Creation of Europe in the Tenth Century (New York, 2013), p. 131.
38.
^ Jump up to:a b c Taylor,
Bayard; Hansen-Taylor, Marie (1894). A history of Germany from the
earliest times to the present day. New York: D. Appleton & Co. p. 117.
39.
^ Robert S. Hoyt and Stanley Chodorow, Europe
in the Middle Ages (Harcourt brace Jovanovich, Inc., 1976) p. 197.
40. ^ Jump up to:a b c d Magill,
Frank (1998). Dictionary of World Biography. II. London:
Fitzroy Dearborn.
41.
^ Jump up to:a b c Cantor, Norman F. (1994). The
Civilization of the Middle Ages. Harper
Perennial. ISBN 978-0060925536.
42.
^ Brockmann,
Stephen (2006). Nuremberg: The imaginary
capital.
Rochester, NY: Camden House. p. 15. ISBN 978-1571133458.
43.
^ Richard P. McBrien, Lives
of the Popes: The Pontiffs from St. Peter to Benedict XVI, (HarperCollins
Publishers, 2000), 138.
44. ^ Sladen, Douglas
Brooke Wheelton. How to See the Vatican.
45.
^ Jump up to:a b c d e f g Barraclough,
Geoffrey (1984). The Origins of Modern Germany. New York: W. W. Norton
& Co. Inc. ISBN 978-0393301533.
46.
^ Smail, Daniel Lord.
Gibson, Kelly. Vengeance in Medieval
Europe: A Reader University
of Toronto Press, 2009 ISBN 978-1442601260 p. 156
47.
^ Luscombe, David. Riley-Smith, Jonathan. The New Cambridge
Medieval History: Volume 4, c.1024–c.1198Cambridge University
Press, 14 okt. 2004. ISBN 978-0521414111. p. 398.
48.
^ Hunyadi, Zsolt. Laszlovszky, József. The Crusades and the
Military Orders: Expanding the Frontiers of Medieval Latin Christianity (Volume 1 of CEU Medievalia Series) Central European University Press,
2001 ISBN 978-9639241428 p. 129
49.
^ "Goldene
Bulle (Zeumer, 1908) – source". de.source.org (in Latin). Retrieved 6
April 2016. Quapropter statuimus,
ut illustrium principum, puta regis Boemie, comitis palatini Reni, ducis Saxonie et marchionis Brandemburgensis electorum filii vel heredes
et successores, cum verisimiliter
Theutonicum ydioma sibi naturaliter inditum scire presumantur
et ab infancia didicisse, incipiendo a septimo etatis sue anno in gramatica, Italica ac Sclavica lingwis instruantur, ita quod infra quartum decimum etatis annum existant in talibus iuxta datam sibi
a Deo graciam eruditi.
50.
^ Historical Dictionary of
the Reformation and Counter-Reformation by Mullett, Michael
(Scarecrow Press, 30 Apr. 2010 ISBN 978-0810873933 p. 81).
51.
^ The only prince allowed to call himself
"king" of a territory in the Empire was the King of Bohemia (after 1556 usually the Emperor himself). Some other
princes were kings by virtue of kingdoms they controlled outside of the Empire
52.
^ Die Reichs-Matrikel aller Kreise Nebst
den Usual-Matrikeln des Kaiserlichen
und Reichskammergerichts, Ulm 1796.
53. ^ Caspar Hirschi, Wettkampf der Nationen,
Wallstein Verlag 2005, Göttingen, p. 393–399.
54. ^ Klaus Malettke, Les
relations entre la France et le Saint-Empire au XVIIe siècle, Honoré
Champion, Paris, 2001, p. 22.
55. ^ André Corvisier, John
Childs, A dictionary of military history and the art of war (1994),
p. 306
56. ^ G. Benecke, Society
and Politics in Germany, 1500–1750, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1974, p.
162.
57. ^ Whaley, vol. I, p. 633.
58. ^ Whaley, vol. II, p. 351.
59. ^ isites.harvard.edu[permanent dead link] Venice
Seminar MIT.
60. ^ Urban World History: An
Economic and Geographical Perspective by Luc-Normand Tellier.
Google Books.
61.
^ papyrus.bib.umontreal.ca
62.
^ The Encyclopedia of
Christian Literature, Volume 2 George Thomas Kurian and James D. Smith III. Google
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63.
^ The New Cambridge
Medieval History: Volume 6, c. 1300–c. 1415 Rosamond McKitterick and
Michael Jones. Google Books.
64.
^ Jump up to:a b Poets Laureate in the
Holy Roman Empire: A Bio-bibliographical handbook, Volume 1 By John
Flood, Google Books
·
Arnold, Benjamin, Princes and Territories in
Medieval Germany. (Cambridge University Press, 1991)
·
Bryce, James (1864). The Holy Roman Empire. Macmillan. very
old scholarly survey
·
Coy, Jason Philip et al. The Holy Roman Empire,
Reconsidered, (Berghahn Books, 2010)
·
Donaldson, George. Germany: A Complete History (Gotham
Books, New York, 1985)
·
Evans, R.J.W., and Peter H. Wilson, eds. The
Holy Roman Empire 1495–1806 (2011); specialized topical essays by
scholars
·
Hahn, Hans Joachim. German thought and culture:
From the Holy Roman Empire to the present day (Manchester UP, 1995).
·
Heer,
Friedrich. Holy Roman Empire (2002), scholarly survey
·
Hoyt, Robert S. and Chodorow,
Stanley, Europe in the Middle Ages(New York: Harcourt Brace
Jovanovich, 1976)
·
Renna, Thomas (2015).
"The Holy Roman Empire was Neither Holy, Nor Roman, Nor an
Empire1". Michigan Academician. 42 (1): 60–75. doi:10.7245/0026-2005-42.1.60. ISSN 0026-2005.deals with Voltaire's statement
·
Scribner, Bob. Germany: A New Social and Economic
History, Vol. 1: 1450–1630 (1995)
·
Treasure, Geoffrey. The Making of Modern Europe,
1648–1780 (3rd ed. 2003). pp. 374–426.
·
Voltaire; Balechou, Jean-Joseph
(1756). Essay sur l'histoire générale, et sur les moeurs et l'esprit des nations, depuis
Charlemagne jusqu'à nos jours. Cramer.
·
Whaley, Joachim (2012). Germany and the Holy
Roman Empire. Volume I: Maximilian I to the Peace of Westphalia,
1493–1648. Oxford: OUP. ISBN 978-0198731016.
·
Whaley, Joachim (2012). Germany and the Holy
Roman Empire. Volume II: The Peace of Westphalia to the
Dissolution of the Reich, 1648–1806. Oxford: OUP. ISBN 978-0199693078.
·
Wilson, Peter H. Heart of Europe: A History of the
Holy Roman Empire(2016), long scholarly interpretive history
·
Wilson, Peter H. The Holy Roman Empire 1495–1806 (2011),
156 pages; short summary by scholar
·
Zophy, Jonathan W.
ed., The Holy Roman Empire: A Dictionary Handbook (Greenwood
Press, 1980)
In German[edit]
·
Heinz Angermeier. Das Alte Reich in der deutschen
Geschichte. Studien über
Kontinuitäten und Zäsuren, München 1991
·
Karl Otmar Freiherr
von Aretin. Das Alte
Reich 1648–1806. 4 vols. Stuttgart, 1993–2000
·
Peter Claus Hartmann. Kulturgeschichte
des Heiligen Römischen Reiches 1648 bis 1806. Wien,
2001
·
Georg Schmidt. Geschichte des Alten
Reiches. München, 1999
·
Deutsche Reichstagsakten
·
The constitutional
structure of the Reich
·
List of Wars of the Holy
Roman Empire
·
Books and articles on the
Reich
·
The Holy Roman Empire
·
Comparison of the Holy
Roman Empire and the European Union in 2012 by The Economist
Maps[edit]
·
Deutschland beim Tode Kaiser Karls IV. 1378 (Germany at the death of emperor
Charles IV.) taken from "Meyers Kleines Konversationslexikon in sechs Bänden. Bd. 2. Leipzig u. Wien :
Bibliogr. Institut
1908", map inserted after page 342
·
The Holy Roman Empire,
1138–1254
·
The Holy Roman Empire c.
1500
·
The Holy Roman Empire in
1648
·
The Holy Roman Empire in
1789 (interactive map)
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