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European political entity (800–1806) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Holy Roman Empire,[lower-alpha 6] also known as the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation after 1512, was a polity in Central and Western Europe, usually headed by the Holy Roman Emperor.[19] It developed in the Early Middle Ages and lasted for almost a thousand years until its dissolution in 1806 during the Napoleonic Wars.[20]
800/962[lower-alpha 1]–1806 | |
Quaternion Eagle (1510) | |
Capital | Multicentral[3]
Rome (de jure) Aachen (800–1562)
Palermo (de facto) (1194–1254)
Vienna (1550s–1583, 1612–1806) Frankfurt (1562–1806)
Regensburg (1594–1806)
Wetzlar (1689–1806) |
Common languages | German, Medieval Latin (administrative/liturgical/ Various[lower-alpha 3] |
Religion | Various official religions: Roman Catholicism (1054–1806)[lower-alpha 4] Lutheranism (1555–1806) Calvinism (1648–1806) |
Government | Elective monarchy Mixed monarchy (after Imperial Reform)[17] |
Emperor | |
• 800–814 | Charlemagne[lower-alpha 1] (first) |
• 962–973 | Otto I |
• 1519–1556 | Charles V |
• 1792–1806 | Francis II (last) |
Legislature | Imperial Diet |
Historical era | Middle Ages to early modern period |
25 December 800 | |
2 February 962 | |
2 February 1033 | |
25 September 1555 | |
24 October 1648 | |
1648–1789 | |
2 December 1805 | |
6 August 1806 | |
Area | |
1150[lower-alpha 5] | 1,100,000 km2 (420,000 sq mi) |
Population | |
• 1700[18] | 23,000,000 |
• 1800[18] | 29,000,000 |
Currency | Multiple: thaler, guilder, groschen, Reichsthaler |
On 25 December 800, Pope Leo III crowned Frankish king Charlemagne as Roman emperor, reviving the title in Western Europe more than three centuries after the fall of the ancient Western Roman Empire in 476.[21] The title lapsed in 924, but was revived in 962 when Otto I was crowned emperor by Pope John XII, fashioning himself as Charlemagne's and the Carolingian Empire's successor,[22] and beginning a continuous existence of the empire for over eight centuries.[23][24][lower-alpha 7] From 962 until the 12th century, the empire was one of the most powerful monarchies in Europe.[25] The functioning of government depended on the harmonious cooperation between emperor and vassals;[26] this harmony was disturbed during the Salian period.[27] The empire reached the apex of territorial expansion and power under the House of Hohenstaufen in the mid-13th century, but overextension of its power led to a partial collapse.[28][29]
Scholars generally describe an evolution of the institutions and principles constituting the empire, and a gradual development of the imperial role.[30][31] While the office of emperor had been reestablished, the exact term for his realm as the "Holy Roman Empire" was not used until the 13th century,[32] although the emperor's theoretical legitimacy from the beginning rested on the concept of translatio imperii, that he held supreme power inherited from the ancient emperors of Rome.[30] Nevertheless, in the Holy Roman Empire, the imperial office was traditionally elective by the mostly German prince-electors. In theory and diplomacy, the emperors were considered the first among equals of all Europe's Catholic monarchs.[33]
A process of Imperial Reform in the late 15th and early 16th centuries transformed the empire, creating a set of institutions which endured until its final demise in the 19th century.[34][35] According to historian Thomas Brady Jr., the empire after the Imperial Reform was a political body of remarkable longevity and stability, and "resembled in some respects the monarchical polities of Europe's western tier, and in others the loosely integrated, elective polities of East Central Europe." The new corporate German Nation, instead of simply obeying the emperor, negotiated with him.[36][37] On 6 August 1806, Emperor Francis II abdicated and formally dissolved the empire following the creation – the month before, by French emperor Napoleon – of the Confederation of the Rhine, a confederation of German client states loyal not to the Holy Roman emperor but to France.
Since Charlemagne, the realm was merely referred to as the Roman Empire.[38] 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.[39] The form "Holy Roman Empire" is attested from 1254 onward.[40]
The exact term "Holy Roman Empire" was not used until the 13th century, before which the empire was referred to variously as universum regnum ("the whole kingdom", as opposed to the regional kingdoms), imperium christianum ("Christian empire"), or Romanum imperium ("Roman empire"),[32] but the Emperor's legitimacy always rested on the concept of translatio imperii,[lower-alpha 8] that he held supreme power inherited from the ancient emperors of Rome.[30]
In a decree following the Diet of Cologne in 1512, the name was changed to the Holy Roman Empire of the Germanic Nation (German: Heiliges Römisches Reich Deutscher Nation, Latin: Sacrum Imperium Romanum Nationis Germanicae),[38] a form first used in a document in 1474.[39] The adoption of this new name coincided with the loss of imperial territories in Italy and Burgundy to the south and west by the late 15th century,[41] but also to emphasize the new importance of the German Imperial Estates in ruling the Empire due to the Imperial Reform.[42] The Hungarian denomination "German Roman Empire" (Hungarian: Német-római Birodalom) is the shortening of this.[43]
By the end of the 18th century, the term "Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation" fell out of official use. Contradicting the traditional view concerning that designation, Hermann Weisert has argued in a study on imperial titulature that, despite the claims 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.[44]
In a famous assessment of the name, the political philosopher Voltaire 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."[45]
In the modern period, the Empire was often informally called the German Empire (Deutsches Reich) or Roman-German Empire (Römisch-Deutsches Reich).[46] After its dissolution through the end of the German Empire, it was often called "the old Empire" (das alte Reich). Beginning in 1923, early twentieth-century German nationalists and Nazi Party propaganda would identify the Holy Roman Empire as the "First" Reich (Erstes Reich, Reich meaning empire), with the German Empire as the "Second" Reich and what would eventually become Nazi Germany as the "Third" Reich.[47]
David S. Bachrach opines that the Ottonian kings actually built their empire on the back of military and bureaucratic apparatuses as well as the cultural legacy they inherited from the Carolingians, who ultimately inherited these from the Late Roman Empire. He argues that the Ottonian empire was hardly an archaic kingdom of primitive Germans, maintained by personal relationships only and driven by the desire of the magnates to plunder and divide the rewards among themselves but instead, notable for their abilities to amass sophisticated economic, administrative, educational and cultural resources that they used to serve their enormous war machine.[48][49]
Until the end of the 15th century, the empire was in theory composed of three major blocs – Italy, Germany and Burgundy. Later territorially only the Kingdom of Germany and Bohemia remained, with the Burgundian territories lost to France. Although the Italian territories were formally part of the empire, the territories were ignored in the Imperial Reform and splintered into numerous de facto independent territorial entities.[50][30][37] The status of Italy in particular varied throughout the 16th to 18th centuries. Some territories like Piedmont-Savoy became increasingly independent, while others became more dependent due to the extinction of their ruling noble houses causing these territories to often fall under the dominions of the Habsburgs and their cadet branches. Barring the loss of Franche-Comté in 1678, the external borders of the Empire did not change noticeably from the Peace of Westphalia – which acknowledged the exclusion of Switzerland and the Northern Netherlands, and the French protectorate over Alsace – to the dissolution of the Empire. At the conclusion of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815, most of the Holy Roman Empire was included in the German Confederation, with the main exceptions being the Italian states.