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The Holy Roman Empire, 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. It developed in the Early Middle Ages and lasted for almost 1,000 years until its dissolution in 1806 during the Napoleonic Wars .
Elector, prince of the Holy Roman Empire who had a right to participate in the election of the emperor (the German king). Beginning around 1273 and with the confirmation of the Golden Bull of 1356, there were seven electors: the archbishops of Trier, Mainz, and Cologne; the duke of Saxony; the
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Foundation
- The Staufer Dynasty
- Culture & Economy
- The Reformation
- Decline
During the 8th and 9th centuries, the Franks carved out a humongous realm in Central and Western Europe. On Christmas Day, 800, the Frankish king, Charlemagne, had himself crowned as emperor in Rome. Under his grandsons, however, the Frankish realm swiftly disintegrated. They agreed to split the empire into three parts: the Kingdom of West Francia(...
The Staufer dynasty was one of the Holy Roman Empire’s most remarkable imperial houses. Under their reign, the Empire reached its greatest territorial extent. At their height of power in the 13th century, the Staufers ruled - in theory - from the southern border of Denmark to the Mediterranean island of Sicily. The first Staufer emperor, Frederick ...
As central authority decreased after the Staufer emperors, a decentralization process kicked in that transferred power from the ancient feudal aristocracy to the late medieval and early modern burgher class, who populated the cities. Because money was reinjected into the economic system, the possession of land was gradually overshadowed by having a...
It was under Habsburg rule that the Holy Roman Empire experienced an era of great religious strife, making it one of its darker periods. Whereas the imperial family was staunchly Catholic, in the north of the empire the Protestant Reformation exploded in 1517 when Martin Lutherofficially broke with the pope and fractured Western Christianity. A lar...
After the Treaty of Westphalia, the Habsburgs remained in place as Holy Roman Emperors, but their power was increasingly confined to their own Austrian, Bohemian, and Hungarian possessions. At Vienna, they thwarted a major Ottoman assault on Central Europe with Polish assistance in 1683, and it was with this power base that they kept trying to obst...
Feb 22, 2024 · In this gallery of four maps we chart the rise and expansion of the Holy Roman Empire, a pivotal period in European history following the decline of the Roman Empire. Emerging from the ashes of Rome's...
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Dec 1, 2016 · A simplified map of the territorial evolution of the Holy Roman Empire (962 – 1806) is presented below. The Peace of Westphalia in 1648 marked a turning point in the history of the Holy Roman Empire, as it recognized the sovereignty and autonomy of many individual states within the empire.
Dec 20, 2023 · Map of the Holy Roman Empire at different stages. The Holy Roman Empire was nothing like the modern nation-states of today. The Empire, if it could even be called that, was made up of hundreds of smaller states, all of which had their own interests and desires.
The German prince-electors, the highest-ranking noblemen of the empire, usually elected one of their peers to be the emperor. The empire evolved into a decentralized, limited elective monarchy composed of hundreds of sub-units, and the power of the emperor was limited.
