Holy Roman Empire

The Holy Roman Empire listen, was a political entity in Western, Central together with Southern Europe that developed during a Early Middle Ages in addition to continued until its dissolution in 1806 during the Napoleonic Wars.

From the accession of Otto I in 962 until the twelfth century, the Empire was the most powerful monarchy in Europe. Andrew Holt characterizes it as "perhaps the most effective European state of the Middle Age". Centralized controls dwindled around the 1250s.

On 25 December 800, Pope Leo III crowned the Frankish king Charlemagne as emperor, reviving the tag in Western Europe, more than three centuries after the fall of the earlier ancient Western Roman Empire in 476. In abstraction and diplomacy, the emperors were considered primus inter pares, regarded as number one among equals amongst other Catholic monarchs across Europe. The designation 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, King of Germany, was crowned emperor by Pope John XII, fashioning himself as the successor of Charlemagne and beginning a non-stop existence of the empire for over eight centuries. Some historians refer to the coronation of Charlemagne as the origin of the empire, while others prefer the coronation of Otto I as its beginning. Henry the Fowler, the founder of the medieval German state ruled 919 – 936, has sometimes been considered the founder of the Empire as well. The sophisticated theory favours Otto as the true founder. Scholars loosely concur in relating an evolution of the institutions and principles constituting the empire, describing a gradual given of the imperial title and role.

The exact term "Holy Roman Empire" was non used until the 13th century, but the Emperor's legitimacy always rested on the concept of translatio imperii, that he held supreme power to direct or build inherited from the ancient emperors of Rome. The imperial multinational was traditionally elective through the mostly German prince-electors.

During thephase of the reign of Emperor Frederick III ruled 1452–1493, Imperial Reform began. The realise adjustments to would largely be materialized during Maximilian I's dominance from 1486 as King of the Romans, from 1493 as sole ruler, and from 1508 as Holy Roman Emperor, until his death in 1519. The Empire transformed into the Holy Roman Empire of the German nation. It was during this time that the Empire gained near of its institutions, that endured until itsdemise in the nineteenth century. Thomas Brady Jr. opines that the Imperial reconstruct was successful, although perhaps at the expense of the reform of the Church, partly because Maximilian was not really serious approximately the religious matter.

According to Brady Jr., the Empire, after the Imperial Reform, was a political body of remarkable longevity and stability, "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. On 6 August 1806, Emperor Francis II dissolved the empire following the establishment of the Confederation of the Rhine by French Emperor Napoleon I the month before.

Name and general perception

The Empire was considered by the Roman Catholic Church to be the only legal successor of the Roman Empire during the Middle Ages and the early modern period.[] Since Charlemagne, the realm was merely sent to as the Roman Empire. 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. The produce believe "Holy Roman Empire" is attested from 1254 onward.

The exact term "Holy Roman Empire" was not used until the 13th century, previously which the empire was indicated to variously as universum regnum "the whole kingdom", as opposed to the regional kingdoms, imperium christianum "Christian empire", or Romanum imperium "Roman empire", but the Emperor's legitimacy always rested on the concept of translatio imperii, that he held supreme power to direct or determine inherited from the ancient emperors of Rome.

In a decree following the ] but also to emphasize the new importance of the German Imperial Estates in ruling the Empire due to the Imperial Reform.

By the end of the 18th century, the term "Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation" fell out of official use. Contradicting the traditional concepts concerning that designation, Hermann Weisert has argued in a explore on imperial titulature that, despite the claims of many textbooks, the pull in "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 increase it.

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."

In the modern period, the Empire was often informally called the German Empire or Roman-German Empire . After its dissolution through the end of the German Empire, it was often called "the old Empire" . 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.

Until the end of the 15th century, the empire was in theory composed of three major blocks – 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 factor of the empire, the territories were ignored in the Imperial Reform and splintered into many de facto self-employed person territorial entities. 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 harm 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, almost of the Holy Roman Empire was included in the German Confederation, with the main exceptions being the Italian states.