Holy Roman Empire
State | Defunct
1437 CE to 1806 CE
The Holy Roman Empire is a multi-ethnic complex of territories in central Europe that developed during the Middle Ages and continued until its dissolution in 1806.
The core and largest territory of the empire is the Kingdom of Germany, though it includes at times the Kingdom of Italy, the Kingdom of Bohemia, and the Kingdom of Burgundy, as well as numerous other territories.
The empire had grown out of East Francia, a primary division of the Frankish Empire.
Pope Leo III had crowned Frankish king Charlemagne as emperor on Christmas Day 800, restoring the title in the West after more than three centuries.
After Charlemagne died, the title had passed in a desultory manner during the decline and fragmentation of the Carolingian dynasty, eventually falling into abeyance.
The title is revived in 962 when Otto I is crowned emperor, fashioning himself as the successor of Charlemagne and beginning a continuous 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.
Scholars generally concur, however, in relating an evolution of the institutions and principles comprising the empire, describing a gradual assumption of the imperial title and role.
The precise term Holy Roman Empire is not used until the 13th century, but the doctrine of translatio imperii ("transfer of rule") is fundamental to the prestige of the emperor, the notion that he holds supreme power inherited from the emperors of Rome.
The office of Holy Roman Emperor is traditionally elective, although frequently controlled by dynasties.
The German prince-electors, the highest ranking noblemen of the empire, usually elect one of their peers as "King of the Romans", and he is later to be crowned emperor by the Pope; the tradition of papal coronations is discontinued in the 16th century.
The empire never achieves the extent of political unification formed in France, evolving instead into a decentralized, limited elective monarchy composed of hundreds of sub-units, principalities, duchies, counties, Free Imperial Cities, and other domains.
The power of the emperor is limited, and while the various princes, lords, and kings of the empire are vassals and subjects who owe the emperor their allegiance, they also possess an extent of privileges that give them de facto sovereignty within their territories.
Emperor Francis II dissolves the empire in August 1806 after its defeat by Napoleon at the Battle of Austerlitz.
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Forced segregation of Jews spreads throughout Europe during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.
The ghettos of Frankfurt am Main and the Prague Judenstadt (Germany: “Jew town”) are renowned.
Jews in Poland and Lithuania are numerous enough to constitute a majority of the population in many cities and towns in which they occupy entire quarters.
Life for Jews is difficult and uncertain in the German states, as they continue to be generally excluded from ownership of land and from the guilds that control the skilled trades.
The succession of Holy Roman Emperors from the Habsburg line gives the House of Austria great prestige in Germany and Europe, but the family's real power base is the lands in its possession, that is, the Habsburg Empire.
This is because the Holy Roman Empire is a loosely organized feudal state in which the power of the emperor is counterbalanced by the rights and privileges of the empire's other princes, lords, and institutions, both secular and ecclesiastical.
Habsburg power is significantly enhanced in 1453, when Emperor Frederick III confirms a set of rights and privileges, dubiously claimed by the Habsburgs, that parallel those of the elector-princes, in whose ranks the family does not yet sit.
In addition, the lands the Habsburgs possess in 1453 are made inheritable through both the male and the female line.
Because feudal holdings usually revert to the emperor to dispose of as he wishes when the holder of the fief dies, the right of inheritable succession measurably strengthens the Habsburgs.
The lands they hold in 1453 become known collectively as the Hereditary Lands, and—with the exception of territories possessed by the archbishops of Salzburg and Brixen—encompass most of modern Austria and portions of Germany, France, Italy, Croatia, and Slovenia.
The elector-princes of the Holy Roman Empire generally prefer a weak, dependent emperor; thus, the powerful Habsburg Dynasty only occasionally holds the imperial title in the hundred and fifty years after Rudolf's death in 1291.
After the election of Frederick III in 1452 (r. 1452-93), however, the dynasty comes to enjoy such a dominant position among the German nobility that only one non-Habsburg will be elected emperor in the remaining three hundred and fifty-four-year history of the Holy Roman Empire.
The Habsburgs' near monopoly of the imperial title, however, does not make the Habsburg Empire and the Holy Roman Empire synonymous.
The Habsburg Empire is a supernational collection of territories united only through the accident of common rule by the Habsburgs, and many of the territories are not part of the Holy Roman Empire.
In contrast, the Holy Roman Empire is a defined political and territorial entity that becomes identified with the German nation as the nation-state assumes greater importance in European politics.
Moravia has accepted the hereditary right of the Austrian Habsburg to rule it and thus escapes the intense struggle between native estates and the Habsburg monarchy that is to characterize Bohemian history.
The Moravians have a poorly developed historical or national consciousness, make few demands on the Habsburgs, and are permitted to live in tranquillity.
Late in the eighteenth century, the Margravate of Moravia will be abolished and merged with Austrian Silesia.
The Bohemian Kingdom, in contrast to Moravia, has entrenched estates that are ready to defend what they considered their rights and liberties.
Because the Habsburgs pursue a policy of centralization, conflict is inevitable.
The conflict is further complicated by ethnic and religious issues and will subsequently be seen by some as a struggle for the preservation of Czech institutions and the Czech nation.
Habsburg rule brings two centuries of conflict between the Bohemian estates and the monarchy.
As a result of this struggle, the Czechs lose a major portion of their native aristocracy, their particular form of religion, and even the widespread use of the Czech language.
The Habsburg policy of centralization begins with its first ruler, King Ferdinand (1526-64).
His efforts to eliminate the influence of the Bohemian estates are met with stubborn resistance, but the Bohemian estates are themselves divided, primarily on religious lines.
By several adroit political maneuvers, Ferdinand is able to establish hereditary succession to the Bohemian crown for the Habsburgs.
The estates' inability to establish the principle of electing or even confirming a monarch makes their position considerably weaker.
The conflict in Bohemia is complicated further by the Reformation and the subsequent wars of religion in Central Europe.
Adherents of the Czech Reformed Church (the Hussites) oppose the Roman Catholic Habsburgs, who are in turn supported by the Czech and German Catholics.
The Lutheran Reformation of 1517 introduces an added dimension to the struggle: much of the German burgher population of Bohemia adopt the Reformed Creed (both Lutheran and Calvinist); the Hussites split, and one faction allies with the German Protestants.
In 1537 Ferdinand concedes to the Czechs, recognizes the Compact of Basel, and accepts moderate Utraquism.
The reconciliation, however, is of brief duration.
When his brother-in-law, King Louis, dies fighting the Turks at the Battle of Mohacs in 1526, Ferdinand claims the right of succession.
Although the diets representing the nobility of Bohemia (and its dependencies of Moravia and Silesia) do not acknowledge Ferdinand's hereditary rights, they formally elect him king of Bohemia.
As king of Bohemia, he also becomes an elector-prince of the Holy Roman Empire.
In Hungary and in the subordinate Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia-Dalmatia, however, Ferdinand faces the rival claim of a Hungarian nobleman and the reality of the Turkish conquest of the country.
He is able to assert authority only over the northern and western edges of the country, which becomes known as Royal Hungary.
His Hungarian rival becomes a vassal of the Turks, ruling over Transylvania in eastern Hungary.
The rest of Hungary will become part of the Ottoman Empire in 1603.
Although Ferdinand undertakes various administrative reforms in order to centralize authority and increase his power, no meaningful integration of the Hereditary Lands and the two newly acquired kingdoms occurs.
In contrast to the authority of kings of Western Europe, where feudal structures are already in decline, Ferdinand's authority continues to rest on the consent of the nobles as expressed in the local diets, which successfully resist administrative centralization.
The Bohemian Kingdom, the Margravate of Moravia, and Slovakia are all under Habsburg rule, but they follow different paths of development.
The defeat at Mohacs in 1526 had meant that most of Hungary proper was taken by the Turks; until Hungary's reconquest by the Habsburgs in the second half of the seventeenth century, Slovakia becomes the center of Hungarian political, cultural, and economic life.
The Habsburg kings of Hungary are crowned in Bratislava, the present-day capital of Slovakia, and the Hungarian estates meet here.
Slovakia's importance in Hungarian life proves of no benefit, however, to the Slovaks.
In essence, the Hungarian political nation consists of an association of estates (primarily the nobility).
Because Slovaks are primarily serfs, they are not considered members of a political nation and have no influence on politics in their own land.
The Slovak peasant has only to perform duties: work for a landlord, pay taxes, and provide recruits for military service.
Even under such hostile conditions, there are a few positive developments.
The Protestant Reformation brings to Slovakia literature written in Czech, and Czech replaces Latin as the literary language of a small, educated Slovak elite, but on the whole, the Slovaks will languish for centuries in a state of political, economic, and cultural deprivation.
The Swiss victory in the Swabian War against the Swabian League of Emperor Maximilian I in 1499 amounts to de facto independence within the Holy Roman Empire.
The Old Swiss Confederacy had acquired a reputation of invincibility during these earlier wars, but expansion of the confederation suffers a setback in 1515 with the Swiss defeat in the Battle of Marignano.
This ends the so-called "heroic" epoch of Swiss history.
The success of Zwingli's Reformation in some cantons leads to inter-cantonal religious conflicts in 1529 and 1531 (Wars of Kappel).