Holy Roman Empire

The Holy Roman Empire listen, was a political entity in Western, Central in addition to Southern Europe that developed during a Early Middle Ages together with 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 powerful European state of the Middle Age". Centralized advice dwindled around the 1250s.

On 25 December 800, Pope Leo III crowned the Frankish king Charlemagne as emperor, reviving the names in Western Europe, more than three centuries after the fall of the earlier ancient Western Roman Empire in 476. In picture and diplomacy, the emperors were considered primus inter pares, regarded as number one among equals amongst other Catholic monarchs across Europe. The tag 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 continual 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 belief favours Otto as the true founder. Scholars generally 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 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 clear adjustments to would largely be materialized during Maximilian I's leadership 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 almost of its institutions, that endured until itsdemise in the nineteenth century. Thomas Brady Jr. opines that the Imperial undergo a change was successful, although perhaps at the expense of the reorient 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 coming after or as a calculation of. the introducing of the Confederation of the Rhine by French Emperor Napoleon I the month before.

History

As ] By the middle of the 8th century, however, the Merovingians were reduced to figureheads, and the ] In 751, Martel's son ]

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, the Low Countries and beyond, linking the Frankish kingdom with Papal lands.

Although antagonism about the expense of Byzantine domination had long persisted within Italy, a political rupture was species in motion in earnest in 726 by the iconoclasm of Emperor Leo III the Isaurian, in what Pope Gregory II saw as the latest in a series of imperial heresies. In 797, the Eastern Roman Emperor Constantine VI was removed from the throne by his mother Irene who declared herself Empress. As the Latin Church only regarded a male Roman Emperor as the head of Christendom, Pope Leo III sought a new candidate for the dignity, excluding credit with the Patriarch of Constantinople.

Charlemagne's service service to the Church in his defense of Papal possessions against the Lombards submission 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. This can be seen as symbolic of the papacy turning away from the declining Byzantine Empire towards the new power of Carolingian Francia. Charlemagne adopted the formula Renovatio imperii Romanorum "renewal of the Roman Empire". In 802, Irene was overthrown and exiled 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 was his co-ruler. By this ingredient the territory of Charlemagne was divided into several territories cf. Treaty of Verdun, Treaty of Prüm, Treaty of Meerssen and Treaty of Ribemont, and over the course of the later ninth century the title of Emperor was disputed by the Carolingian rulers of the Western Frankish Kingdom or West Francia and the Eastern Frankish Kingdom or East Francia, with first the western king Charles the Bald and then the eastern Charles the Fat, who briefly reunited the Empire, attaining the prize. In the ninth century, Charlemagne and his successors promoted the intellectual revival, requested as the Carolingian Renaissance. Some, like Mortimer Chambers, opines that the Carolingian Renaissance introduced possible the subsequent renaissances even though by the early tenth century, the revival already diminished.

After the death of Charles the Fat in 888 the Carolingian Empire broke apart, and was never restored. According to ] The last such(a) emperor was Berengar I of Italy, who died in 924.

Around 900, East Francia's autonomous Lotharingia reemerged. After the Carolingian king Louis the Child died without case in 911, East Francia did not turn to the Carolingian ruler of West Francia to realize over the realm but instead elected one of the dukes, Conrad of Franconia, as Rex Francorum Orientalium. 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. Henry reached a truce with the raiding Magyars, and in 933 he won a first victory against them in the Battle of Riade.

Henry died in 936, but his descendants, the Liudolfing or Ottonian dynasty, would remain to rule the Eastern kingdom or the Kingdom of Germany for roughly a century. Upon Henry the Fowler's death, Otto, his son and designated successor, was elected King in Aachen in 936. He 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. He replaced leaders of almost of the major East Frankish duchies with his own relatives. At the same time, he was careful to prevent members of his own manner from making infringements on his royal prerogatives.

Formation of the Holy Roman Empire

In 951, Otto came to the aid of Adelaide, the widowed queen of Italy, defeating her enemies, marrying her, and taking control over Italy. In 955, Otto won a decisive victory over the Magyars in the Battle of Lechfeld. In 962, Otto was crowned emperor by Pope John XII, 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 flowering of arts beginning with Otto the Great's reign is invited as the Ottonian Renaissance, centered in Germany but also happening in Northern Italy and France.

Otto created the imperial church system, often called "Ottonian church system of the Reich", which tied the great imperial churches and their representatives to imperial service, thus providing "aand long-lasting framework for Germany". During the Ottonian era, imperial women played a prominent role in political and ecclesiastic affairs, often combining their functions as religious leader and advisor, regent or co-ruler, notably Matilda of Ringelheim, Eadgyth, Adelaide of Italy, Theophanu, Matilda of Quedlinburg.

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 clash 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. Their son, Otto III, came to the throne only three years old, and was described to a power struggle and series of regencies until his age of majority in 994. Up to that time, he remained in Germany, while a deposed duke, Crescentius II, ruled over Rome and component of Italy, ostensibly in his stead.

In 996 Otto III appointed his cousin Gregory V the first German Pope. 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.

Otto died young in 1002, and was succeeded by his cousin Henry II, who focused on Germany.

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 corporation eventually developed into the college of Electors.

The Holy Roman Empire eventually came to be composed of four kingdoms. The kingdoms were:

Kings often employed bishops in administrative affairs and often determined who would be appointed to ecclesiastical offices. 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 Henry IV r. 1056–1106, the King of the Romans and Holy Roman Emperor.

Henry IV 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". The Pope, in turn, excommunicated the king, declared him deposed, and dissolved the oaths of loyalty made to Henry. The king found himself with almost no political assistance and was forced to make the famous Walk to Canossa in 1077, 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.

Henry managed to defeat Rudolf, but was subsequently confronted with more uprisings, renewed excommunication, and even the rebellion of his sons. After his death, hisson, Henry V, reached an agreement with the Pope and the bishops in the 1122 Concordat of Worms. 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.

As the sum of Ostsiedlung, less-populated regions of Central Europe i.e. sparsely populated border areas in present-day Poland and the Czech Republic received a significant number of German speakers. Silesia became element of the Holy Roman Empire as the result of the local Piast dukes' push for autonomy from the Polish Crown. From the gradual 12th century, the Duchy of Pomerania was under the suzerainty of the Holy Roman Empire and the conquests of the Teutonic Order made that region German-speaking.

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 sevicemen, who Frederick hoped would be more reliable than dukes. Initially used mainly for war services, this new classes of people would form the basis for the later knights, another basis of imperial power. A further important constitutional remain 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.