Holy Roman Empire
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Ca. 900 to 1806 AD, A wide stretch of land mainly in Europe, ruled by the Holy Roman Emperor.
Contents
Origins
The origins of the Holy Roman Empire lie with the Carolingian empire founded by the Frankish Emperor Charlemagne. After the death in 840 of Charlemagne's son and successor, Louis the Pious, the Frankish Empire fell into civil war among the three sons of Louis, Lothair, Charles the Bald and Louis the German. At the Treaty of Verdun in 843, the three sons agreed to split the Empire in three parts and divide them among themselves.
Louis the German gained the eastern part of the Empire, and was made King of East Francia. In 962, his descendant Otto I inherited the Imperial crown as the last surviving heir of the Carolingian dynasty. At this point, the Kingdom of East Francia became the Holy Roman Empire, although this name was not common until later centuries.
Nomenclature
The name "Holy Roman Empire", which became common in the 12th century, reflects the self-perception of its emperors as descendants of the Roman Empire. Through a process called translatio imperii, the old Roman Empire continued in the shape of the Holy Roman Empire.
In the 16th century, the full description The Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation was usually used in formal references.
In 1756, Voltaire famously described the Empire as "neither Holy, nor Roman, nor an Empire", in his Essay on the Manner and Spirit of Nations and on the Principal Occurrences in History.
Political
Throughout its history, the Holy Roman Empire was an unstable political structure. Power in the Empire was very decentralized, and mostly held by strong noble families and ecclesiastical princes. The power of the Emperor was often dependent on both his personal lands and resources, and on his ability to negotiate or coerce the other powerful nobles of the realm.
The Emperor was chosen through election by the so-called Prince-Electors, or Kurfürsten. For the greater part of the Empire's history, there were seven Electors: The three Archbishops of Mainz, Trier and Cologne, the King of Bohemia, the Count Palatine of the Rhine, the Duke of Saxony, and the Margrave of Brandenburg.
Religion
By the 1400s, the Holy Roman Empire had begun to decline, due to numerous clashes with the Ottoman Turks and French. The Reformation also contributed in causing the Holy Roman Empire to fall.
