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Holy Roman Empire

The Holy Roman Empire,[e] 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.[19] It developed in the Early Middle Ages and lasted for almost a thousand years until its dissolution in 1806 during the Napoleonic Wars.[20]

"HRE" redirects here. For other uses, see HRE (disambiguation).

Holy Roman Empire
Sacrum Imperium Romanum (Latin)
Heiliges Römisches Reich (German)

Holy Roman Empire of the
German Nation
Sacrum Imperium Romanum Nationis Germanicae (Latin)
Heiliges Römisches Reich Deutscher Nation (German)

Multicentral[3]

Aachen (800–1562)
  • 800–888 (as capital) 800–1562 (coronation of the king of Germany)
Palermo (de facto) (1194–1254)
Innsbruck (1508–1519)
  • Seat of the Hofkammer and the Court Chancery[7][8]
Vienna (1550s–1583, 1612–1806)
Frankfurt (1562–1806)
Prague (1583–1612)

German, Medieval Latin (administrative/liturgical/ceremonial)
Various[c]

Various official religions:
Roman Catholicism (1054–1806)
Lutheranism (1555–1806)
Calvinism (1648–1806)

 

Charlemagne[a] (first)

Francis II (last)

2 February 962

2 February 1033

25 September 1555

24 October 1648

1648–1789

2 December 1805

6 August 1806

1,100,000 km2 (420,000 sq mi)

23,000,000

29,000,000

On 25 December 800, Pope Leo III crowned Frankish king Charlemagne as Roman emperor, reviving the title in Western Europe more than three centuries after the fall of the ancient Western Roman Empire in 476.[21] The title lapsed in 924, but was revived in 962 when Otto I was crowned emperor by Pope John XII, fashioning himself as Charlemagne's and the Carolingian Empire's successor,[22] and beginning a continuous existence of the empire for over eight centuries.[23][24][f] From 962 until the 12th century, the empire was one of the most powerful monarchies in Europe.[25] The functioning of government depended on the harmonious cooperation between emperor and vassals;[26] this harmony was disturbed during the Salian period.[27] The empire reached the apex of territorial expansion and power under the House of Hohenstaufen in the mid-13th century, but overextension of its power led to a partial collapse.[28][29]


Scholars generally describe an evolution of the institutions and principles constituting the empire, and a gradual development of the imperial role.[30][31] While the office of emperor had been reestablished, the exact term for his realm as the "Holy Roman Empire" was not used until the 13th century,[32] although the emperor's theoretical legitimacy from the beginning rested on the concept of translatio imperii, that he held supreme power inherited from the ancient emperors of Rome.[30] Nevertheless, in the Holy Roman Empire, the imperial office was traditionally elective by the mostly German prince-electors. In theory and diplomacy, the emperors were considered the first among equals of all Europe's Catholic monarchs.[33]


A process of Imperial Reform in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries transformed the empire, creating a set of institutions which endured until its final demise in the nineteenth century.[34][35] According to historian Thomas Brady Jr., the empire after the Imperial Reform was a political body of remarkable longevity and stability, and "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.[36][37] On 6 August 1806, Emperor Francis II abdicated and formally dissolved the empire following the creation – the month before, by French emperor Napoleon – of the Confederation of the Rhine, a confederation of German client states loyal not to the Holy Roman emperor but to France.

(part of the empire since 962),

Kingdom of Germany

(from 962 until 1801),

Kingdom of Italy

(from 1002 as the Duchy of Bohemia and raised to a kingdom in 1198),

Kingdom of Bohemia

(from 1032 to 1378).

Kingdom of Burgundy

Demographics

Population

Overall population figures for the Holy Roman Empire are extremely vague and vary widely. The empire of Charlemagne may have had as many as 20 million people.[194] Given the political fragmentation of the later Empire, there were no central agencies that could compile such figures. Nevertheless, it is believed the demographic disaster of the Thirty Years War meant that the population of the Empire in the early 17th century was similar to what it was in the early 18th century; by one estimate, the Empire did not exceed 1618 levels of population until 1750.[195]


In the early 17th century, the electors held under their rule the following number of Imperial subjects:[196]

Territories ruled by a hereditary nobleman, such as a prince, archduke, duke, or count.

Territories in which secular authority was held by an ecclesiastical dignitary, such as an archbishop, bishop, or abbot. Such an ecclesiastic or Churchman was a . In the common case of a prince-bishop, this temporal territory (called a prince-bishopric) frequently overlapped with his often larger ecclesiastical diocese, giving the bishop both civil and ecclesiastical powers. Examples are the prince-archbishoprics of Cologne, Trier, and Mainz.

prince of the Church

and Imperial villages, which were subject only to the jurisdiction of the emperor.

Free imperial cities

The scattered estates of the free and Imperial Counts, immediate subject to the Emperor but unrepresented in the Imperial Diet.

Imperial Knights

Family tree of German monarchs

List of states in the Holy Roman Empire

List of state leaders in the 10th-century Holy Roman Empire

List of state leaders in the 11th-century Holy Roman Empire

List of state leaders in the 12th-century Holy Roman Empire

List of state leaders in the 13th-century Holy Roman Empire

List of state leaders in the 14th-century Holy Roman Empire

List of state leaders in the 15th-century Holy Roman Empire

List of state leaders in the 16th-century Holy Roman Empire

List of state leaders in the 17th-century Holy Roman Empire

List of state leaders in the 18th-century Holy Roman Empire

List of state leaders in the 19th-century Holy Roman Empire

List of wars involving the Holy Roman Empire

Succession of the Roman Empire

Heraldry of the Holy Roman Empire

The Holy Roman Empire in the 16h century (map)

The Holy Roman Empire in the 17th century (map)

The Holy Roman Empire in the 18th century (interactive map)