The emperor was widely perceived to rule bydivine right, though he often contradicted or rivaled thepope, most notably during theInvestiture controversy. The Holy Roman Empire never had anempress regnant, though women such asTheophanu andMaria Theresa exerted strong influence. Throughout its history, the position was viewed as a defender of the Catholic faith. UntilMaximilian I in 1508, the Emperor-elect (Imperator electus) was required to be crowned by the pope before assuming the imperial title.Charles V was the last to be crowned by the pope in 1530. There were short periods in history when the electoral college was dominated byProtestants, and the electors usually voted in their own political interest. However, even after theReformation, the elected emperor was always aCatholic.
From the time ofConstantine I (r. 306–337), theRoman Emperors had, with very few exceptions, taken on a role as promoters and defenders ofChristianity. Thereign of Constantine established a precedent for the position of the Christian emperor in theGreat Church. Emperors considered themselves responsible to God for the spiritual health of their subjects, and after Constantine they had a duty to help the Church define and maintainorthodoxy. The emperor's role was to enforce doctrine, root outheresies, and uphold ecclesiastical unity.[4] Both the title and connection between Emperor andChurch continued in theEastern Roman Empire throughout the medieval period (in exile during 1204–1261). Theecumenical councils of the 5th to 8th centuries were convoked by theEastern Roman Emperors.[5]
InWestern Europe, the title ofEmperor in the West lapsed after the death ofJulius Nepos in 480, although the rulers of thebarbarian kingdoms continued to recognize the authority of the Eastern Emperor at least nominally well into the 6th century. While the reconquest ofJustinian I had re-establishedByzantine presence in the Italian Peninsula, religious frictions existed with thePapacy who sought dominance over the Church ofConstantinople. Toward the end of the 8th century, the Papacy still recognised the ruler at Constantinople as the Roman Emperor, though Byzantine military support in Italy had increasingly waned, leading to the Papacy to look to theFranks for protection. In 800Pope Leo III owed a great debt toCharlemagne, theKing of the Franks andKing of Italy, for securing his life and position. By this time, the Eastern EmperorConstantine VI had been deposed in 797 and replaced as monarch by his mother,Irene.[6]
Under the pretext that a woman could not rule the empire, Pope Leo III declared the throne vacant and crowned Charlemagne Emperor of the Romans (Imperator Romanorum), the successor of Constantine VI as Roman emperor, using the concept oftranslatio imperii.[6] On his coins, the name and title used by Charlemagne isKarolus Imperator Augustus. In documents, he usedImperator Augustus Romanum gubernans Imperium ("Emperor Augustus, governing the Roman Empire") andserenissimus Augustus a Deo coronatus, magnus pacificus Imperator Romanorum gubernans Imperium ("most serene Augustus crowned by God, great peaceful emperor governing the empire of the Romans"). The Eastern Empire eventually relented to recognizing Charlemagne and his successors as emperors, but as "Frankish" and "German emperors", at no point referring to them as Roman, a label they reserved for themselves.[7]
The title of emperor in the West implied recognition by the pope. As the power of the papacy grew during the Middle Ages, popes and emperors came into conflict over church administration. The best-known and most bitter conflict was that known as theinvestiture controversy, fought during the 11th century betweenHenry IV andPope Gregory VII.
After the coronation of Charlemagne, his successors maintained the title until the death ofBerengar I of Italy in 924. The comparatively brief interregnum between 924 and the coronation ofOtto the Great in 962 is taken as marking the transition from theFrankish Empire to theHoly Roman Empire.Under theOttonians, much of the formerCarolingian kingdom ofEastern Francia fell within the boundaries of the Holy Roman Empire.
Since 911, the variousGerman princes had elected theKing of the Germans from among their peers. The King of the Germans would then be crowned as emperor following the precedent set by Charlemagne, during the period of 962–1530.Charles V was the last emperor to be crowned by the pope, and his successor,Ferdinand I, merely adopted the title of "Emperor elect" in 1558. The final Holy Roman emperor-elect,Francis II, abdicated in 1806 during theNapoleonic Wars that saw the Empire's final dissolution.
The termsacrum (i.e., "holy") in connection with the German Roman Empire was first used in 1157 underFrederick I Barbarossa.[8]
The Holy Roman Emperor's standard designation was "August Emperor of the Romans" (Romanorum Imperator Augustus). When Charlemagne was crowned in 800, he was styled as "most serene Augustus, crowned by God, great and pacific emperor, governing the Roman Empire," thus constituting the elements of "Holy" and "Roman" in the imperial title.[9]
The wordRoman was a reflection of the principle oftranslatio imperii (or in this caserestauratio imperii) that regarded the Holy Roman emperors as the inheritors of the title of emperor of theWestern Roman Empire.
In German-language historiography, the termRömisch-deutscher Kaiser ("Roman-German emperor") is used to distinguish the title from that ofRoman emperor on one hand, and that ofGerman emperor (Deutscher Kaiser) on the other. The English term "Holy Roman Emperor" is a modern shorthand for "emperor of the Holy Roman Empire" not corresponding to the historical style or title, i.e., the adjective "holy" is not intended as modifying "emperor"; the English term "Holy Roman Emperor" gained currency in the interbellum period (the 1920s to 1930s); formerly the title had also been rendered as "German-Roman emperor" in English.[1]
Illustration of the election ofHenry VII (27 November 1308) showing (left to right) the Archbishop of Cologne, Archbishop of Mainz, Archbishop of Trier, Count Palatine of the Rhine, Duke of Saxony, Margrave of Brandenburg and King of Bohemia (Codex Balduini Trevirorum,c. 1340).
Theelective monarchy of theKingdom of Germany goes back to the early 10th century, the election ofConrad I of Germany in 911 following the death without issue ofLouis the Child, the lastCarolingian ruler of Germany.Elections meant the kingship of Germany was only partially hereditary, unlike the kingship ofEngland, although sovereignty frequently remained in a dynasty until there were no more male successors. The process of an election meant that the prime candidate had to make concessions, by which the voters were kept on his side, which was known asWahlkapitulationen (electoral capitulation).
After 1438, the title remained in the House ofHabsburg andHabsburg-Lorraine, with the brief exception ofCharles VII, who was aWittelsbach.Maximilian I (emperor 1508–1519) and his successors no longer traveled to Rome to be crowned as emperor by the pope. Maximilian, therefore, named himself elected Roman emperor (Erwählter Römischer Kaiser) in 1508 with papal approval. This title was in use by all his uncrowned successors. Of his successors, onlyCharles V, the immediate one, received apapal coronation.
The elector palatine's seat was conferred on theduke of Bavaria in 1621, but in 1648, in the wake of theThirty Years' War, the elector palatine was restored, as the eighth elector. TheElectorate of Hanover was added as a ninth elector in 1692, confirmed by the Imperial Diet in 1708. The whole college was reshuffled in theGerman mediatization of 1803 with a total of ten electors, a mere three years before the dissolution of the Empire.
Traditional historiography assumes a continuity between theCarolingian Empire and the Holy Roman Empire, while a modern convention takes the coronation of Otto I in 962 as the starting point of the Holy Roman Empire (although the termSacrum Imperium Romanum was not in use before the 13th century).
On Christmas Day, 800, Charlemagne, King of the Franks, was crowned Emperor of the Romans (Imperator Romanorum) byPope Leo III, in opposition toEmpress Irene, who was then ruling the Roman Empire from Constantinople. Charlemagne's descendants from theCarolingian Dynasty continued to be crowned Emperor until 899, excepting a brief period when the Imperial crown was awarded to theWidonidDukes of Spoleto. There is some contention as to whether the Holy Roman Empire dates as far back as Charlemagne, some histories consider theCarolingian Empire to be a distinct polity from the later Holy Roman Empire as established under Otto I in 962.
While earlier Frankish and Italian monarchs had been crowned as Roman emperors, the actualHoly Roman Empire is often considered to have begun with the crowning of Frederick Barbarossa who called the empire "the holy empire", however in general it is already attributed toOtto I, at the time Otto wasDuke of Saxony andKing of Germany. Because the King of Germany was an elected position, being elected King of Germany was functionally a pre-requisite to being crowned Holy Roman Emperor. By the 13th century, thePrince-electors became formalized as a specific body of seven electors, consisting of three bishops and four secular princes. Up to the mid-14th century, the electors chose freely from among a number of dynasties. A period of dispute during the second half of the 13th century over the kingship of Germany led to there being no emperor crowned for several decades, though this ended in 1312 with the coronation ofHenry VII, Holy Roman Emperor. The period of free election ended with the ascension of the AustrianHouse of Habsburg, as an unbroken line of Habsburgs held the imperial throne until the 18th century. Later a cadet branch known as theHouse of Habsburg-Lorraine passed it from father to son until the abolition of the Empire in 1806. Notably, from the 16th century, the Habsburgs dispensed with the requirement that emperors be crowned by the pope before exercising their office. Starting withFerdinand I, all successive emperors forwent the traditional coronation.
Theinterregnum of the Holy Roman Empire is taken to have lasted from the deposition of Frederick II byPope Innocent IV in 1245 (or alternatively from Frederick's death in 1250 or from the death ofConrad IV in 1254) to the election ofRudolf I of Germany (1273). Rudolf was not crowned emperor, nor were his successorsAdolf andAlbert. The next emperor wasHenry VII, crowned on 29 June 1312 by legates ofPope Clement V.
In 1508,Pope Julius II allowedMaximilian I to use the title of Emperor without coronation in Rome, though the title was qualified asElectus Romanorum Imperator ("elected Emperor of the Romans"). Maximilian's successors each adopted the same titulature, usually on becoming the sole ruler of the Holy Roman Empire. Maximilian's predecessorFrederick III was the last to be crowned Emperor by the Pope in Rome, while Maximilian's successorCharles V was the last to be crowned by the pope, though inBologna, in 1530.[13]
The Emperor was crowned in a special ceremony, traditionally performed by thePope inRome. Without that coronation, no king, despite exercising all powers, could call himself Emperor. In 1508, PopeJulius II allowedMaximilian I to use the title of Emperor without coronation in Rome, though the title was qualified asElectus Romanorum Imperator ("elected Emperor of the Romans"). Maximilian's successors adopted the same titulature, usually when they became the sole ruler of the Holy Roman Empire.[14] Maximilian's first successorCharles V was the last to be crowned Emperor.
^abThe New International Encyclopædia. Vol. 10. 1927. p. 675.;Hayes, Carlton J. H. (1932).A Political and Cvltvral History of Modern Europe. Vol. 1. p. 225.
^Peter Hamish Wilson,The Holy Roman Empire, 1495–1806, MacMillan Press 1999, London, p. 2. Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn: The Menace of the Herd or Procrustes at Large – p. 164. Robert Edwin Herzstein, Robert Erwin Herzstein: "The Holy Roman Empire in the Middle Ages: universal state or German catastrophe?"[year needed][page needed]
^abBryce, James (1968) [1864].The Holy Roman Empire. Macmillan. pp. 62–64.
^Klewitz, Hans-Walter (1943). "Eduard Eichmann, die Kaiserkrönung im Abendland. Ein Beitrag zur, Geistesgeschichte des Mittelalters, mit besonderer Berücksichtigung des kirchlichen Rechts, der Liturgie und der Kirchenpolitik".Zeitschrift der Savigny-Stiftung für Rechtsgeschichte: Kanonistische Abteilung.32:509–525.doi:10.7767/zrgka.1943.32.1.509.S2CID183386465.
^Moraw, Peter (1977–1999).Heiliges Reich.Lexikon des Mittelalters. Vol. 4. Munich & Zurich: Artemis. Columns 2025–2028.
^" Wir Franz der Zweyte, von Gottes Gnaden erwählter römischer KaiserImperator Austriae, Fransiscus I (1804),Allerhöchste Pragmatikal-Verordnung vom 11. August 1804, The HR Emperor, p. 1
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