Anarchchancellor (Latin:archicancellarius,German:Erzkanzler) or chief chancellor was a title given to the highest dignitary of theHoly Roman Empire, and also used occasionally during theMiddle Ages to denote an official who supervised the work of chancellors or notaries.[1]
TheCarolingian successors ofPepin the Short appointed chancellors over the whole Frankish realm in the ninth century.Hincmar refers to this official as asummus cancellarius inDe ordine palatii et regni and an 864 charter of KingLothair I refers toAgilmar, Archbishop of Vienne, as archchancellor, a word which also begins appearing in chronicles about that time.[1] The last Carolingian archchancellor inWest Francia wasArchbishop Adalberon of Reims (969-988), with the accession ofHugh Capet the office was replaced by aChancelier de France.
At the court ofOtto I, thenKing of Germany, the title seems to have been an appanage of theArchbishop of Mainz. After Otto had finally deposed KingBerengar II of Italy and was crownedHoly Roman Emperor in 962, a similar office was created for the ImperialKingdom of Italy. By the early eleventh century, this office was perennially held by theArchbishop of Cologne. Theoretically, the archbishop of Mainz took care of Imperial affairs for Germany and the Archbishop of Cologne for Italy, though the latter often used deputies, his see being outside of his kingdom. A third office was created about 1042 by EmperorHenry III for the recently acquiredKingdom of Burgundy. He initially bestowed it on ArchbishopHugh I of Besançon.[2] It only appears in the hands of theArchbishop of Trier in the twelfth century as the chancellory of Arles, as Burgundy was then known.
By theGolden Bull of 1356, EmperorCharles IV confirmed the threefold division of the archchancellory among the three ecclesiasticalPrince-electors of the Empire. Actual governmental functions like calling theImperial elections, however, were carried out by the Mainz archbishops alone. The archchancellor could appoint the Imperial Vice-Chancellor, which served in the Emperor's court and held influence in theAulic Council. One of the most influential Vice-Chancellor's wasFriedrich Karl von Schönborn, who served EmperorCharles VI.
The archchancellery was part of the constitution of the Empire until theGerman Mediatisation in 1803, when Mainz was secularised. The last elector,Karl Theodor Anton Maria von Dalberg, however, retained the title of archchancellor until the dissolution of the Empire in 1806. There was a marked resemblance between the medieval archchancellor and the laterchancellors of theGerman Empire, theWeimar Republic,[3] and the Austrian Empire.[1] The title is continued by the present-dayChancellors of Germany andAustria.
InFrance the title of "Archchancellor of the Empire" was given toNapoleon I's chief legal advisor,Jean-Jacques-Régis de Cambacérès.
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Archchancellor".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 2 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 358.