Holy Roman Empire
The Holy Roman Empire was a political association of lands in western and central Europe, which is considered to have been founded in 962 by Otto I the Great and dissolved in 1806 by Emperor Francis II (from 1804, Emperor Francis I of Austria). Although some date the beginning of the Holy Roman Empire from the coronation of Charlemagne in 800, Charlemagne himself more typically used the title King of the Franks and was in fact crowned Emperor of the Romans. Francis II's family continued to be called Austrian emperors until 1918.
Despite the German ethnicity of most of its rulers and subjects, the Holy Roman Empire was from its beginnings a multi-ethnic state. Many of its most important noble families and appointed officials were from outside the German-speaking communities. At the height of the empire it contained most of the territory of today's Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and the Czech Republic, as well as eastern France, northern Italy and western Poland.
The precise term Holy Roman Empire dates from 1254. The term Roman Empire was used in 1034 to denote the lands under Conrad II, and Holy Empire in 1157. The term Roman emperor is older and started with Otto II (emperor 973-983). Emperors from Charlemagne to Otto I the Great had simply used the phrase 'imperator augustus' ("august emperor").
The archbishops of Trier, Mainz and Cologne and the king of Bohemia, the Margrave of Brandenburg, the Duke of Saxony and the Count Palatine of the Rhine, held the office of electors or Kurfürsten. The electors elected the German king, who would then become emperor. In a document known as the Golden Bull (1356) their status was regulated by the emperor Charles IV, whose recognised them as quasi-independent rulers within their own domains. Other electors were added subsequently.
After it lost much of its territory, it was renamed "Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation", finally recognizing that it was no longer likely to control the Italian peninsula successfully. However, until the 19th century the empire retained considerable possessions in northern Italy.
When the last Holy Roman emperor (Francis II) resigned in 1806, the realm had long matched Voltaire's famous description of it as "neither Holy, nor Roman, nor an Empire". Voltaire's scepticism was matched by the German writer Goethe. In Faust I, in a scene written in 1775, Goethe has one of the drinkers in Auerbach's Cellar in Leipzig ask "Our Holy Roman Empire, lads, What holds it still together?"
Ruling Dynasties:
- Ottonian Saxon dynasty
- Hohenstaufen dynasty
- Habsburg dynasty
- Hanover dynasty
- Hohenzollern dynasty
- Luxemburg dynasty
- Wettin dynasty
- Wittelsbach dynasty
Money of the Empire