Holy Roman Empire Explained

The Holy Roman Empire was a large collection of thousands of political entities of many

different ethnicities that existed for more than a thousand years at the heart of Europe.

Stretching from modern-day Italy to Denmark, from France to Poland.

The Holy Roman Empire was an important part of European history, with several countries

that exist today having emerged from the Empire.

Keeping in line with the Empire’s complex nature, there isn’t even a universally agreed

upon date as to when the Empire actually ‘started’.

The two dates that are cited are 800 and 962 AD.

After the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century, the Roman Empire was reduced

to its eastern half.

Of course, their capital was no longer Rome, it was the ethnically Greek city of Constantinople.

Now, while the inhabitants of this empire continued to see themselves as, well, the

Roman Empire, modern historians tend to refer to them as the Byzantine Empire, based on

the old name for the capital city, Byzantium.

Anyway, 3 centuries later the Frankish king Charlemagne was crowned “Emperor of the

Romans”, as the Pope transferred the imperial title from east back to west.

At the time, the title was considered “vacant” because it was held by a woman, known simply

as “Irene”, who killed her own son to take power from him…

The Frankish Kingdoms were split and reunited several times, with 3 kingdoms emerging that

would make up the core of the Holy Roman Empire: the German Kingdom, the Italian Kingdom, and

the Burgundian Kingdom.

There was also the Kingdom of Bohemia, but that didn’t become a kingdom until 1198.

In 961, Otto I, king of Germany, came to the assistance of Pope John XII as the Papal States

were invaded by Berengar II of Italy.

Otto conquered northern Italy and deposed Berengar as his own troops abandoned him.

The Pope crowned Otto emperor in 962, the first German to be emperor.

Almost all successors would also be German for the rest of the Empire’s existence.

The early years of the Empire’s history are dominated by its strained relations with

the Papacy.

A seemingly never ending power struggle between various emperors and popes over the course

of several centuries.

They could never agree who was superior: Pope or Emperor.

In the mid 13th century, the empire had an “Interregnum”, in which no king was crowned

Emperor for 67 years.This would actually be the first of three interregnums, as another

two times in the next century and a half would see long stretches of time without a crowned

emperor.

During the rule of Charles IV, the Golden Bull of 1356 saw some major changes to the

Empire.

Seven fixed electors were chosen who would decide the King of Germany, which had become