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Portal:Holy Roman Empire

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History of the Holy Roman Empire

The Holy Roman Empire portal gives an overview of events from about 900 to 1806, that affected the territories of the Empire and its leading aristocratic families.

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The purpose of the Holy Roman Empire portal is to make it easy for readers to find and explore articles about the Holy Roman Empire and its aristocratic families, as well as enabling editors to come together to work to enhance the subject and its themes. New editors are warmly welcome and invited to participate in adding new articles and improving existing ones – the first steps are very easy.

Article of the month


Article of the month

Henry II

Artist's impression of the coronation ceremony of Henry II
Artist's impression of the coronation ceremony of Henry II

Henry II or Saint Henry, was King of East Francia from 1002 (Regnum Teutonicorum) and Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire from 1014 to 1024. As the son of the Bavarian duke, Henry II ("Henry the Wrangler"), and his wife, Gisela, he was the great grandson of Henry I and was thus descended from the Bavarian collateral line of the Ottonians. After he was crowned King of East Francia on 9 July 1002, Pope Benedict VIII crowned him Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire on 14 February 1014. Henry II was the last of the Ottonian emperors. Pope Eugene III canonised him in 1146.

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Important noble families
Agilolfings • Ahalolfings • Andechs • Aribonids • Arnulfing • Ascania • Babenberg • Balduin • Billung • Burcharding • Caroligians • Conradines • Diepolding-Rapotones • Ekkehardins • Emichones • Eppensteins • Etichonids • Ezzonids • Griffins • Habsburg • Hohenstaufen • Hohenzollern • Ludovingians • Luitpoldings • Luxembourg • Matfrieds• Meinhardiner • Nassau • Northeim • Obodrites • Ottonians • Plantagenet • Popponids • Premyslid • Reginar • Salians • Sieghardingians • Spanheim • Supplinburg • Udalrichings • Unruochings • Welfs • Wigerics • Wittelsbach • Wettin • Wilhelminers • Württemberg • Zähringen

Important imperial treaties, edicts and legal sources
Peace of Augsburg • Confoederatio cum principibus ecclesiasticis • Constitutio Criminalis Carolina • Cuius regio, eius religio • Golden Bull of 1356 • Ems Punctation • Ewiger Landfriede • Peace of Constance • Treaty of Lunéville • Treaty of Venice • Youngest Recess • German mediatization (Reichsdeputationshauptschluss) • Ottonian-Salian Imperial Church System • Peace of Passau • Sachsenspiegel • Schwabenspiegel • Statutum in favorem principum • Treaty of Bonn (921) • Peace of Westphalia • Edict of Worms • Concordat of Worms

Conflicts and key events
Anti-kings • Augsburg Interim • Battle of the Three Emperors • War of the Austrian Succession • War of the Bavarian Succession • Walk to Canossa • Crusades • Investiture Controversy • Battle of Lechfeld • Battle of Legnano • War of the Palatine Succession • Defenestrations of Prague • Reformation • Schmalkaldic League • Schmalkaldic War • Seven Years' War • Thirty Years' War • Western Schism

Terminology
Imperial Army (Reichsarmee) • Free imperial city (Freie Reichsstadt) • Hasenrat • Perpetual Diet of Regensburg (Immerwährender Reichstag) • Interregnum • Coronation • Recess (Reichsabschied) • Imperial ban (Reichsacht) • Flags • Reichsdeputation • Reichsexekution • Reichsexekutionsordnung • Reichsfürstenrat • Imperial Italy (Reichsitalien) • Imperial Regalia (Reichskleinodien) • Imperial Register (Reichsmatrikel) • Imperial Prelate (Reichsprälat) • Imperial Reform (Reichsreform) • Imperial Government (Reichsregiment) • Imperial Knighthood (Reichsritterschaft) • Reichsstädtekollegium • Reichssturmfahne • Reservatrechte • Römermonat • Quaternionenadler • Wahlkapitulation

Organisation of the Empire

Structures

Institutions of the Empire

Holy Roman Empire
The Holy Roman Empire, also known as the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation after 1512, was a polity comprising and controlling much of Central Europe and Western Europe, headed by the Holy Roman Emperor and characterized by a decentralized political structure. It developed in the Early Middle Ages (beginning in either 800 or 962), and lasted for a millennium until its dissolution in 1806 during the Napoleonic Wars. Initially, it consisted of three constituent kingdoms—Germany, Italy, and (from 1032) Burgundy—held together by the emperor's overlordship. By the 15th century, imperial governance had become concentrated in and upon the Kingdom of Germany, as the empire's effective control over Italy and Burgundy had largely disappeared.

On 25 December 800, Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne (the Frankish king) as Roman Emperor, reviving the title more than three centuries after the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476. The title had again lapsed by 924 but was revived again in 962 with the crowning of Otto of Saxony as emperor by Pope John XII. Otto the Great (as he became known), was King of the Germans but as emperor he became Charlemagne's successor, ruling in lands that had been first brought together as the Carolingian Empire. From 962 until the 13th century, the empire was one of the most powerful monarchies in Europe. It depended on continuing cooperation between emperors and still relatively powerful and independent vassals. The empire reached its apex in terms of territorial expansion and power in the mid-13th century, under the House of Hohenstaufen, but this was an overextension and led to a partial collapse.

The imperial office was traditionally elected: mostly by a handful of (predominantly German) prince-electors and electors-spiritual (archbishops). In theory and diplomacy, the emperors were considered first amongst equals of Europe's (at least its Catholic) monarchies.

A process of Imperial Reform in the late 15th and early 16th centuries transformed the empire, creating a set of institutions which endured until its final demise in the 19th century. On 6 August 1806, Emperor Francis II abdicated and formally dissolved the empire following the creation by French emperor Napoleon of the Confederation of the Rhine from German client states loyal to France. For most of its history, the Empire primarily consisted of the entirety of the modern countries of the Czech Republic, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Switzerland, Slovenia, Germany, Austria, and large swathes of what is now eastern France, northern and central Italy, and western Poland. (Full article...)

History of the Holy Roman Empire

Extent of the Holy Roman Empire
Extent of the Holy Roman Empire

The Holy Roman Empire (Latin Sacrum Romanum Imperium) was the official name for the sovereign territory of the Roman-German Emperor from the Middle Ages to the year 1806. The name of the Empire is derived from the claim of its medieval rulers that it continued the tradition of the Ancient Roman Empire. The Holy Roman Empire is the forerunner of the modern nation-states of Germany and Austria. To distinguish it from the German Empire founded in 1871 it is also referred to by modern historians as the “Old Empire” (German: Altes Reich) more...

Well known people of the Holy Roman Empire

Emperors and kings
Otto I • Otto II • Otto III • Henry II • Conrad II • Henry III • Henry IV • Henry V • Conrad III • Frederick I • Henry VI • Philip of Swabia • Otto IV • Frederick II • Henry VII • Louis IV • Charles IV • Frederick III • Charles V • Ferdinand I • Ferdinand II • Joseph I • Charles VII • Francis II

Important church leaders
Leo III • Gregory VII • Urban II • Innocent III • Alexander III • Leo X • Jan Hus • Martin Luther • Philip Melanchthon • John Calvin

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