William Dalrymple (historian)

P:HRE

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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.

Welcome

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

Philipp von Hutten

Philipp von Hutten was a German conquistador who, from 1535 to 1538, participated as a captain in an expedition by the Augsburg Welser Company into the interior of Venezuela in search of gold. At the end of 1540 he was appointed by Charles V as the military commander of the Spanish overseas province of Venezuela which was governed by the Welser family. On his return from a second expedition, which Hutten led between 1541 and 1546, he had his Spanish rival, Juan de Carvajal, murdered.

Little is known about the first thirty years of Philip von Hutten's life. It is documented that, when he was aged between twelve and fourteen, his parents placed him in the care of Count Henry III of Nassau-Breda-Viande, one of the teachers and closest confidants of the later Habsburg Emperor Charles V. Hutten had been living in Spain for several years in Charles' retinue before he set off with him in 1529 to the imperial coronation in Bologna.

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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

Hoftag
- Imperial Prelates (Reichsprälat)
Emperors
Kings
Imperial Estates (Reichsstände)
- Prince-electors (Kurfürst)
- Imperial Villages (Reichsdorf)
- Erzamt
- Imperial Princes (Reichsfürst)
- Imperial Counts (Reichsgraf)
- Free imperial cities
Other imperially immediate estates
- Imperial Knights (Reichsritter)

Institutions of the Empire

Imperial Diet (Reichstag)
Königliches Kammergericht to 1495
Reichskammergericht from 1495
Imperial Circle (Reichskreise) from 1495
Aulic Council (Reichshofrat) from 1498

Holy Roman Empire
The Holy Roman Empire, also known as the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation after 1512, was a polity in Central and Western Europe, usually headed by the Holy Roman Emperor. It developed in the Early Middle Ages, and lasted for a millennium until its dissolution in 1806 during the Napoleonic Wars.

On 25 December 800, Pope Leo III crowned the Frankish king Charlemagne Roman emperor, reviving the title more than three centuries after the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476. The title lapsed in 924, but was revived in 962 when Otto I was crowned emperor by Pope John XII, as Charlemagne's and the Carolingian Empire's successor. From 962 until the 12th century, the empire was one of the most powerful monarchies in Europe. It depended on cooperation between emperor and vassals; this was disturbed during the Salian period. The empire reached the apex of territorial expansion and power under the House of Hohenstaufen in the mid-13th century, but overextension led to a partial collapse. The imperial office was traditionally elective by the mostly German prince-electors. In theory and diplomacy, the emperors were considered the first among equals of all of Europe's Catholic monarchs.

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. (Full article...)

History 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...