Holy Roman Emperor
The Holy Roman Emperor (historically Romanorum Imperator "Emperor of the Romans") was the ruler of the Holy Roman Empire. From anautocracy in Carolingian times the title evolved into an elected monarchychosen by the Prince-electors. Until the Reformation the Emperor elect (imperator electus) was required to be crowned by the Pope before assuming the imperial title.
The title was held in conjunction with the rule of the Kingdom of Germanyand the Kingdom of Italy (Imperial Northern Italy).[1][2][3] In theory, the Holy Roman Emperor was primus inter pares (first among equals) among the other Roman Catholic monarchs; in practice, a Holy Roman Emperor was only as strong as his army and alliances made him.
Various royal houses of Europe, at different times, effectively became hereditary holders of the title, in particular in later times the Habsburgs. After the Reformation many of the subject states and most of those in Germany were Protestant while the Emperor continued to be Catholic. The Holy Roman Empire was dissolved by the last Emperor (who had additionally styled himself as the Emperor of Austria since 1804) as a result of the collapse of the polity during the Napoleonic wars
From the time of Constantine I (4th century) the Roman emperors had, with very few exceptions, taken on a role as promoters and defenders of Christianity. The title of Emperor became defunct in Western Europe after the deposition ofRomulus Augustulus in 476 AD; both the title and connection between Emperor and Church continued in the Eastern Roman Empire until 1453, when it fell to the forces of the Ottoman Empire. In the west, the title of Emperor (Imperator) was revived in 800, which also renewed ideas of imperial–papal cooperation. As the power of the papacy grew during the Middle Ages, popes and emperors came into conflict over church administration. The best-known and most bitter conflict was that known as the Investiture Controversy, fought during the 11th century between Henry IV and Pope Gregory VII.
After Charlemagne was crowned Emperor of the Romans (Imperator Romanorum) by Pope Leo III, his successors maintained the title until the death of Berengar I of Italy in 924. No pope appointed an emperor again until the coronation of Otto the Great in 962. Under Otto and his successors, much of the former Carolingian kingdom of Eastern Francia fell within the boundaries of the Holy Roman Empire. The various German princes elected one of their peers asKing of the Germans, after which he would be crowned as emperor by the Pope. After Charles V's coronation, all succeeding emperors were called elected Emperor due to the lack of papal coronation, but for all practical purposes they were simply called emperors
The term "sacrum" (i.e. "holy") in connection with the medieval Roman Empire was first used in 1157 under Frederick I Barbarossa.[4] Charles V was the last Holy Roman Emperor to be crowned by the Pope (1530). The final Holy Roman Emperor-elect, Francis II, abdicated in 1806 during the Napoleonic Wars that saw the Empire's final dissolution.
The standard designation of the Holy Roman Emperor was "August Emperor of the Romans" (Romanorum Imperator Augustus). When Charlemagne was crowned in 800, his was styled as "most serene Augustus, crowned by God, great and pacific emperor, governing the Roman Empire," thus constituting the elements of "Holy" and "Roman" in the imperial title. The word Holy had never been used as part of that title in official documents.[5]
The word Roman was a reflection of the principle of translatio imperii (or in this case restauratio imperii) that regarded the (Germanic) Holy Roman Emperors as the inheritors of the title of Emperor of the Western Roman Empire, despite the continued existence of the Eastern Roman Empire.
In German-language historiography, the term Römisch-deutscher Kaiser ("Roman-German Emperor") is used to distinguish the title from that of Roman Emperor on one hand, and that of German Emperor (Deutscher Kaiser) on the other.
Succession of the Holy Roman Emperors[edit]
_family_tree_by_shakko_(DE).jpg)
Successions to the kingship were controlled by a variety of complicated factors. Elections meant the kingship of Germany was only partially hereditary, unlike the kingship of France, although sovereignty frequently remained in a dynasty until there were no more male successors. Some scholars suggest that the task of the elections was really to solve conflicts only when the dynastic rule was unclear, yet the process meant that the prime candidate had to make concessions, by which the voters were kept on side, which were known asWahlkapitulationen (election capitulations).
The Electoral council was set at seven princes (three archbishops and four secular princes) by the Golden Bull of 1356. It remained so until 1648, when the settlement of the Thirty Years' War required the addition of a new elector to maintain the precarious balance between Protestant and Catholic factions in the Empire. Another elector was added in 1690, and the whole college was reshuffled in 1803, a mere three years before the dissolution of the Empire
No comments:
Post a Comment