Holy Roman Empire

I

Introduction

Holy Roman Empire, political entity of lands in western and central Europe, founded by Charlemagne in ad 800 and dissolved by Emperor Francis II in 1806. The extent and strength of the empire largely depended on the military and diplomatic skill of its emperors, both of which fluctuated considerably during the empire’s thousand-year lifetime. However, the principal area of the empire was the German states. From the 10th century, its leaders were German kings, who usually sought but did not always receive coronation as emperor by the popes in Rome.

At its peak in the 12th century, the empire comprised most of the territory of modern-day Germany, Austria, Switzerland, eastern France, Belgium, Netherlands, western Poland, the Czech Republic, and Italy. By the later Middle Ages, however, the emperors’ power had become increasingly symbolic, with real legal and administrative power exercised at the territorial and municipal levels. When the last Holy Roman emperor resigned in 1806, the realm had long matched Voltaire’s famous description of it as 'neither Holy, nor Roman, nor an Empire.'

II

Background

The Holy Roman Empire was an attempt to revive the Western Roman Empire, whose legal and political structure had deteriorated during the 5th and 6th centuries and had been replaced by independent kingdoms ruled by Germanic nobles. The Roman imperial office had been vacant after Romulus Augustulus was deposed in ad 476. But, during the turbulent early Middle Ages, the popes had kept alive the traditional concept of a temporal realm coextensive with a spiritual realm of the church. The Byzantine Empire, which controlled the Eastern Roman Empire from its capital, Constantinople (now İstanbul, Turkey), retained nominal sovereignty over the territories formerly controlled by the Western Empire, and many of the Germanic tribes that had seized these territories formally recognized the Byzantine emperor as overlord. Partly because of this and also because the popes depended on Byzantine protection against the Lombards, a Germanic tribe in northern Italy, they continued to recognize the sovereignty of the Eastern Empire.

As the political bonds that had held western Europe together gradually gave way to a variety of successor states, the idea of a universal and eternal Roman Empire did not die out, but was transformed among recently converted barbarian peoples into the ideal of a Christian Empire. The Western Christian, or Roman Catholic, church, had been the one institution that remained unified throughout the former empire.

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By the beginning of the 8th century, two developments set the stage for a revived Western empire. First, the Byzantine Empire lost much of its territory as the Muslims expanded during the 7th century. As the political prestige and power of the Byzantine Empire declined, the popes grew increasingly resentful of Byzantine interference in the affairs of the Western church. Byzantine emperors then further increased tensions with Popes Gregory II and Gregory III by increasing taxes and by banning the worship of religious icons (see Iconoclasm). From 726 to 757 Byzantine emperors prohibited all religious statues and paintings, while they continued to be used in the West.

The Eastern emperors were not the only threat to the pope’s power; the Lombards, who went unchecked by any Byzantine presence in northern Italy, also threatened Rome. In seeking protection against the Lombards, the popes turned to the Franks, a tribe that controlled a large amount of territory in what is now France. The Frankish king Pepin the Short first took the battlefield against the Lombards, but it was his son Charlemagne who ultimately established papal sovereignty in what is now Italy. Charlemagne brought the idea of a revived Western empire to life, and became its first emperor.

III

The Carolingian Empire (800-912)

During his reign of almost 50 years, from 768 to 814, Charlemagne expanded the Frankish kingdom until it encompassed almost all of western Europe. Still, it is uncertain that he would have assumed the title of Roman emperor were it not for the support and urging of Pope Leo III. Leo sought an alliance with the Frankish kingdom because of its power, its extent, and most of all its devout Christianity. For these reasons, he believed it was fitted to become the guardian of Rome and the papacy in place of the weakened Byzantine Empire.

The pope thus broke the ties with Constantinople and created a new Western empire by crowning Charlemagne emperor of the Romans on Christmas Day, 800. The new title did not confer any new powers on Charlemagne, but it did legitimate his rule over central Italy, a fact eventually acknowledged by the Byzantine emperor Michael I in 812. Though not yet known as such, the Holy Roman Empire thus came into being.

Scholars continue to debate the significance of Leo’s act for both the papacy and the Western empire. Leo and his successors definitely benefited from gaining temporal authority over central Italy, in the region known as the Papal States. The coronation also symbolically promoted both the papacy and the Frankish kings to a level of authority comparable only to that of the Byzantine emperor. The pope’s endorsement of Charlemagne’s rule, however, had not been sought by the Frankish king. Charlemagne intended to have his heir crowned without papal participation. When Leo’s successor seized an opportunity to continue the tradition by crowning Charlemagne’s son Louis I in 817, the precedent of papal coronation was established. By granting the title of emperor, the papacy gained a huge influence over all subsequent imperial candidates, ensuring the pope’s role in legitimizing Western emperors for centuries to come. Even bitter conflicts between the popes and the emperors could not dissolve this important ceremony.

Charlemagne’s empire (called Carolingian after Charlemagne’s Latin name, Carolus Magnus) assumed many of the traditions and social distinctions of the late Roman Empire, but also introduced some key governmental innovations. Charlemagne granted large landholdings called fiefs to many tribal military leaders, known as dukes, and appointed numerous Frankish officials to the lesser posts of counts and margraves. Under Charlemagne’s system, the dukes were kings in miniature, with all the administrative, military, and judicial authority of the emperor within their territories. To oversee these people, Charlemagne established a system of traveling inspectors and representatives of the king, who were known as missi dominici. However, Charlemagne was unable to assimilate many of the tribal leaders fully into the new empire, and as Charlemagne’s successors discovered, these leaders often placed their personal interests above those of the empire.

Already toward the end of Charlemagne’s reign, the empire had stopped expanding and had adopted a defensive posture. It was too large to administer effectively and consequently it was prey to tribal dissension. The Carolingian Empire did not long survive Charlemagne’s death in 814. It was the creation of one man whose military strength and religious devotion alone held the realm together. After his death, the diverging personal interests of the Frankish nobles and the church proved too much for his successors to handle.

Charlemagne’s successor, his son Louis I, could not prevent the dukes and counts from transforming their feudal fiefs into hereditary estates. The five major tribal fiefs were transformed into stem (most likely from the German word stämme, meaning “tribal”) duchies—Franconia, Swabia, Bavaria, Saxony, and Lorraine—and these became the strongest in the empire, threatening the overall authority of the emperor. Civil wars between Louis’s sons and these powerful rulers soon disrupted imperial unity, and upon Louis’s death the empire was divided.

By the terms of the Treaty of Verdun in 843, the empire was split among Louis’s three sons. Charles II received West Francia (roughly modern-day France); Lothair I acquired the imperial title and an area running from the North Sea through Lotharingia (Lorraine) and Burgundy to northern Italy; Louis II received East Francia (the German duchies of Saxony, Swabia, and Bavaria). In 870 Lothair’s middle kingdom was divided by the Treaty of Mersen, which gave Lotharingia to East Francia and the rest to West Francia.

This division created the foundation for today’s states of Germany and France, respectively; however, in the 9th century these were highly fractured dynastic states, not modern nation-states. Subsequent attempts by both East and West Francian rulers to conquer the other were unsuccessful.

German kings were elected by the most prominent nobles of their realm, in accordance with ancient Frankish custom. The imperial title was not, however, necessarily conferred at the same time a German monarch was elected. Many German kings reigned for several years before their coronation as emperors of Rome.

The election of the German king as emperor, however, was only a formality as long as the Carolingian line remained intact. In 911 the last of the East Francian Carolingians died, and the electors of East Francia determined the first of many dynastic changes by electing Duke Conrad of Franconia as their king.

In 918, on his deathbed, Conrad secured the election of the skilled ruler Henry I, duke of Saxony, as his successor as German king. Henry’s successors restored a measure of imperial control over the German nobles and thereby established the Germanic kingdom as a power capable of making its presence felt outside its own borders.

IV

The Ottonian Empire (936-1024)

The kings of East Francia monopolized the imperial crown after 881. However, it was not until the reign of Otto I, who was elected king in 936, that the East Frankish kings were able to establish strong control over the nobility and clergy, and in doing so restore the reality of the Carolingian Empire. Like Charlemagne, Otto I combined military prowess with genuine religious faith. He attempted to create a strong centralized monarchy by giving the stem duchies to his relatives. For instance, Swabia and Bavaria were ruled by Otto’s oldest son and his brother, respectively, who tried to claim legitimacy by marrying the daughters of previous rulers from each duchy. Unfortunately, this practice resulted in Otto’s double misfortune of unpopular outsiders in positions of power, as well as relatives who were often disloyal and plotted to overthrow him.

After several dangerous uprisings, Otto changed his tactics and began to break up the stem duchies into nonhereditary fiefs that he granted to bishops and abbots. By nominating these churchmen (often referred to as capellani) and bringing them into the royal court, he ensured their loyalty and was also able to use their literacy skills in correspondence and legislation. Otto used the capellani much as Charlemagne had used the missi dominici, as representatives of the king throughout his realm. This alliance with the church and the gradual establishment of formal institutions and laws within the empire were both carried much further by Otto’s successors.

Otto had to defend his realm from outside pressures, particularly against the Danes in the north and the Slavs in the east. He defeated both of these tribes and added their lands to his own. Additionally, he permanently broke the power of the Magyars—a nomadic tribe that had conquered much of what is now Hungary—at the Battle of Lechfeld in 955. Wishing to emulate Charlemagne as a devout missionary and protector of the Christian faith, Otto established the archbishopric of Magdeburg in 968 and other dioceses as centers of civilization in the conquered lands.

In addition to his attempts to exert a strict control over Germany, Otto also wished to make Italy an integral part of the empire. In 951 he invaded Italy, beginning the disastrous policy of German attempts to control territory there. For centuries to come, all would-be Roman emperors imitated Otto’s extremely costly fixation on the heart of the ancient empire. This preoccupation not only drained resources from the emperors’ real power base in Germany, it also kept the emperors preoccupied and away from Germany. As a result, they were unable to control the German nobility.

Otto’s second Italian campaign was waged at the behest of Pope John XII, who was being attacked by Berengar II, king of Italy. Otto successfully defeated Berengar and was crowned emperor by the grateful John in 962. By a treaty called the Ottonian Privilege, Otto guaranteed the pope’s secular claim to most of central Italy. In exchange, the pope agreed that all future papal candidates would swear loyalty to the emperor.

Otto's successors, known as Ottonians, continued his domestic and Italian policies as best they could. Otto II, who reigned from 973 to 983, established the Eastern March (now Austria) as a military outpost. This outpost served to begin the policy of Germanizing the local population. He was, however, defeated by the Muslims in his efforts to secure southern Italy. He spent much of the remainder of his reign fighting off revolts from his German nobles.

His successor, Otto III, was moved by his father’s ambition and the lineage of his mother, the Byzantine princess Theophano, to assume even grander imperial ideas. He ruled from Rome, hoping to expand the German empire into a new Christian empire along the lines of those created by Constantine and Charlemagne. Otto III continued his predecessors’ tradition of choosing popes—a tradition established by the Ottonian Privilege—and appointed his cousin to the papal throne as Gregory V in 996. After Gregory’s death, Otto made his tutor the pope, under the name Sylvester II. Otto’s actions caused tensions with the people of Rome, however, and he was forced to flee by a rebellion in 1001.

Otto died childless in 1002, and after a short civil war, the German princes elected Henry II of Bavaria their new king. Henry attempted to continue the imperial and ecclesiastical reform started by Otto III by securing the loyalty of nobles and churchmen to strengthen his control over the empire. However, his attempts to maintain control over Italy led to his extended absence from Germany, and the German princes used this time to consolidate their own power at the expense of that of the emperor.

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