Holy Roman Empire

The Holy Roman Empire (; ), occasionally but unofficially referred to as the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, was a polity in Western and Central Europe under the rule of an emperor, who was elected by the princes and the magistrates of its regions and cities.
On 25 December 800, Pope Leo III crowned Frankish King Charlemagne as Roman emperor and revived the title in Western Europe for the first time since the fall of the ancient Western Roman Empire in 476.

When Charlemagne died in 814, the Frankish Empire was given to his sons and divided into three different countries: West Francia, Lotharingia and East Francia. In 962, Otto I was crowned emperor by Pope John XII. The empire would last for over eight centuries, until it ended in 1806.

At the start of the empire, the emperor was quite powerful. As time went on, however, the empire's duchies and counties became more powerful than the emperor. 

 Politics 
Since Charlemagne, the polity was simply called the "Roman Empire". The name "Holy Roman Empire" was not used until the 13th century. Before then, people had called the empire by different names like universum regnum ("the whole kingdom", meaning that it included all regions, not just local kingdoms) and imperium christianum ("Christian empire"). The emperor's right to rule came from the idea of translatio imperii ("transfer of rule"), which meant that he had the highest power, which had been passed down from the Ancient Roman emperors.

The Holy Roman Empire was not very centralised, unlike most countries today. Instead, it was divided into dozens and eventually hundreds of individual entities, which were governed by kings, dukes, counts, bishops, abbots and other rulers, who were collectively known as princes. The emperor directly ruled some areas, but he could not simply issue decrees and govern autonomously over the empire. His power was severely restricted by the various local leaders.

In the 16th century, the empire had to deal with the rebellion of the Frisians, which was led by Pier Gerlofs Donia and Wijerd Jelckama, from 1515 to 1523.

The empire was a rare state in Europe to have an elective monarchy. The emperor was chosen by a small group of prince-electors, but the previous emperor's dynastic heir was commonly elected to the throne. Until 1596 the elected emperor was crowned by the Pope to make him a real emperor. The House of Habsburg ruled most of the time between about 1280 and 1806, the end of the empire.


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Category:States and territories disestablished in the 19th century
Category:1806 disestablishments
Category:1800s disestablishments in Europe