The
Holy Roman Empire
(Latin: Sacrum Imperium Romanum; German: Heiliges Romisches Reich), also known as
Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation
, was a multi-ethnic complex of territories in
Western
and
Central Europe
that developed during the
Early Middle Ages
and continued until its
dissolution in 1806
during the
Napoleonic Wars
. The largest territory of the
empire
after 962 was the
Kingdom of Germany
, though it also included the neighboring
Kingdom of Bohemia
and
Kingdom of Italy
, plus numerous other territories, and soon after the
Kingdom of Burgundy
was added.
- Whether the associations of the
Imperial
name are bad, as
Mr. Gladstone
thinks, I will not discuss. Splendid and imposing they certainly were, not only in the age of the
Antonines
, but in the best days of the
mediaeval
Empire, from
Otto the Great
to
Frederick II
. But that splendour they have lost. ... In fact, the title of
King
is now the less common of the two, and, with such associations as
our kingship
has, it is far more dignified.
- I touch with reverence the laws of
Charlemagne
, so highly applauded by a respectable
judge
. They compose not a system, but a series, of occasional and minute edicts, for the correction of abuses, the reformation of manners, the
œconomy
of his
farms
, the care of his
poultry
, and even the sale of his
eggs
. He wished to improve the laws and the character of the
Franks
; and his attempts, however feeble and imperfect, are deserving of
praise
: the inveterate
evils
of the times were suspended or mollified by his
government
; but in his institutions I can seldom discover the general views and the immortal spirit of a
legislator
, who survives himself for the benefit of posterity. The union and stability of his empire depended on the life of a single man: he imitated the dangerous practice of dividing his
kingdoms
among his sons; and, after his numerous diets, the whole constitution was left to fluctuate between the disorders of
anarchy
and
despotism
.
- This great empire Charlemagne formed into a systematically organized State, and gave the Frank dominion settled
institutions
adapted to impart to it strength and consistency. This must however not be understood, as if he first introduced the
Constitution
of his
empire
in its whole extent, but as implying that institutions partly already in existence, were developed under his guidance, and attained a more decided and unobstructed efficiency. The
King
stood at the head of the officers of the empire, and the principle of hereditary monarchy was already recognized.
- Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
,
Lectures on the Philosophy of History
, "Part IV: The German World", in
Great Books of the Western World
, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Incorporated, 1952.
- The reality is that, since the fall of
Rome
, no power has come near to ruling this continent.
Charlemagne
did not do so, nor did the Habsburg Holy Roman Emperors, nor France's
Napoleon
, nor
Germany
's
Hitler
, nor yet the commissioners of the
European Union
. If
history
teaches anything, it is that all attempts to straighten
Kant
's 'crooked timber of humanity' will fail. Europe's peoples will not be put in bondage to a superior state, however
liberal
its intentions.
- Simon Jenkins
,
A Short History of Europe: From Pericles to Putin
(2018)
- The sheer heterogeneity and diffusion of these lands, which will be examined further below, might suggest that the Habsburg imperium could never be a real equivalent to the uniform, centralized empires of
Asia
. Even in the 1520s, Charles was handing over to his younger brother
Ferdinand
the administration and princely
sovereignty
of the
Austrian
hereditary lands, and also of the new acquisitions of
Hungary
and
Bohemia
?a recognition, well before Charles’s own abdication, that the
Spanish
and Austrian inheritances could not be effectively ruled by the same person. Nonetheless, that was not how the other princes and states viewed this mighty agglomeration of Habsburg power. To the
Valois kings
of
France
, fresh from consolidating their own authority internally and eager to expand into the rich
Italian peninsula
,
Charles V
’s possessions seemed to encircle the
French state
?and it is hardly an exaggeration to say that the chief aim of the
French
in
Europe
over the next two centuries would be to break the influence of the Habsburgs. Similarly, the
German
princes
and electors, who had long struggled against the emperor’s having any real authority within
Germany
itself, could not but be alarmed when they saw Charles V’s position was buttressed by so many additional territories, which might now give him the resources to impose his will. Many of the popes, too, disliked this accumulation of Habsburg power, even if it was often needed to combat the
Turks
, the
Lutherans
, and other foes.
- Paul Kennedy
, The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers: Economic Change and Military Conflict from 1500-2000 (1987)
- But despite the occasional rhetoric of some Habsburg ministers about a “
world monarchy
,” there was no conscious plan to dominate
Europe
in the manner of
Napoleon
or
Hitler
. Some of the Habsburg dynastic marriages and successions were fortuitous, at the most inspired, rather than evidence of a long-term scheme of territorial aggrandizement. In certain cases?for example, the frequent French invasions of northern Italy?Habsburg rulers were more provoked than provoking. In the Mediterranean after the 1540s, Spanish and imperial forces were repeatedly placed on the defensive by the operations of a revived
Islam
. Nevertheless, the fact remains that had the Habsburg rulers achieved all of their limited, regional aims?even their defensive aims?the mastery of Europe would virtually have been theirs. The
Ottoman Empire
would have been pushed back, along the
North African
coast and out of
eastern Mediterranean
waters.
Heresy
would have been suppressed within Germany. The revolt of the
Netherlands
would have been crushed. Friendly regimes would have been maintained in France and
England
. Only
Scandinavia
,
Poland
,
Muscovy
, and the lands still under Ottoman rule would not have been subject to Habsburg power and influence?and the concomitant triumph of the
Counter-Reformation
. Although Europe even then would not have approached the unity enjoyed by Ming
China
, the political and religious principles favored by the twin Habsburg centers of
Madrid
and
Vienna
would have greatly eroded the pluralism that had so long been the continent’s most important feature.
- Paul Kennedy
,
The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers: Economic Change and Military Conflict from 1500-2000
(1987)
- The importance of status is vividly illustrated by perhaps the most celebrated summit in
German history
: the meeting at Canossa in 1077 between
Pope Gregory VII
and Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV. In
German
this is known as
der Canossagang
, the journey to Canossa; more aptly in
Italian
as
l’umiliazione di Canossa
, for it was truly a humiliation. In the
Investiture Controversy
?the power struggle between pope and emperor over the right to appoint
bishops
?Henry had renounced Gregory as pope, only to find himself
excommunicated
. This papal edict not only imperilled Henry’s immortal soul, it also laid him open to revolt by the
German
nobility
. He sought a meeting with Gregory who, fearing violence, retreated to the castle of Canossa, in safe territory south of Parma. This forced the emperor to come to him. What exactly happened is shrouded in legend, but supposedly Henry arrived in the depths of
winter
, barefoot and in a
pilgrim
’s hair shirt, only to be kept waiting by Gregory for three days. When he was finally admitted to the castle on January 28, 1077, the emperor knelt before the pope and begged
forgiveness
. He was absolved and the two most powerful figures in
Christendom
then shared the Mass.
- David Reynolds,
Summits: Six Meetings that Changed the Twentieth Century
(2007), p. 14
- The reconciliation was short-lived. After being excommunicated a second time Henry crossed the Alps with his army and replaced Gregory with an “antipope” of his own. But the events themselves matter less than the myth that grew up around them. During the
German Reformation
Henry was lionized as the defender of
national rights
and the scourge of the Catholic pope, often being dubbed “the first
Protestant
.” And during Chancellor
Otto von Bismarck
’s struggle to rein in the
Catholic church
, he famously declared in the Reichstag on May 14, 1872: “We will not go to Canossa, neither in body nor in spirit.” He was voicing the new German Reich’s resolve to accept no outside interference in its affairs?political or religious. As a result Henry IV shivering outside the gates of Canossa became a familiar figure in late-nineteenth-century German art; the phrase “to go to Canossa” (
nach Canossa gehen
) entered the language as a synonym for craven surrender? almost the equivalent of “Munich” to the
British
and
Americans
.
- David Reynolds,
Summits: Six Meetings that Changed the Twentieth Century
(2007), pp. 14-15
- Ce corps qui s'appelait et qui s'appelle encore le saint empire romain n'etait en aucune maniere ni saint, ni romain, ni empire.
- This body which called itself and which still calls itself the Holy Roman Empire was in no way holy, nor Roman, nor an empire.
- Voltaire
,
Essai sur l'histoire generale et sur les mœurs et l'esprit des nations, Chapter 70
(1756)