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Holy Roman Empire: A Visual History

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Visual history of an empire

A thousand years of emperors, electors, prince-bishops and free cities in the middle of Europe: neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire, said Voltaire.

Existed
800 to 1806
Duration
1,006 years
Existed
800 (or 962) to 1806
Peak area
About 1 million km2 (1050)
Peak population
About 25 million (1700)
Constituent states
About 300 by 1648, over 1,800 including imperial knights
Longest dynasty
Habsburgs, 1438 to 1740 and 1765 to 1806

The Holy Roman Empire began with Charlemagne's coronation in 800 or, in its lasting form, Otto I's in 962, and lasted until Francis II dissolved it under Napoleon's pressure in 1806. It covered Germany, Austria, Bohemia, the Low Countries, Switzerland and northern Italy at various times, but after the medieval struggles with the papacy and the Golden Bull of 1356 it was an elective monarchy over hundreds of nearly sovereign principalities and cities. The Habsburgs held the title almost continuously from 1438. The Reformation, the Thirty Years' War and the Peace of Westphalia (1648) confirmed its fragmentation.

When it existed: the era ribbon

The bold bar is Holy Roman Empire. The lighter bars are empires and wars from the same era and the same part of the world. Click any bar to jump to its page.

400600800100012001400160018002000Holy Roman Empire (800 to 1806)Open: Francia (Frankish kingdoms)Francia (Frankish kingdoms) (481 to 843)Open: Kingdom of France (Middle Ages)Kingdom of France (Middle Ages) (987 to 1498)Open: CrusadesCrusades (1096 to 1291)Open: Ottoman EmpireOttoman Empire (1299 to 1922)Open: Spanish EmpireSpanish Empire (1492 to 1976)Open: Polish-Lithuanian CommonwealthPolish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (1569 to 1795)Open: Thirty Years' WarThirty Years' War (1618 to 1648)Open: War of the Spanish SuccessionWar of the Spanish Succession (1701 to 1714)Open: War of the Austrian SuccessionWar of the Austrian Succession (1740 to 1748)Open: Seven Years' WarSeven Years' War (1756 to 1763)Open: French Revolutionary and Napoleonic WarsFrench Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars (1792 to 1815)Open: Napoleonic (First French) EmpireNapoleonic (First French) Empire (1804 to 1815)Open: Austro-Hungarian EmpireAustro-Hungarian Empire (1867 to 1918)

Territory of the empire

Nominal extent; the emperor's real authority within it varied enormously.

00.250.50.751962: 0.71050: 11250: 0.91500: 0.71648: 0.61806: 0.5100011001200130014001500160017001800million km2 (approximate)

Timeline of the Holy Roman Empire

  1. 800
    Charlemagne crowned emperor
  2. 962
    Otto I crownedThe empire's conventional start.
  3. 1077
    Canossa
  4. 1250
    Frederick II diesThe Great Interregnum.
  5. 1356
    Golden Bull
  6. 1438
    Habsburgs hold the title
  7. 1521
    Diet of WormsLuther before Charles V.
  8. 1648
    Peace of Westphalia
  9. 1806
    Francis II abdicatesThe empire dissolved.

Ottonians and Salians

Otto I, king of East Francia, defeated the Magyars at Lechfeld in 955 and was crowned emperor by the Pope in 962, reviving Charlemagne's title. The Ottonian and Salian emperors ruled through bishops they appointed, until Pope Gregory VII challenged this in the Investiture Controversy; Henry IV knelt in the snow at Canossa in 1077. The Concordat of Worms (1122) compromised, but the emperors' hold on Germany weakened.

Hohenstaufen and the Golden Bull

Frederick Barbarossa (1152-1190) fought the Lombard cities and the papacy and drowned on the Third Crusade; Frederick II, 'wonder of the world', ruled from Sicily and left the German princes free. After the Interregnum, Rudolf of Habsburg's election in 1273 began that family's rise. Charles IV's Golden Bull of 1356 fixed seven prince-electors and made the empire formally an elective, decentralised body.

Reformation to dissolution

Charles V (1519-1556) ruled Spain, the Netherlands and the empire but could not crush Luther; the Peace of Augsburg (1555) let princes choose their state's religion. The Thirty Years' War killed a third of Germany's population; Westphalia in 1648 gave the states near-sovereignty. The empire survived as a legal and ceremonial framework, with an imperial diet at Regensburg, until Napoleon's victories; Francis II abdicated on 6 August 1806, keeping his new title of Emperor of Austria.

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8 surprising things about the Holy Roman Empire

  1. Voltaire's line that it was 'neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire' dates from 1756.
  2. The empire had no capital; emperors were crowned at Aachen and later Frankfurt and the diet met at Regensburg.
  3. The 'Holy' was added by Frederick Barbarossa's chancery in 1157; 'of the German Nation' was appended in the fifteenth century.
  4. In 1500 the empire contained about 300 states plus some 1,500 imperial knights with tiny territories.
  5. The Habsburg emperor Charles V spoke Spanish to God, Italian to women, French to men and German to his horse, according to a probably apocryphal quote.
  6. Napoleon's creation of the Confederation of the Rhine in 1806 prompted the dissolution; Francis II feared Napoleon might claim the title.
  7. The Imperial Regalia, including a crown from about 962, are in Vienna's Hofburg.
  8. The Second and Third Reichs took their numbering from the Holy Roman Empire as the First.

Sources

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