It also notionally housed emerging polities in their own right, such as the Swiss Confederation and the kingdom of Bohemia their relationship with the premodern Reich remains a contentious historiographical issue. In the period c. 1300–1650, the focus of this bibliography, the Empire exhibited important differences from most other realms in Europe, notably in its elective system of monarchical succession, its residual claim to universal authority (to be co-exercised, in theory, with the papacy), and its exceptional fragmentation among increasingly autonomous principalities, bishoprics, lordships, and cities (often called “territories”). Both the 9th-century Carolingian and 10th-century Ottonian realms are contenders, although the Latin term sacrum Romanum imperium did not gain widespread currency until the 13th century. Debates continue about when exactly the “Holy Roman Empire” began. The polity’s name derived from the claims of its rulers-elected as “kings of the Romans” and sometimes subsequently crowned “Roman emperors”-to be successors of Charlemagne and ultimately of antique Rome, and to be the defenders of the Catholic Church and Christendom. Between the High Middle Ages and 1806, much of Central Europe was encompassed by an entity called the Holy Roman Empire ( Heiliges Römisches Reich in the German spoken by most of its inhabitants).
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |