Holy Roman Emperor

For the racehorse, see Holy Roman Emperor (horse).

Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire
Imperial
Quaternion Eagle

Francis II
Details
First monarch	Charlemagne (as Emperor of the Romans)
Last monarch	Francis II (as elected Roman Emperor)
Formation	25 December 800
Abolition	6 August 1806
Appointer	see Coronation of the Holy Roman Emperor

The Holy Roman Emperor (German: Römisch-deutscher Kaiser, Latin: Romanorum Imperator) was the ruler of the Holy Roman Empire. The position evolved into an elected monarchy, but the emperor elect (imperator electus) was until the 15th century required to be crowned by the Pope before assuming the imperial title. The title was held in conjunction with the rule of the Kingdom of Germany and the Kingdom of Italy (Imperial Northern Italy).^[1]^[2]^[3] In theory, the Holy Roman Emperor was primus inter pares (first among equals) among the other Roman Catholic monarchs; in practice, a Holy Roman Emperor was only as strong as his army and alliances made him.

Title

Replicas of the Crown jewels

Further information: Emperor

From the time of Constantine I, i.e., the fourth century A.D., the Roman emperors had, with very few exceptions, taken on a role as promoters and defenders of Christianity. The title of Emperor became defunct in Western Europe after the deposition of Romulus Augustulus in 476 AD; both the title and connection between Emperor and Church continued in the Eastern Roman Empire until 1453 A.D, when it fell to the forces of the Ottoman Empire. In the west, the title of Emperor (Latin: "Imperator") was revived in 800 A.D, which also renewed ideas of imperial–papal cooperation. As the papacy's power grew during the Middle Ages, popes and emperors came into conflict over church administration. The best-known and most bitter conflict was that known as the Investiture Controversy, fought during the 11th century between Henry IV and Pope Gregory VII.

After Charlemagne was crowned Emperor of the Romans (Latin: Imperator Romanorum) by the Pope, his successors maintained the title until the death of Berengar I of Italy in 924. No pope appointed an emperor again until the coronation of Otto the Great in 962. Under Otto and his successors, much of the former Carolingian kingdom of Eastern Francia fell within the boundaries of the Holy Roman Empire. The various German princes elected one of their peers as King of the Germans, after which he would be crowned as emperor by the Pope. After Charles V's coronation, all succeeding emperors were legally emperors-elect due to the lack of papal coronation, but for all practical purposes they were simply called emperors.

The term "sacrum" (i.e. "holy") in connection with the medieval Roman Empire was first used in 1157 under Frederick I Barbarossa.^[4] Charles V was the last Holy Roman Emperor to be crowned by the Pope (1530). The final Holy Roman Emperor-elect, Francis II, abdicated in 1806 during the Napoleonic Wars that saw the Empire's final dissolution.

The standard designation of the Holy Roman Emperor was "August Emperor of the Romans" (Romanorum Imperator Augustus). When Charlemagne was crowned in 800, his was styled as "most serene Augustus, crowned by God, great and pacific emperor, governing the Roman Empire," thus constituting the elements of "Holy" and "Roman" in the imperial title. The word Holy had never been used as part of that title in official documents.^[5]

The word Roman was a reflection of the translatio imperii (transfer of rule) principle that regarded the (Germanic) Holy Roman Emperors as the inheritors of the title of Emperor of the Western Roman Empire, despite the continued existence of the Eastern Roman Empire.

Succession of the Holy Roman Emperors

Holy Roman Emperors of Habsburg dynasty and their families

Successions to the kingship were controlled by a variety of complicated factors. Elections meant the kingship of Germany was only partially hereditary, unlike the kingship of France, although sovereignty frequently remained in a dynasty until there were no more male successors. Some scholars suggest that the task of the elections was really to solve conflicts only when the dynastic rule was unclear, yet the process meant that the prime candidate had to make concessions, by which the voters were kept on side, which were known as Wahlkapitulationen (election capitulations).

The Electoral council was set at seven princes (three archbishops and four secular princes) by the Golden Bull of 1356. It remained so until 1648, when the settlement of the Thirty Years' War required the addition of a new elector to maintain the precarious balance between Protestant and Catholic factions in the Empire. Another elector was added in 1690, and the whole college was reshuffled in 1803, a mere three years before the dissolution of the Empire.

After 1438, the Kings remained in the house of Habsburg and Habsburg-Lorraine, with the brief exception of Charles VII, who was a Wittelsbach. Maximilian I (Emperor 1508–1519) and his successors no longer travelled to Rome to be crowned as Emperor by the Pope. Maximilian therefore named himself Elected Roman Emperor (Erwählter Römischer Kaiser) in 1508 with papal approval. This title was in use by all his uncrowned successors. Of his successors only Charles V, the immediate one, received a papal coronation.

List of emperors

Emperors before Otto the Great

Traditional historiography claimed a continuity between the Carolingian Empire and the Holy Roman Empire. This is rejected by some modern historians, who date the foundation of the Holy Roman Empire to 962. The rulers who were crowned as Emperors in the West before 962 were as follows:

Carolingian dynasty

Name	Life	Coronation	Ceased to be Emperor	Descent from Emperor
Charles I (Charlemagne)	2 April 742 - 28 January 814	25 December 800	28 January 814	Founder of the Holy Roman Empire
Louis I	778 - 20 June 840	1st 11 September 813 ^[6] 2nd 5 October 816	20 June 840	son of Emperor Charles I
Lothair I	795 - 29 September 855	5 April 823	29 September 855	son of Emperor Louis I
Louis II	825 - 12 August 875	1st Easter 850 2nd 18 May 872	12 August 875	son of Emperor Lothair I
Charles II	13 June 823 - 6 October 877	29 December 875	6 October 877	son of Emperor Louis I
Charles III	13 June 839 - 13 January 888	12 February 881	13 January 888	grandson of Emperor Louis I

Guideschi dynasty

Image	Name	Life	Coronation	Ceased to be Emperor	Descent from Emperor	Coin
	Guy	855 - 12 December 894	May 891	12 December 894	great-great grandson of Emperor Charles I	–
	Lambert	880 - 15 October 898	30 April 892	15 October 898	son of Emperor Guy	–

Carolingian dynasty

Image	Name	Life	Coronation	Ceased to be Emperor	Descent from Emperor	Coin
	Arnulph	850 - 8 December 899	22 February 896	8 December 899	nephew of Charles III and great-grandson of Emperor Louis I	–

Bosonid dynasty

Image	Name	Life	Coronation	Ceased to be Emperor	Descent from Emperor	Coin
	Louis III	880 - 28 June 928	22 February 901	21 July 905	grandson of Emperor Louis II	–

Unruoching dynasty

Image	Name	Life	Coronation	Ceased to be Emperor	Descent from Emperor	Coin
	Berengar	845 - 7 April 924	December 915	7 April 924	grandson of Emperor Louis I

There was no emperor in the west between 924 and 962.