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The Holy Roman Empire: A Very Short Introduction
The Holy Roman Empire: A Very Short Introduction
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  • Provides a clear overview of the history of the Holy Roman Empire from 800 to 1806, and its legacy for the two centuries since its dissolution.
  • Shows how the empire developed as a German monarchy.
  • Explains why the empire was misrepresented by German historians before 1945.

 
Voltaire's description of the Holy Roman Empire as 'neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire' is often cited to underline its worthlessness. German historians traditionally despised it because it had allegedly impeded German unification. Since 1945 scholars have been more positive but the empire's history and significance is still largely misunderstood.

In this Very Short Introduction Joachim Whaley outlines the fascinating thousand-year history of the Holy Roman Empire. Founded in 800 on the basis of Charlemagne's Frankish kingdom, its imperial title went to the German monarchy which became established in the ninth and ten centuries. They claimed Charlemagne's legacy, including his role as protector of the papacy and guardian of the Church. Around 1500 the title Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation was adopted. An elective monarchy, the empire gradually developed from a feudal monarchy into a legal system that pacified the territories and cities of German-speaking Europe. By 1519 it had a supreme court and a regional enforcement system ended feuding. Throughout its lifetime, the empire's growth and history was shaped by the major developments in Europe, from the Reformation, to the Thirty Years War, to the French revolutionary wars, which led to Napoleon destroying the empire in 1806. The sense of a common history over a thousand years and the legal traditions established by the empire have shaped the history of German-speaking Europe ever since. Joachim Whaley analyses the empire's crucial impact and role in the history of European power and politics, and shows that there has never been a more durable political system in German history. 

Index: 

Introduction - What was the Holy Roman Empire?
1: Roman Empire and German Kingdom: From Charlemagne to the Ottonians
2: The High Medieval Empire: From the Salians to the Hohenstaufen
3: The Later Medieval Empire: The emergence of the Habsburgs
4: The Early Modern Empire (1): From Maximilian I to the Thirty Years War
5: The Early Modern Empire (2): From the Peace of Westphalia to 1806
Conclusion: The Legacy of the Holy Roman Empire
Maps
Chronology
Further Reading
Index

About the author: 

Joachim Whaley, Professor of German History and Thought, University of Cambridge
 
Joachim Whaley was brought up bilingually in English and German. He studied History at Christ's College, Cambridge, has taught at Cambridge since 1976, and is currently a Fellow of Gonville and Caius College. He is the author of several books on religious toleration in early modern Germany and on the Holy Roman Empire in the early modern period, all of which have been translated into German. He has written numerous articles on the religious and intellectual history of the German lands in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. He was elected Fellow of the British Academy in 2015.

"By analysing and narrating the essentials of one of the most complex and long-lived of all European institutions, and moreover doing it lucidly and entertainingly, Whaley has performed something of a miracle." - Tim Blanning, University of Cambridge

"A crisp, authoritative and notably accessible introduction to the Holy Roman Empire, which occupied a central place in Europe's history for an entire millennium before its dissolution in 1806." - Professor Hamish Scott, FBA, Jesus College, Oxford.

Product details

ISBN : 9780198748762

Author: 
Joachim Whaley
Pages
176 Pages
Format
Paperback
Size
111 x 174 mm
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The Holy Roman Empire: A Very Short Introduction

The Holy Roman Empire: A Very Short Introduction

The Holy Roman Empire: A Very Short Introduction