210 years ago, on August 6, 1806, the Holy Roman Empire ceased to exist. The war of the Third Coalition in 1805 dealt a fatal blow to the Holy Roman Empire. The Austrian army was utterly defeated in the battle of Ulm and in the battle of Austerlitz, and Vienna was captured by the French. Emperor Franz II was forced to conclude the Peace of Presburg with France, according to which the emperor not only renounced possessions in Italy, Tyrol, etc. in favor of Napoleon and his satellites, but also recognized the titles of kings for the rulers of Bavaria and Württemberg. This legally removed these states from any authority of the emperor and gave them almost complete sovereignty.
The empire has become a fiction. As Napoleon emphasized in a letter to Talleyrand after the Treaty of Presburg: "There will be no more Reichstag … there will be no more German Empire." A number of German states formed the Confederation of the Rhine under the auspices of Paris. Napoleon I proclaimed himself the true successor of Charlemagne and claimed dominance in Germany and Europe.
On July 22, 1806, the Austrian envoy in Paris received an ultimatum from Napoleon, according to which, if Franz II does not abdicate the empire by August 10, the French army will attack Austria. Austria was not ready for a new war with Napoleon's empire. The rejection of the crown became inevitable. By the beginning of August 1806, having received guarantees from the French envoy that Napoleon would not wear the crown of the Roman emperor, Franz II decided to abdicate. On August 6, 1806, Franz II announced his resignation of the title and powers of the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, explaining this by the impossibility of fulfilling the duties of the emperor after the establishment of the Rhine Union. The Holy Roman Empire ceased to exist.
Coat of arms of the Holy Roman Emperor from the Habsburg dynasty, 1605
Major milestones in the history of the empire
On February 2, 962, in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, the German king Otto I was solemnly crowned with the imperial crown. The coronation ceremony heralded the rebirth of the Roman Empire, to which the epithet Sacred was later added. The capital of the once existed Roman Empire was nicknamed the Eternal City for a reason: for centuries, people thought that Rome had always been and will exist forever. The same was true of the Roman Empire. Although the ancient Roman Empire collapsed under the onslaught of the barbarians, the tradition continued to live on. In addition, not the entire state perished, but only its western part - the Western Roman Empire. The eastern part survived and existed under the name of Byzantium for about a thousand years. The authority of the Byzantine emperor was first recognized in the West, where the so-called "barbarian kingdoms" were created by the Germans. Recognized until the Holy Roman Empire appeared.
In fact, the first attempt at reviving the empire was done by Charlemagne in 800. The empire of Charlemagne was a kind of "European Union-1", which united the main territories of the main states of Europe - France, Germany and Italy. The Holy Roman Empire, a feudal-theocratic state formation, was supposed to continue this tradition.
Charlemagne felt himself to be the heir to the emperors Augustus and Constantine. However, in the eyes of the Basileus rulers of the Byzantine (Romeian) Empire, the true and legitimate heirs of the ancient Roman emperors, he was only a barbarian usurper. Thus arose the "problem of two empires" - the rivalry between Western and Byzantine emperors. There was only one Roman Empire, but two emperors, each of whom claimed the universal character of their power. Charlemagne, immediately after his coronation in 800, used the long and awkward title (soon forgotten) "Charles, His Serene Highness Augustus, the crowned, great and peace-loving emperor, ruler of the Roman Empire." Subsequently, the emperors, from Charlemagne to Otto I, called themselves simply "Emperor Augustus", without any territorial concretization. It was believed that over time, the entire former Roman Empire, and ultimately the whole world, would enter the state.
Otto II is sometimes called "Emperor Augustus of the Romans", and since Otto III this is an indispensable title. The phrase "Roman Empire" as the name of the state began to be used from the middle of the 10th century, and finally took root in 1034. The "Holy Empire" is found in the documents of Emperor Frederick I of Barbarossa. Since 1254, the sources take root in the full designation "Holy Roman Empire", and since 1442 the words "German nation" (Deutscher Nation, lat. Nationis Germanicae) have been added to it - first to distinguish the German lands proper from the "Roman Empire" the whole. The decree of Emperor Frederick III of 1486 on "world peace" refers to the "Roman Empire of the German nation", and the decree of the Cologne Reichstag of 1512 uses the final form "Holy Roman Empire of the German nation", which existed until 1806.
The Carolingian Empire turned out to be short-lived: already in 843, the three grandsons of Charlemagne divided it among themselves. The eldest of the brothers retained the imperial title, which was inherited, but after the collapse of the Carolingian Empire, the prestige of the Western emperor began to fade away uncontrollably until it was completely extinguished. However, nobody canceled the project of unification of the West. After several decades filled with turbulent events, wars and upheavals, the eastern part of the former empire of Charlemagne, the East Frankish kingdom, the future Germany, became the most powerful militarily and politically power in Central and Western Europe. The German king Otto I the Great (936-973), deciding to continue the tradition of Charlemagne, took possession of the Italian (former Lombard) kingdom with its capital in Pavia, and a decade later he got the Pope to crown him with the imperial crown in Rome. Thus, the re-creation of the Western Empire, which existed, constantly changing, until 1806, was one of the most important events in the history of Europe and the world, and had far-reaching and profound consequences.
The Roman Empire became the foundation of the Holy Roman Empire, a Christian theocratic state. Thanks to its inclusion in the sacred history of Christianity, the Roman Empire acquired special sanctification and dignity. They tried to forget her shortcomings. The idea of the world domination of the empire, inherited from Roman antiquity, was closely intertwined with the claims of the Roman throne for supremacy in the Christian world. It was believed that the emperor and the pope, the two highest, called to serve by God himself, the representative of the Empire and the Church, should in agreement rule the Christian world. In turn, the whole world was sooner or later to come under the domination of the "biblical project" led by Rome. One way or another, this same project has defined the entire history of the West and a significant part of world history. Hence the crusades against the Slavs, Balts and Muslims, the creation of huge colonial empires and the millennial confrontation between Western and Russian civilizations.
The power of the emperor, by its very idea, was a universal power oriented towards world domination. However, in reality, the emperors of the Holy Roman Empire ruled only over Germany, most of Italy and Burgundy. But in its inner essence, the Holy Roman Empire was a synthesis of Roman and Germanic elements, which gave birth to a new civilization that tried to become the head of all mankind. From ancient Rome, the papal throne, which became the first "command post" (conceptual center) of Western civilization, inherited the great idea of a world order embracing many peoples in a single spiritual and cultural space.
The Roman imperial idea was characterized by civilizing claims. The expansion of the empire according to Roman ideas meant not just an increase in the sphere of domination of the Romans, but also the spread of Roman culture (later - Christian, European, American, post-Christian popular). The Roman concepts of peace, security and freedom reflected the idea of a higher order, which brings cultural humanity to the domination of the Romans (Europeans, Americans). With this culturally based idea of empire, the Christian idea merged, which completely prevailed after the fall of the Western Roman Empire. The idea of uniting all peoples in the Roman Empire gave birth to the idea of uniting all mankind into a Christian empire. It was about the maximum expansion of the Christian world and its protection from pagans, heretics and infidels who took the place of barbarians.
Two ideas gave the Western empire special resilience and strength. First, the belief that the rule of Rome, being universal, must also be eternal. The centers can change (Rome, London, Washington …), but the empire will remain. Secondly, the connection of the Roman state with the sole ruler - the emperor and the sanctity of the imperial name. From the time of Julius Caesar and Augustus, when the emperor was ordained high priest, his personality became sacred. These two ideas - a world power and a world religion - thanks to the Roman throne, became the basis of the Western project.
The imperial title did not give the kings of Germany great additional powers, although formally they stood above all the royal houses of Europe. The emperors ruled in Germany, using already existing administrative mechanisms, and very little interfered in the affairs of their vassals in Italy, where their main support was the bishops of the Lombard cities. Beginning in 1046, Emperor Henry III received the right to appoint popes, just as he held in his hands the appointment of bishops in the German church. After Henry's death, the struggle with the papal throne continued. Pope Gregory VII affirmed the principle of the superiority of spiritual power over secular power and, within the framework of what went down in history as the "struggle for investiture" that lasted from 1075 to 1122, began an attack on the emperor's right to appoint bishops.
The compromise reached in 1122 did not lead to final clarity on the issue of supremacy in the state and the church, and under Frederick I Barbarossa, the first emperor of the Hohenstaufen dynasty, the struggle between the papal throne and the empire continued. Although now the main reason for the confrontation was the question of the ownership of the Italian lands. Under Frederick, the definition “Sacred” was added to the words “Roman Empire” for the first time. This was the period of the greatest prestige and power of the empire. Frederick and his successors centralized the system of government in their territories, conquered Italian cities, established feudal suzerainty over states outside the empire, and as the German advance to the east extended their influence in this direction as well. In 1194 the Kingdom of Sicily passed to the Hohenstaufens, which led to the complete encirclement of the papal possessions by the lands of the Holy Roman Empire.
The power of the Holy Roman Empire was weakened by the civil war that erupted between the Welfs and the Hohenstaufen after Henry's premature death in 1197. Under Pope Innocent III, Rome dominated Europe until 1216, even having received the right to resolve disputes between applicants for the imperial throne. After the death of Innocent, Frederick II returned the imperial crown to its former greatness, but was forced to leave the German princes to do whatever they liked in their domains. Having left the supremacy in Germany, he focused all his attention on Italy in order to strengthen his position here in the struggle against the papal throne and the cities under the rule of the Guelphs. Soon after the death of Frederick in 1250, the papal throne, with the help of the French, finally defeated the Hohenstaufens. In the period from 1250 to 1312 there were no coronations of emperors.
Nevertheless, the empire existed in one form or another for more than five centuries. The imperial tradition persisted, despite the constantly renewed attempts of the French kings to seize the crown of the emperors in their hands and the attempts of Pope Boniface VIII to belittle the status of imperial power. But the former might of the empire remained in the past. The power of the empire was now limited to Germany alone, since Italy and Burgundy fell away from it. It received a new name - "The Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation." The last ties with the papal throne were interrupted by the end of the 15th century, when German kings made it a rule to accept the title of emperor without going to Rome to receive the crown from the hands of the pope. In Germany itself, the power of the princes-electors was greatly strengthened, and the rights of the emperor were weakened. The principles of election to the German throne were established in 1356 by the Golden Bull of Emperor Charles IV. Seven electors chose the emperor and used their influence to strengthen their own and weaken the central authority. Throughout the 15th century, the princes tried unsuccessfully to reinforce the role of the imperial Reichstag, in which electors, lesser princes and imperial cities were represented, at the expense of the emperor.
From 1438 the imperial crown was in the hands of the Austrian Habsburg dynasty and gradually the Holy Roman Empire became associated with the Austrian Empire. In 1519, King Charles I of Spain was elected Holy Roman Emperor under the name Charles V, uniting Germany, Spain, the Netherlands, the Kingdom of Sicily and Sardinia under his rule. In 1556 Charles abdicated the throne, after which the Spanish crown passed to his son Philip II. Charles's successor as Holy Roman Emperor was his brother Ferdinand I. Charles tried to create a "pan-European empire", which resulted in a series of brutal wars with France, the Ottoman Empire, in Germany itself against Protestants (Lutherans). However, the Reformation destroyed all hopes for the reconstruction and revival of the old empire. Secularized states emerged and religious wars began. Germany split into Catholic and Protestant principalities. The Augsburg religious world of 1555 between the Lutheran and Catholic subjects of the Holy Roman Empire and the Roman king Ferdinand I, acting on behalf of Emperor Charles V, recognized Lutheranism as the official religion and established the right of the imperial estates to choose their religion. The emperor's power became decorative, the meetings of the Reichstag turned into congresses of diplomats busy with trifles, and the empire degenerated into a loose alliance of many small principalities and independent states. Although the core of the Holy Roman Empire is Austria, it retained the status of a great European power for a long time.
Empire of Charles V in 1555
On August 6, 1806, the last emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, Franz II, who had already become Emperor of Austria Franz I in 1804, after a military defeat from France, renounced the crown and thereby put an end to the existence of the empire. By this time, Napoleon had already proclaimed himself the true successor of Charlemagne, and he was supported by many German states. but In one way or another, the idea of a single western empire, which should dominate the world, was preserved (Napoleon's Empire, British Empire, Second and Third Reichs). The United States is currently embodying the idea of an "eternal Rome".
