![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() The electors were often at odds with the emperor. From the late twelfth century on, however, the emperor was chosen by a special electoral college of “Kurfürsten.” Around the year 1500, the electoral college consisted of four secular princes (the Count Palatinate of the Rhine, the Duke of Saxony, the Margrave of Brandenburg, and the King of Bohemia) and three spiritual electors (the archbishops of Cologne, Mainz, and Trier). Originally, the emperor was elected by all the Imperial princes. The emperor’s powers did not correspond to those of present-day governments central authority was still relatively weak and could not be enforced uniformly. Thus, in terms of its territorial integrity, the Holy Roman Empire differed vastly from a modern nation-state. These individual territories were governed by a myriad of secular and ecclesiastical princes, also by dukes, counts, and other titled and even untitled nobles, whose ranks and possessions went back to the High Middle Ages or earlier. As the map shows, the Empire was divided into numerous duchies, counties, and principalities, as well as Imperial and Free Cities, and bishoprics and archbishoprics. The political division of the Empire into secular and ecclesiastical territories dated back to the early medieval era, but the character of these territories and their relationship to the emperor changed repeatedly over time. The head of the Empire was the Roman king, who also held the title emperor. It included the modern-day European nation-states of Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria, and Slovenia, as well as parts of France, Italy, Denmark, Hungary, and Poland. From the Reformation to the Thirty Years War (1500-1648)Īt the transition from the late Middle Ages to the modern era (i.e., around 1500), the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation comprised all of Central Europe, as well as parts of western, central eastern, and even southern Europe. ![]()
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