Table Of Content;
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he Holy Roman Empire
l
Friedrich Heer
TranslatedbyJanet Sondheimer
“The Holy Roman Empire,” remarked Voltaire,
“is neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire.”
Writing in the eighteenth century, he was still
able to refer to it in the present tense. For the
Holy Roman Empire of the West survived for
more than a thousand years after that Christmas
day in the year 800, when Pope Leo III placed a
gold circlet on Charlemagne’s brow, crowning
him “Charles Augustus, great and peace-giving
Emperor ofthe Romans !” Even after Napoleon,
fresh from his victory at Austerlitz, forced
Francis II to divest himself of the Imperial
jovvn. *hp idea of empire remained alive in
•
Central Europe until World War I consigned it
forever to oblivion.
In this splendid survey ofa significant period in
the history of civilization, the noted Austrian
historian Friedrich Heer traces the development
of the Holy Roman Empire from the time of
—
Charlemagne a time when people saw no
break in continuity from the Empire of
—
Augustus through the times ofthe Ottonians
the continuous, shattering conflicts between
popes and emperors and the rise and eventual
;
gracious decline ofthe Habsburgs. Throughout
the millennium of its existence, the Empire
constantly changed, not only in shape and
location but in the very basis of its existence.
Always was beset from without and within by
it
political, religious, and social turmoil.
There were many occasions when peace seemed
to have come: from Verdun in 843, when the
sons ofCharlemagne agreed upon the division of
his lands, and the Empire, falling in the east,
assumed its Germanic character; to Canossa in
1077, when Henry IV, kneeling in the snow,
capitulated to Hildebrand; to Westphalia in
1648, when the devastation of the Thirty Years’
War was ended; to Vienna in 1815, when the
leaders of Europe attempted to put their count-
ries back together after the defeat of Napoleon.
(continued on backflap)
STATE OF VERMONT
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https://archive.org/details/holyromanempireOOheer
THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE
FRIEDRICH HEER
THE
ROMAN
HOLY
EMPIRE
TRANSLATED BY JANET SONDHEIMER
FREDERICK PRAEGER,
A. Publishers
NEW YORK WASHINGTON
*
BOOKS THAT MATTER
Published in the United States of America in 1968
by Frederick A. Praeger, Inc., Publishers
hi Fourth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10003
©
German text 1967, by Friedrich Heer
©
English translation 1968 by George Weidenfeld and Nicolson Ltd.
London, England
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 68-30935
Printed in Great Britain
CONTENTS
P‘W
SACRUM ROMANUM IMPERIUM
1 I
2 THE EMPIRE OF CHARLES THE GREAT 9
THE OTTONIAN EMPIRE 22
3
THE EMPIRE OF THE SALIANS
4 51
SACRUM IMPERIUM: THE EMPIRE AND IMPERIAL
5
IDEOLOGY UNDER THE HOHENSTAUFEN
65
HABSBURG, LUXEMBURG, WITTELSBACH: THE
6
EMPIRE FROM 1273 TO 1438 94
7 THE RISE OF THE HOUSE OF HABSBURG 1 4 3 8—
(
I519) 122
8 THE EMPIRE ON WHICH THE SUN NEVER SET 148
9 THE MADRID—VIENNA AXIS 176
10 FROM THE GREAT WAR TO THE GREAT PEACE I97
11 THE EMPIRE IN THE BAROQUE AGE (1657-1740) 219
12 MARIA THERESA AND JOSEPH II 246
THE UNFINISHED SYMPHONY
13 273
BIBLIOGRAPHY 286
INDEX
299
ILLUSTRATIONS
the empire of Charles the great (between pages 18 and
19)
1 Statue of Charles the Great in St John’s church, Mustair (Grisons), 9th century (Ann
Miinchow)
2 Charles the Great, his son Pepin and a scribe; from Lupus of Fulda’s Leges Barbarorum,
10th-century copy of a Carolingian original, Modena, Archivio Capitolare, Cod. O.
1.2 £154' (Stadtbildstelle Aachen)
3 ‘Charles the Great’s hunting horn’; South Italian oliphant, c. 1000. Aachen, Schatz-
kammer (Ann Miinchow)
4 Aachen Cathedral, the Palatine Chapel (Octagon), 792-805 (Ann Miinchow)
5 Christ in Majesty; from the Lorsch Gospels, Carolingian court school, c. 800. Bucarest,
Biblioteca Centrala de Stat, Codex Aureus, p. 36
6 Throne of Charles the Great in Aachen Cathedral, end 8th century (Ann Miinchow)
7 Byzantine EmpressAriadne; ivory,c. 500. Florence, Museo Nazionale (HirmerFotoarchiv)
8 Cup ofDuke Tassilo ofBavaria, c. 770. Stift Kremsmunster (Toni Schneiders)
9 Louis the Pious; from a contemporary copy ofHrabanus Maurus’ De laudibus S. Crucis,
Fulda, c. 831-40. Vienna, Nationalbibliothek, Cod.652 £3 ' (Bildarchiv der osterreichischen
Nationalbibliothek)
10 Lothar 1 enthroned; from a psalter, c. 840-5. London, British Museum, Add. Ms.
37768 f. 4
11 Charles the Bald enthroned; from the Psalter of Charles the Bald, c. 842-69. Paris,
Bibliotheque Nationale, ms.lat.1152 C/3 (Frangoise Foliot)
'
12 Charles the Fat with his wife; from the Bible of San Callisto, 876-88. Rome, S. Paolo
fuori le Mura, ms.f.i (Archivio Fotografico Gallerie e Musei Vaticani)
13 King David; from the Vivian Bible, c. 850. Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale, ms.lat.i
£215 (Bildarchiv der oNB)
14 Opening of St John’s Gospel; from the Second Bible of Charles the Bald, c. 871.
Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale, ms.lat.2 £387 (Frangoise Foliot)
the ott onian empire (between pages 26 and 2
7)
15 The Holy Lance; acquired by Henry probably in 935. Vienna, Schatzkammer
1
(Kunsthistorisches Museum)
16 Christ in Majesty with Otto r, who carries a model of Magdeburg Cathedral; ivory
plaque from an altar frontal from Magdeburg Cathedral, Milan or Reichenau, 10th
century. New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of George Blumenthal,
1941
vi
