Search Results: Holy Roman Empire

The Holy Roman Empire officially lasted from 962 to 1806. It was one of Europe’s largest medieval and early modern states, but its power base was unstable and continually shifting. The Holy Roman Empire was not a unitary state, but a confederation...

"The Holy Roman Empire was in no way holy, nor Roman, nor an empire," wrote Voltaire, and this interpretation still dominates the popular imagination, so the Holy Roman Empire is treated as a bad joke, a pale parody of the glory of Rome...

In this gallery of four maps we chart the rise and expansion of the Holy Roman Empire, a pivotal period in European history following the decline of the Roman Empire. Emerging from the ashes of Rome's collapse, the Merovingian Dynasty in...

A map in German of central Europe during the time of the Hohenstaufen Emperors, primarily showing the territories of the Holy Roman Empire and the Kingdom of Sicily. The map is a vectorised version of this map from Professor G. Droysens...

Painted illustration of the quaternion eagle of the Holy Roman Empire, created by Jost de Negker in 1510 CE. It depicts the double-headed eagle crest of the Holy Roman Empire (adopted 1433 CE) with the banners of its towns. It became widely...

The Western Roman Empire is the modern-day term for the western half of the Roman Empire after it was divided in two by the emperor Diocletian (r. 284-305 CE) in c. 285/286 CE. The Romans themselves did not use this term. At its height (c...

Map of the Holy Roman Empire depicting its boundaries under the rule of Otto I in 972 CE and Conrad II in 1032 CE.

Map of the Holy Roman Empire depicting its boundaries following the Peace of Westphalia in 1648 CE.

A map illustrating the emergence of the Holy Roman Empire (after the final split of the Eastern and Western Franks in the late 9th century) as a loosely integrated union of German states and cities under the rule of Otto I, driven by tradition...

The Peace of Westphalia, the name given to the multiple treaties, marked the conclusion of the Thirty Years' War. Signed on 24 October 1648, it aimed to secure political autonomy for the multitude of small states that made up the Holy Roman...