Election In The Early Centuries Of The Holy Roman Empire

Many people have heard of the elections of Holy Roman Emperors, but what not everyone knows is that those elections worked differently throughout the empire's lifetime. In this video, we explore the origins of imperial election and how it worked in the early centuries, getting a grasp of what election meant to the people of the time.

Works cited and recommendations for further reading:
-Bagge, Sverre. Kings, Politics, and the Right Order of the World in German Historiography c.950-1150 (Brill, 2002).
-Kannowski, Bernd. "The impact of lineage and family connections on succession in medieval Germany’s elective kingdom." In Making and Breaking the Rules: succession in medieval Europe, c.1000-c.1600, Frédérique Lachaud and Michael Penman, eds. (Brepols, 2008): 13-22.
-Mommsen, Theodor Ernst, Karl Frederick Morrison, trans. Imperial lives and letters of the eleventh century (Columbia University Press, 1962). [contains a translation of Wipo's account of Conrad II's election, amongst other things]
-Reuter, Timothy. Germany in the Early Middle Ages, c.800-1056 (Routledge, 1991).
-Wilson, Peter H. Heart of Europe: a history of the Holy Roman Empire (Harvard University Press, 2016).
-Wolfram, Herwig. Conrad II, 990-1039: emperor of three kingdoms. Denise A. Kaiser, trans. (Penn State University Press, 2006). [If you can read German, I encourage you to read the original instead]

All images used in this video are either my own, in the public domain, under fair use, or under creative commons (whence they shall be credited appropriately)

Outro music: Laid Back Guitars by Kevin MacLeod, CC BY-SA 4.0

#medievalhistory #medieval #middleages #history #educational #germany #germanhistory #mittelalter #holyromanempire #hre #king #empire #europe #europeanhistory #emperor #frenchhistory #kingdomcomedeliverance

[studiumhistoriae]

Yes I am a fan of Kingdom Come: Deliverance, and no I cannot hear the name "Charles IV" without thinking about that intro cinematic

[Sir_Howie]

HRE content is always so fascinating and rarely discussed elsewhere.

[TheYeIIowDucK]

I may be an uneducated lay hobbyist, but I'm beginning to think that to understand the HRE is to understand how premodern/non-state polities tended to work in general. It's also a fun reminder that it took *centuries* for the idea that the Roman Empire is gone to truly sink in, and how intertwined the East Romans/Byzantines were in a lot of west-European history.

[Sean.Cordes]

As a medievalist who particularly loves the period from Charlemagne through about 1300, I absolutely ADORE that you included so many pictures of manuscripts from the Carolingian/Ottonian period.

[jxyzbxt]

I am German and never have heard an American speak about my country's history this eloquently and correctly. This was a great video, you clearly know your stuff very well, good job! :D

[themmeferal]

I would like to add that the Goldene Bulle is more a performative text of who is allowed to serve whom in the gathering...like serving drink and who has to sit next at the table. The actual procedure of the alection is about one third of the text. So I remember at least

[Крэйден_х]

I find the events of the largely fateful but little-known year 1273 very interesting. At that time, Germany and the Holy Roman Empire had been in decline for almost thirty years, starting with the last excommunication of Frederick II of Hohenstaufen, and ending with the presence of two kings at once, both of whom were infinitely far from Germany and did not want to interfere in local feudal squabbles. Then one of these kings, Richard of Cornwall, the younger Henry III of England and Edward Longshanks, died in 1272 and this launched a new series of elections. At that time, the most powerful and successful feudal lord in the Holy Roman Empire was the king of Bohemia, Přemysl Ottokar II, who subjugated most of the Alpine territories from Austria to Friuli. Fearing that such a powerful man could become emperor (and Ottokar clearly had such ambitions), the German feudal lords gathered in Aachen in the autumn of 1273 and elected 55-year-old Rudolf of Habsburg as a counterweight, expecting that this warrior count from Switzerland would turn out to be an obedient puppet. Well... Rudolf defeated Ottokar in a couple of years, completely destroyed all his conquests and then established his dynasty and gave it enough opportunities and power so that in the future they became permanent emperors of Germany, linking the late stage of the Holy Roman Empire with this house.

[carlose]

Could you do a video on how medieval popes were elected?

[fakeplaystore]

The HRE was fine and dandy... until the Shadow Kingdom event triggers.

[josephc]

This is great! The earlier periods of the HRE are so seldom discussed in detail.

[Siegbert]

Maybe you said it and I missed it, but the reason why the electors would always vote unanimously was that allegedly it's not their vote at all but god speaking through them. The kingship was not a democratic one but divine.

[hugodesrosiers-plaisance]

Your narration and delivery are very clear and pleasing to listen to. Not every history channel has this kind of quality.
I've subscribed. ✌️

[johnnzboy]

A new video, what a treat, and what a superb subject. I've genuinely wondered before about the German Kingdom's famous electoral system and history - there are too many prominent Electors (and a few Electresses, shout-out to my girl Sophia) in history for a curious person not to muse on the presumably weighty election which so entitled them ;)

[tashkashka]

Very enlightening, thank you my friend. The consenting to be ruled idea was very mind opening when it comes to this topic.

[sbeaber]

Great video. Really informative on rarely talked about topic

[DrVictorVasconcelos]

I just realized that, as a native Portuguese speaker (Brazil), I can understand a whole lot more of those medieval Latin manuscripts (like at 13:00) if I just stop reading the weird S's as F's 😂

[Pelmenji]

Props for your pronunciation of German locations!

[sepmus]

Some points that seem to stand out but don't get made often:

1) Everyone, then and now, agrees that *someone* has to rule; the interesting question is, who decides and how? What this period shows is a great deal of effort to accomplish this with some amount of reason and, note, consent.

2) Everyone also knew then how often becoming the ruler involved war; again, having some sort of "election" system would seem to be a way to have fewer wars. It may not have worked, but a good objective, no?

3) All this procedure and complexity also seemed aimed at resisting too much concentration of power.

4) Over time, the pressure is always there for consolidating power and for sweeping aside restraints. This seems a constant in history. But I think it's worth noting how, from the modern perspective, the old, patchwork system (which restrained central power) has almost always been viewed negatively, yet the way this "backward" system served to restrain concentrated power is often hidden in how history is recounted, to this day.

5) When we get into the more recent centuries, we have absolutism in monarchy that actually isn't rooted in Christendom at all, but pre-Christian history. And then, of course, that absolutism is ultimately swept away or defanged. How striking the transition from Henry VIII to Charles III!

[canaldojuuj]

what an amazing video !! keep it up, king ☝️💯👑

[karlkarlos]

You mentioned her briefly, but would you consider a more in-depth video about Theophanu, one of the most fascinating female protagonists in early medieval history?