The Holy Roman Empire: A Very Short Introduction

Very Short Introductions #569

by Joachim Whaley

Voltaire's description of the Holy Roman Empire as "neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire" is often cited to underline its worthlessness. German historians traditionally despised it because it had allegedly impeded German unification. Since 1945 scholars have been more positive but the empire's history and significance is still largely misunderstood.

In this Very Short Introduction Joachim Whaley outlines the fascinating thousand-year history of the Holy Roman Empire. Founded in 800 on the basis of Charlemagne's Frankish kingdom, its imperial title went to the German monarchy which became established in the ninth and ten centuries. They claimed Charlemagne's legacy, including his role as protector of the papacy and guardian of the Church. Around 1500 the title Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation was adopted. An elective monarchy, the empire gradually developed from a feudal monarchy into a legal system that pacified the territories and cities of German-speaking Europe. By 1519 it had a supreme court and a regional enforcement system ended feuding. Throughout its lifetime, the empire's growth and history was shaped by the major developments in Europe, from the Reformation, to the Thirty Years War, to the French revolutionary wars, which led to Napoleon destroying the empire in 1806. The sense of a common history over a thousand
years and the legal traditions established by the empire have shaped the history of German-speaking Europe ever since. Joachim Whaley analyzes the empire's crucial impact and role in the history of European power and politics, and shows that there has never been a more durable political system in German history.

ABOUT THE The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

Genres: History, Germany, Nonfiction, Academic, Medieval History

176 pages, Paperback

Published October 1, 2018

About the author

Joachim Whaley is Professor of German History and Thought at Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge. His research interests lie in German history, thought and culture from 1500 to the present day. He is the author of Religious Toleration and Social Change in Hamburg, 1529-1819 (1985) and the editor of Mirrors of Mortality: Studies in the Social History of Death (1981; reissued in 2011). He has also published numerous articles, reviews and contributions to handbooks and lexicons of German history and literature. His latest book is the two-volume Germany and the Holy Roman Empire 1493-1806 (2012), which covers virtually every aspect of German history from the reign of Maximilian I to the dissolution of the Reich and appears in the Oxford History of Early Modern Europe series. He is currently writing a history of Austria and German-speaking Europe from the later Middle Ages to the present day.

Joachim Whaley has been a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society since 1984. In 2013 he was awarded a LittD by the University of Cambridge for his books and articles on early modern German history.

Reviews

[Michael Huang · Rating 4 out of 5]

As is often repeated (including in the official blurb), Voltaire once quipped that the HRE is neither holy, nor Roman, nor even an empire. Voltaire’s witticisms aside, this little VSI shows you that actually the HRE is rather holy (or at least religious), quite Roman (at least to themselves), and definitely an empire (more so than the two successor Reichs). The roughly 1000 year history is separately into 5 chapters each covering about 2 centuries with some kind theme for each period:
1. The founding of HRE is the handiwork of Charlemagne. After his sons’ death, civil war broke out. The repeating question of who inherits the throne led to transformations that favor sons over brothers, then sole heir over division among sons. Instead of a family property, the empire is becoming an institution.
2. In the high medieval times, a repeating theme is the struggle of power between the emperor and the pope, leading to a famous story of a penitent, bare feet Henry appearing at the door step of the pope. (So emperors didn’t win. At least not yet.)
3. In the late medieval times, the empire suffered a long decline, but the governance structure matured into some sort of constitution for the empire and individual structures for the electorates and imperial cities.
4. Starting in the 16th c., the religious issue came to the fore. The advent of printing press helped spread Luther’s viewpoints and the popular sentiments. Princes debated about how to handle it. Many wars took place, culminating in the 30-year war. When everyone is tired, the peace treaty finally allowed all 3 religions (Calvinism, Lutheranism, and Catholicism) to co-exist.
5. The war also weakened the empire (France and Sweden all gained territories at the expense of the empire, Switzerland became independent). So much so that by the time Maria Theresa’s husband (Francis) became emperor, he even commissioned a report on whether the imperial title has any use for the Habsburg. The answer was absolutely yes. But soon it may not be up to the emperor — or at least not the HRE emperor. Napoleon finally forced Francis II to dissolve the 1000-year-old empire.

One clear pattern in this history is that of unfinished business. Long before the Lutheran protests, the Hussites had already been protesting in Bohemia. Only that time, they were successfully suppressed by the emperor. The Bohemians weren’t done. They elected a Calvinist king in 1618. That didn’t go well with the emperor (despite that the empire had become gradually more German and less Catholic). And this triggered the 30-year war.

Another case in point. Just because some emperor abdicated doesn’t mean the desire to maintain a German empire is gone. Prussia tried it. And at the end of WWI, the “Germans” wanted it but were denied by the allies, which partly explains the rise of Hitler and the desire to have the 3rd Reich lasting 1000 years.

There are also many interesting tidbits:
• A creation myth is fabricated to suggest that Caesar was met with Roman ingratitude after he conquered German tribes; he thus returned to the Germans who hailed him as a hero and helped him conquer Rome! Therefore the HRE is in some sense the *real* Roman Empire.
• Barbarossa was later somehow venerated as the founder of the German Empire. In reality, he is merely one of the emperors in fighting the pope. In fact, in his crusade, he never reached the Holy Land and drowned in a river in 1190. (Did Hitler know this when he named the invasion of the Soviet Union “Operation Barbarossa”?)

[Jordan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The best possible 127-page treatment of an empire that spanned half a continent and lasted from Charlemagne to Napoleon. This is a lot to bite off, so Whaley primarily focuses on providing a succinct political history of the empire with occasional digressions into social, economic, and especially cultural topics where necessary, e.g. the generations of religious upheaval brought on by the Reformation or the memory of the empire among the German romantics of the years following the empire's dissolution.

Whaley pushes back against popular dismissal of the Holy Roman Empire (and, specifically, against that stupid line from Voltaire that always comes up), and frames the empire as a long-lived and infinitely adaptable institution that could slowly and prudently work through its problems, offering a diverse variety of institutional solutions to protect its subjects. Whaley gives some attention to church and dynastic politics and the complex interplay of the numerous courts, diets, written agreements, and regional institutions like Reichskreise, and tracks the emergence of a distinctly German identity in such a farflung polyglot empire.

It's very well done and Whaley packs in an amazing about of information considering the size of the book. There are two tradeoffs. One is that it helps a lot if you're already familiar with some of what he's talking about, as he must assume for brevity's sake that you know some of who and what he's talking about. For instance, I tracked really closely with the narrative through the early chapters and into the late medieval period and Reformation but lost the thread somewhat in the early modern era, which is decidedly not my period. Second, some truly cataclysmic events had to be severely truncated, so that something as destructive as the Thirty Years' War gets a little more than two pages of treatment.

Counterbalancing those tradeoffs though is Whaley's good, succinct analysis of the empire's strengths (more than people give it credit for) and relative weaknesses (fewer and less debilitating than popularly believed). The epilogue, in which he briefly argues for the influence and memory of the empire down to the present, is very good. There he offers this nutshell summary of the empire:

Nothing can detract . . . from the empire's very real achievements. Its multi-level system of government laid the foundations for an enduring federal system and for the rich regional and cultural variety that developed within it. The multitude of court and urban centres, the ambitions of princes, and the pride of free cities generated extensive patronage in all forms of cultural production.

From an early stage the empire functioned as a peacekeeping system for the centre of Europe and, despite tensions, it developed conflict resolution mechanisms that enabled the small territories to survive alongside the large ones. It was not free of internal conflicts or of civil wars but the restoration of unity was the invariable outcome. It proceeded on the basis of negotiation and compromise rather than violence and civil war. It developed remarkable common legal institutions and an extensive body of law which protected the subjects of the empire. Alongside Switzerland, it was the only European polity which devised a satisfactory lasting solution to the religious divide of the 16th century.

A solid short history with some good, brief analysis. I hesitate to say it'd be a good introduction, per the series title, but it should be a good handbook for readers already passingly familiar with some of the Holy Roman Empire's history.

[Hank Hoeft · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I was in grade school and first became aware of world history, I heard of the “Holy Roman Empire” but never really knew what it was. Encyclopedias—this was ‘way before the the World Wide Web and Wikipedia—didn’t really tell me much, at least not much that I could understand. It was supposed to be the start of the German political state, what Hitler identified as “the First Reich,” but it was begun by Charlemagne, who established a Frankish empire in 800 C.E. It was called “Roman” and many of the people in it were indeed proud to consider themselves the continuation of the thousand-year Roman republic and empire, but eventually its core was the German people, who fought Caesar bitterly and indeed were not conquered by the Romans. It was called an “empire,” but it had no permanent imperial seat; the “emperor” was elected through some arcane Byzantine process and few of them lasted very long; it had no standing army, and the jigsaw puzzle map of the “empire” was comprised of dozens of small polities that seemed to shift constantly and were always at war with each other. Voltaire’s famous observation, which seems to get quoted whenever the Holy Roman Empire is discussed, really was spot on: the Holy Roman Empire was neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire.

Joachim Whaley’s “Very Short Introduction” to this odd—but nonetheless long-lasting, as it hung around in one form or another for about a thousand years—political entity is only 127 pages long (not counting the supplemental pages at the back). But it is long enough to explain about as clearly as one could hope, the convoluted history of what turned out to be the most successful German polity in history. I didn’t even try to keep straight in my head the long march of short-termed “emperors” and kings, but besides listing them all, Professor Whaley also identifies those features of the empire (for example, the empire was largely feudal, but nonetheless chose emperors through election, and while it was called an “empire,” the political states that comprised it zealously guarded their own independence) that had profound influence on European history.

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

fairly dry, and while that's maybe unavoidable given the subject, it often felt a bit too much like a list of dates and names. i'd probably have found it more interesting if it had spent a bit more time talking about the society. it could also have done with a couple more maps.

[Craine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not knowing much about the subject matter beforehand and certainly this is the first dedicated book that I have read dedicated to the Holy Roman Empire I have to admit that I found it both enjoyable and elucidating. The author guides us through the period starting with the conquests of Champagnebar to what many consider as the first holy roman empire emperor namely that of king Otto the great and ending with the dissolution in 1806 through Napoleonic conquests. Interestingly, far from all the emperors were particularly interested in domination through massive conquests as was certainly the case for Charlemagne. Instead, a great emphasis was placed upon obtaining a state of stability between that of the German and Italian landmasses.

Naturally given the very short book in scope taking on such a plethora of information spanning vast centuries throughout its pages its reasonable therefore that a lengthy analysis is not given. Much of the focus is instead placed upon narrative events unfolding where both successes as well as failures are measured. Examples include the strategic brilliancy of Otto the Great, the reunification as well as empire expansion of Frederick II and more minor interesting details such as the diplomacy of the German polyglot Leibniz.

I would have liked to hear more about the relation between that of the HRE and the Ottomans as well as giving more details in the epilogue as to the successes and lasting impact of the HRE. The author mentions for instance that " it was the only polity (alongside Switzerland) which devised a satisfactory lasting solution to the religious divide of the 16th century." Giving the tumultuous relationship between Catholics and protestants I'm not sure how sucessful the HRE was in employing a solution this struggle. Its certainly the case as the author points out that the HRE provided a lasting impact in terms of German politics and that of the development of the federal structure within Germany.

In conclusion: I would read this if you want a light and introductory reading on the HRE, but beware that the book is neither interpretive or analysis heavy. The books greatest strength is therefore in its easy readability and giving narration to a vast set of events unfolding during the HRE.

Note: I don't like the star rating and as such I only rate books based upon one star or five stars corresponding to the in my opinion preferable rating system of thumbs up/down. This later rating system increases in my humble opinion the degree to which the reader is likely to engage with a review instead of merely glancing at the number of stars of a given book.)

[Pete · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Holy Roman Empire : A Very Short Introduction (2018) by Joachin Whaley attempts the almost impossible and does an excellent job trying. Compressing a millennium of history into approximately 150 pages is really hard. Whaley is Professor of German History and thought at Cambridge. He’s also written a multi-volume history of the empire since 1493.

The book does, of course, include Voltaire's quote about the Holy Roman Empire.

There are five chapters, each of which covers roughly 200 years from 800. The book has a dizzying array of names and descriptions of the various issues that the emperors faced. The journey from the empire of Charlemagne to the Habsburgs ruling Spain and the rest of the Empire is remarkable. The decline to the end with Napoleon is also dramatic.

The curious, complex way the empire operated is described in detail. The way that the Emperor did not have absolute power and had to constantly negotiate with various rulers is very well depicted. It was very interesting to see how as soon as printing was invented European leaders were using it for propaganda. The Investiture Quarrel, the Thirty Years War and more are well described.

The Holy Roman Empire : A Very Short Introduction does it’s job remarkably well. It’s well worth a read.

[Elliot · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent overview of holy roman empire for beginners

This book is an excellent short overview of the holy roman empire, prior to reading the book I had some snapshots of certain stages of the empire for example its foundation under Charlemagne but had struggled to gain a clear view of its structure and a basic timeline of its development.

The book is in chronological order and is laser focused on the empire itself, this is great if like me you want to simply be told what the empire actually consisted off, who ruled it and how and why it changed over time.

My only tiny complaint would be that because it is so focused on the empire itself it sometimes takes it for granted that you know what is happening in Europe as a whole, so don't expect any brief expectations of what was happening in Habsburg Spain for example. This wasn't too much of an issue for me but if you were going in with little European history this could be an issue.

[Joshua · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found it to be okay. It's worthwhile reading to get information on the HRE and a general introduction to it. Although I still find myself questioning on what legacy the HRE left behind and I think the author failed to properly show this through the text. Perhaps it was not meant to be a study on the legacy of the HRE but rather an introduction. As a result, you most likely won't get much deep analysis or lasting ideas but mainly a decent introduction to basic history like who the Franks were, how the empire became German and the rise of Prussia.

The writing isn't too captivating but it is not dreadfully boring. The chapters and sub-chapters are short enough. Sure with 160 pages you could probably read it in a week or if you're being slow, two weeks.

[Andy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall, it is a good introduction to the Holy Roman Empire and its nearly millennia of existence. The book could have been more easily understood with additional maps to better show how the ever-shifting groups and borders moved over the centuries. It would have also been helpful to provide a little more context on what else was going on in the other parts of Europe as the impact of outside groups just entered the text without a lot of context.

[Vma · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not my favorite "short introduction," unfortunately, as much of it consisted of a fairly superficial discussion of events in largely sequential order, interspersed with the author's larger (and more interesting) argument (which one suspects he develops more fully in his other work) that the HRE constituted a genuinely "German" polity.

Unfortunately, much of the time I felt myself skimming over accounts of "this guy doing this, followed by that guy doing that."

[Waqar Ahmed · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my third book in the VSI series on ancient Rome and beyond. Although I had set up different expectations for this book and was unaware that the holy Roman empire occupied large parts of modern-day Germany, I was pleased to learn loads of stuff from this concise introduction. I think that this book fulfilled its objective nicely.

[Filip Batselé · Rating 3 out of 5]

An OK introduction to the history of the Holy Roman Empire, an admittedly difficult task to do in 125 pages. Still, I felt that the book was written too much as a political history of the HRE only, to the neglect of cultural, social or economic questions that could have been dealt with more extensively (let alone the life of the common folk in the HRE)

[Eric W · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s difficult to give a star rating to a 130-page book that covers approximately 1000 years of history. It’s generally an ok introduction, I suppose, but if you want to learn anything you’ll need a longer history of the German people.

[Kevin Thomsen · Rating 2 out of 5]

After about 60 pages of famous names and dates, I promised I would give this ★★ or more if there was at least a whole page about what it was like to be a normal person in the HRE

There was exactly one page

[Nathan Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fascinating pithy read that covers 1,000 year of history in 150 pages. A great review of this history that also helped connect many dots for me. However, the book on its own is likely to prove a confusing overview of the empire.

[Grant · Rating 5 out of 5]

Following a chronological approach, Whaley examines the key figures and moments of the empire that, while often derided as a failed state, lasted for a thousand years.

[Nitin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite informative and mostly unbiased book. A bit dry but that's to be expected given that it covers a thousand years in 127 pages.

[Erik · Rating 1 out of 5]

Very academic. Endless names and dates without much narrative.

[Shay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting overview of a complicated and often forgotten major part of European history.

[Caomhghain · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gives an amazing summary of a very complicated and lengthy subject.

[B & A & F · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fairly simple intro of Holy Roman Empire. It helps that I just toured around Germany and the book retrospectively provided some context to the landmarks and sites I visited.

[juli · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was really funny because history is hilarious.

[Christy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I got lost in the weeds often…getting the big picture was hard, but the epilogue helped