Holy Roman Empire
The Holy Roman Empire was a political association of lands in western and central Europe, which is considered to have been founded in 962 by Otto I the Great and dissolved in 1806 by Emperor Francis II. Although some date the beginning of the Holy Roman Empire from the coronation of Charlemagne as Emperor of the Romans in 800, Charlemagne himself more typically used the title King of the Franks.
Despite the German ethnicity of most of its rulers and subjects, the Holy Roman Empire was from its beginnings a multi-ethnic state. Many of its most important noble families and appointed officials were from outside the German-speaking communities. At the height of the empire it contained most of the territory of today's Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and the Czech Republic, as well as eastern France, northern Italy and Poland.
The precise term Holy Roman Empire dates from 1254. The term Roman Empire was used in 1034 to denote the lands under Conrad II, and Holy Empire in 1157. The term Roman Emperor is older and started with Otto II (emperor 973-983). Emperors from Charlemagne to Otto I the Great had simply used the phrase 'Imperator Augustus' ("August Emperor"). The expression Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation appears from the late 15th century, by which time the realm had lost much of its dynamism in Italy, though it was to retain considerable possessions in northern Italy until its end.
The practice of electing the next Emperor to the position of King of the Germans (sometimes during his predecessor's lifetime) became normal during the 12th century. The election was carried out by a few (from the 13th century to the 17th, seven) of the senior rulers of lands within the Empire. In a document known as the Golden Bull (1356) their status was regulated by the Emperor Charles IV, who recognised them as quasi-independent rulers within their own domains. The Bull stipulated that the dignity of Elector (Kurfürst) should be held by the Archbishops of Trier, Mainz and Cologne, the King of Bohemia, the Duke of Saxony, the Margrave of Brandenburg and the Count Palatine of the Rhine (whose lands were known as the Palatinate). These rulers remained the Empire's electors until 1623. Other electors were added subsequently.
The last Holy Roman Emperor Francis II (from 1804, Emperor Francis I of Austria) resigned in 1806. Francis II's family continued to be called Austrian emperors until 1918.
The Holy Roman Empire was famously described by Voltaire as "neither Holy, nor Roman, nor an Empire". In Faust I, in a scene written in 1775, the German writer Goethe has one of the drinkers in Auerbach's Cellar in Leipzig ask "Our Holy Roman Empire, lads, What holds it still together?"