(1) Holy Roman Empire / Germany: Political History and Notable Figures

936 - 1024 - Ottonian Dynasty (All Facts)

936 - 962 - Otto the Great, as King of Germany (All Facts)

• First King and Founder of Germany

  • Crowed King of Germany at Aachen

  • He assumed the throne upon the breakup of the Frankish / Francia Empire due to anarchy, foreign invasion, and rivalries of royal pretenders

  • His rule also represented the reestablishment of a hereditary monarchy in Germany after a period of anarchy and political instability

    • His rule thus led to Germany being ruled by a single ruler and a single dynasty which asserted itself

• To consolidate his own rule, he and his followers defeated Eberhard of Franconia and other rebellious dukes in the Battle of Andernach

  • The rebellion began when the dukes resented his ambitions to rule not just Saxony but all of Germany

  • His approach upset Bavarians, Franconians, and even Saxons

  • His own brother Henry even joined in the rebellion against him

  • He did this, however, to gather and unite the Saxons (Saxony), Franconians (Francia), and Bavarians (Bavaria) into one German Kingdom

• To consolidate his nobles, he and his forces defeated the Magyars once and for all in the Battle of Lechfeld

  • He drove the Magyars out of Germany permanently, where they retreated to Hungary, finally abandoning the raids that caused Germany / East Francia so much damage

• To consolidate his kingdom and eventual empire, he made a shrewd assessment of the political situation in Europe in which he

  • United the Saxons, Franks, and Bavarians into one German Kingdom after the Battle of Andernach

  • Subjugated and conquered the lands of the Eastern Slavs

  • Sought to legitimize his claim to the lands of Lotharingia / Middle Francia (which included Italy, Burgundy, and eastern Gaul at the time) by being crowned emperor in Rome by the Pope, like the previous rulers of the Kingdoms of Lotharingia and Francia

• He invaded and took control of Italy after Adelaide of Burgundy was kidnapped by Berengar (his predecessor Holy Roman Emperor)

  • Adelaide appealed to him, who he rescued and then married

  • He then had the lands in Italy that he took control of from this annexed to his growing kingdom and the eventual territorial Holy Roman Empire

• He invaded and took control of Italy a second time after Pope John XII appealed to him for help against troublemakers in Rome

962 - 973 - Otto the Great, as Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire (All Facts)

• 12th Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire

  • He was initially the King of Germany, and the first Saxon Holy Roman Emperor

  • First Emperor and Founder of the territorial / geographic Holy Roman Empire and First Emperor and Founder of his namesake Dynasty of Germany and of the Holy Roman Empire

  • After an appeal by Pope John XII for aid against King Berengar of Italy, his Holy Roman Emperor predecessor, he invaded Italy a second time and overthrew his Holy Roman Emperor predecessor to become the new Holy Roman Emperor, and by which he was crowned Holy Roman Emperor by Pope John XII in St. Peter’s

  • He did this to legitimize his claim to the lands of Lotharingia / Middle Francia (which included Italy, Burgundy, and eastern Gaul at the time) by being crowned emperor in Rome by the Pope, like the previous rulers of the Kingdoms of Lotharingia and Francia

• He then proceeded to starve Rome into surrender

• He declared that in the future no papal election would be valid until an oath of allegiance to the Holy Roman Emperor had been taken

  • He also determined the outcome of the election of future popes by deposing and exiling Benedict V

  • He did this in order to reinstate his own nomination for the papal throne, Leo VIII

  • After Leo VIII died, he nominated and had elected Leo VIII’s papal successor, John XIII

  • Shortly after this, he was temporarily imprisoned by the Romans who disliked the emperor for his foreign influence on the papacy

  • However, he was soon released and marched on Rome with an enormous army to reinstate John XIII

• His rule proved to be very unpopular, but it laid down the foundations for the Holy Roman Empire and Second Reich of Germany

961 - 983 - Otto II (All Facts)

• 2nd King of Germany and 13th Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire

  • He was nicknamed “The Red”

• He and his forces were defeated by the Fatimid Caliphate in the Battle of Stilo after they had provoked the conflict by calling a Holy War against him and his empire

• He

  • Demanded that Pope Benedict VI, imprisoned by the Roman people after the death of the namesake’s father and predecessor who had installed the pope, be released

  • Installed Pope Benedict VII to replace the Roman-backed antipope Boniface VII

  • Installed Pope John XIV once Pope Benedict VII died, without the consultation of the Roman people

• He suddenly died of malaria and was succeeded by his infant son

983 - 1002 - Otto III (All Facts)

• 3rd King of Germany and 14th Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire

  • As an infant, the empire was ruled by his mother Theophano and his grandmother Adelaide (of Burgundy, also kidnapped by Berengar, King of Italy) as regents, with the help of clerics

  • He was only three when his father and predecessor died

  • His succession was disputed by Henry “The Troublemaker,” Duke of Bavaria, who kidnapped him as an infant

    • Theophano and Adelaide, ruling as regents, forced Henry “The Troublemaker”, Duke of Bavaria, to return the child

  • Under his reign, there was a power struggle between the magnates

  • During this power struggle, the East Slavs took advantage of the turmoil and recovered their independence east of the Elbe River

  • Eventually, at 16 years of age, he was crowned emperor with the dreams of making Rome the capital of a universal empire, at that point in the form of the Holy Roman Empire of Germany and sought to restore the Carolingian Empire of Charlemagne

  • Interestingly, he was a child of both East and West

    • His mother Theophano was the niece of Emperor John Tzimiskes of the Byzantine Empire, showing his Eastern side

    • His father was his predecessor, showing his Western side as a Saxon

    • He was thus half-Byzantine, half-Saxon

  • He was schooled by bishops and described as “the wonder of the world”

  • His visions of grandeur, however, were considered unrealistic, even at the time as his empire, upon his assumption to the throne, lacked an educated ruling class, a bureaucracy, and a network of communication

  • Like his two direct predecessors of the same name, he faced a struggle to impose unity on strong provincial barons who were hostile to notions of a world empire which would diminish their local power

  • He was a strong and able leader who inherited from his predecessor grandfather the capacity to form wide political conceptions

• He helped rebuild / recreate the old “Roman Empire” in the form of the “Holy Roman Empire” by incorporating Germany as well as the Slavic countries under his kingship

• He was responsible for the succession of a number of Popes in the attempt that one would crown him Holy Roman Emperor

  • Pope John XV died before he could crown the namesake

  • He installed his cousin Bruno as Pope Gregory V, but after his installment, a band of disgruntled Roman patricians drove him out of the office and replaced him with antipope John XVI

    • So the namesake marched on Rome and deposed and mutilated antipope John XVI, reinstalling Pope Gregory V, until he died suspiciously shortly afterwards

  • He then installed his former tutor Gerbert, already the Archbishop of Ravenna, as Pope Sylvester II (a name that was chosen to evoke the grandeur of Ancient Rome as Pope Sylvester I baptized Constantine the Great)

• His political restoration of the (Holy) Roman Empire led to a revival of arts and literature

  • Under his reign, classical texts were translated into (High) German

  • The deeds of his namesake dynasty up his reign were chronicled in the “Res Gestae Saxionae,” produced during his reign

  • Under his reign, huge basilicas were built and decorated by artists from the great monasteries

• He established friendly relations with Poland when he went to the Polish city of Gniezno and visited the grave of St. Wojciech

• He settled in Rome, restored its palaces, and struck seals proclaiming “Renovatio Imperii Romani”

  • However, the people of Rome revolted against his interference with papal matters

  • He was besieged in his palace and forced to leave for Paterno

  • Thus, while preparing to retake his capital of Rome at 22 years old, he died of malaria in the town of Paterno in Italy

  • He was buried beside Charlemagne, his hero, whose body he had disinterred so that he could pray before it, a truly romantic feat

1002 - 1024 - Henry II (All Facts)

• 4th King of Germany and 15th Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, the Final King / Emperor of the Ottonian Dynasty

  • He was the son of Henry “The Troublemaker,” Duke of Bavaria

• He responded to the various threats facing his reign and empire by seeking the support of the Church

  • He sought to make the Church servants to the Holy Roman Emperors

  • He granted land and titles to bishops and abbots lavishly to persuade them to submit to the Holy Roman Empire

• He travelled to Rome to have himself crowned Holy Roman Emperor on the steps of St. Peter’s by Pope Benedict VIII

  • The Pope asked him if he would be a faithful defender of the Church, to which he responded in the affirmative

  • The Pope placed in his hand a golden orb surmounted by a cross, symbolic of his rule over the world’s empire

  • After his coronation at Pavia, a quarrel developed between the Germans who accompanied him and the people of Pavia, which grew into a full-scale battle in which much of the city of Pavia was burnt and hundreds of citizens were slaughtered

  • He married Cunigunde, the daughter of the count of Luxembourg

    • He and his wife were admitted into the church and anointed

  • He was pious, well-meaning, but had poor health

  • He was destined for the Church when his predecessor died without children and when the Bavarians and Franks called

  • When Pope Benedict VIII was deposed by antipope Gregory VI, he had Gregory VI deposed and Pope Benedict VIII reinstated

• Upon his assumption to the throne, he faced endless struggles to contain rebellions and feuds by powerful nobles

  • Via concessions and favors, he won the dubious allegiance of Saxons, Lotharingian, Thuringians, and Swabians

  • He also faced multiple wars on every frontier in which

    • Boleslaw of Poland seized lands to his east

      • This conflict began after he invaded Poland with the hopes of recreating the Frankish Carolingian Empire, backed by his German nobles

      • However, he was unable to defeat Boleslaw and Poland was forced to sign the unfavorable treaty, the Peace of Bautzen, in which Boleslaw’s gains were consolidated

    • The Count of Flanders moved to seize Lotharingia

• When he died, the Lombards revolted against Germany and the Holy Roman Empire

1024 - 1125 - Salian Dynasty (All Facts)

1024 - 1039 - Conrad II (All Facts)

• 5th King of Germany and 16th Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, he was the First King and Founder of the Salian Dynasty of Germany and the Holy Roman Empire

  • He marched onto Italy to claim his rightful crown of Lombardy, coming up against stiff opposition from the inhabitants of

    • Pavia, who closed the city gates to his army

    • Ravenna, where his men hacked down people running to safety

  • He ordered survivors of these conflicts to parade before him in hair shirts, barefoot, with unsheathed swords hung around their necks, and to beg for forgiveness

  • He was crowned emperors in the presence of two other crowned heads, Rudolf of Burgundy and Canute the Great of England and Denmark (and Norway) amid imperial pomp and religious infighting

  • During his coronation, two archbishops (of Milan and Ravenna) vied for the honor of leading the king to the altar, exchanging harsh words and even punches in the process outside St. Peter’s

  • He married Queen Gisela

• He incorporated the Kingdom of Burgundy into the Holy Roman Empire upon the death of their heirless King Rudolf III, becoming its first Holy Roman Emperor

• He oversaw the construction and completion of the Speyer Cathedral

1028 - 1056 - Henry III (All Facts)

• 6th King of Germany and 17th Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, he was the 2nd of the Salian Dynasty of Germany and the Holy Roman Empire

• He

  • forced the abdication of Pope Gregory VI on the grounds of simony

  • confirmed the deposition of Pope Sylvester III and Pope Benedict IX

  • had installed Pope Clement II after the depositions and abdications of his corrupt papal predecessors

  • had installed Pope Damasus after he and his Holy Roman forces militaristically drove Pope Benedict IX out of the papal office after ignoring his original deposition against him and serving a third term

• He died at Pfalz Bodfeld

1054 - 1105 - Henry IV (All Facts)

• 7th King of Germany and 18th Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, he was the 3rd of the Salian Dynasty of Germany and the Holy Roman Empire

  • His mother Agnes of Poitou ruled as regent when he assumed the throne at the age of six

• Oversaw the beginning of the “Investiture Controversy” with Pope Gregory VII, the first of many popes to curb and eventually eliminate the Holy Roman Emperors from having the power and authority to appoint bishops, abbots, and popes

  • His reign marked the transition from the Holy Roman Emperors controlling the Popes, to the Popes controlling the Holy Roman Emperors, due in part to Pope Gregory VII’s “Gregorian Reforms” / “Dictatus Papae”

  • In this clash with Pope Gregory VIII, the namesake was the first Holy Roman Emperor to bow down to the authority of the Pope

  • He did this by standing barefoot in the snow for three days, penitent in sackcloth, at the gate of the Castle of Canossa in the Alps

  • As a result, Pope Gregory VII, the pope at the time, chose to pardon him and withdraw the excommunication order imposed on him

  • This all came after Pope Gregory VII’s decisions via his “Gregorian Reforms” / “Dictatus Papae” which caused a clear power struggle between the papacy and the Holy Roman Empire, since the Pope sought to elevate the papacy’s power and authority above the Holy Roman Empire’s through the Pope’s reforms and philosophy

  • Thus, he engaged in a difficult power struggle with Pope Gregory VII

  • He rebelled against the pope by persuading his German bishops to renounce their obedience to the pope in the 1076 Synod of Worms

  • Pope Gregory VII responded to this by releasing the Pope’s German subjects from their allegiance to the Holy Roman Emperor, which had already been unhappy about the increase in the Holy Roman Emperor’s power since the defeat of the Saxons and territorial establishment of the Holy Roman Empire

  • This got the German nobles under him to eventually force him to submit to the pope

  • However, he eventually decided to bow down to his authority after he had released the German nobles from their authority to Henry IV

  • After all this, his power struggle with Pope Gregory VII continued

    • After he dealt with his rivals in Germany, he besieged, and conquered a part of Rome as a part of his attack on Pope Gregory VII

    • However, Pope Gregory VII held out in the Castel Sant’Angelo until he was rescued by Robert Guiscard and the Normans

    • When he realized he was outnumbered by the Norman invaders, he fled from Rome and took his antipope Clement III with him

• Oversaw the expansion of the Speyer Cathedral, making it the tallest in Europe at 107 feet

• Defeated his rebellious son Henry V, but was refused a proper burial by Pope Paschal lI, who had him excommunicated

• He died at Liege

1099 - 1125 - Henry V (All Facts)

• 8th King of Germany and 19th Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, he was the 4th and Final King and Emperor of the Salian Dynasty of Germany and the Holy Roman Empire

• He presided over the Concordant of Worms, in which he made a compromise with Pope Callixtus II which ended the “Investiture Controversy” between the Roman Catholic Church and the Holy Roman Empire

• Died without an heir, leading to a civil war within the Holy Roman Empire

1125 - 1137 - Lothair III (All Facts)

• 9th King of Germany and 20th Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, he was the sole ruler of the Supplinburg Dynasty

  • He was formerly of Saxony

  • He was crowned Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Innocent II

  • Upon his assumption to the throne, civil war ensued within the Empire

1138 - 1152 - Conrad III (All Facts)

• 10th King of Germany and First King and Founder of the Hohenstaufen Dynasty, as he was the brother of Frederick Hohenstaufen

  • When he seized Saxony and Bavaria, civil war ensued

• He led the Christian Crusaders in the Second Crusade along with King Louis VII of France

1152 - 1190 - Frederick Barbarossa (All Facts)

• 21st Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, 11th King of Germany, First Emperor and Founder of the Hohenstaufen Dynasty of the Holy Roman Empire and 2nd King of the Hohenstaufen Dynasty of Germany

  • He was the nephew of his predecessor

  • When he was chosen as emperor, he united the two factions of the empire that emerged after the death of Holy Roman Emperor Henry V

  • He was crowned by Pope Hadrian IV

    • However, their relations soured when the namesake refused what he regarded as an act of vassalage, involving the comedic tradition in which the kind held the stirrups on the pope’s horse for as far as he could throw a stone as a mark of respect for the head of the church; and in turn Pope Hadrian IV refused to give the namesake the traditional papal kiss of peace

    • However, he eventually gave in and duly led the namesake pope for a short distance and holding his stirrup

    • Upon his coronation,

      • Rome rebelled against him after their delegation said that they would accept him as Emperor for 15K pounds of silver, which he proceeded to refuse

        • When he arrived at Rome he found the gates of the city closed to him, so he had to trick his way into the Vatican in which a troop of soldiers entered the city by a secret gate and occupied St. Peter’s Basilica

      • His imperial coronation took place on a Saturday instead of a Sunday, with the soldiers in the congregation whispering their joy rather than shouting it and letting the Romans know what was going on

      • However, news got out of what was happening and a riot ensued

• Upon his coronation, the Romans revolted and crowds streamed across the Tiber River, killing two German guards on St. Peter’s bridge

  • As a result, he ordered his army to hack their way out of Rome, killing more than 1,000 Romans

• He

  • signed a charter for the University of Bologna, which secured its privileges from the namesake

• He

  • led the siege of Crema, in which he

    • sought to end Crema’s status as one of the many powerful independent Italian city-states

    • cruelly ordered

      • prisoners, including children, to be tired to huge siege machines and hurled at the walls of Crema

      • the heads of decapitated prisoners to be thrown around by his troops

      • the mass hanging of prisoners, only to see his own soldiers swinging from gallows as a result

      • child hostages to be brought to the front line

      • his troops to raze the city of Crema to the ground after it had opened its gates

  • seized and destroyed Milan; its inhabitants were dispersed between four villages

  • seized Rome, forcing Pope Alexander III to flee

  • helped assemble troops for the Third Crusade along with Henry II of England and Philip Augustus of France

• He organized the Third Crusade on the orders of Pope Gregory VIII in which he

  • helped assemble troops for the Third Crusade along with Henry II of England and Philip Augustus of France

  • fought in the Third Crusade and died as he would have wished, on the battlefield on a crusade to save the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem

    • During the Third Crusade, his army had been harried by Turkish tribesmen and suffered badly from hunger and intense heat from the moment they left the Dardanelles straits

• He

  • long sought to establish his antipope Victor IV over Pope Alexander III himself, or the antipope successor to Victor IV, Paschal III

    • He sought support from King Henry II of England and King Louis VII of France

    • He succeeded in driving Pope Alexander III into exile in Sicily, although he failed in his attempt to win a decisive victory over his forces in Italy

  • was defeated by the Lombard League in the Battle of Legnano, in which he concluded the terms of the peace treaty at Agnani with Pope Alexander III of whom he kissed the feet to symbolize his acceptance of and submission to papal authority as thousands watched him do so in St. Mark’s Square

• He

  • once said that “you men of Rome make large demands on our emptied treasury”

• He died on the battlefield of the Third Crusade where he was eventually drowned as his body was found on a river bank as a result

  • His men believed he was thrown from his horse and sunk by his weighty armor

  • His army approached the port of Seleucia, nearly exhausted after crossing the Taurus mountains, when he died

  • After he died, his demoralized commanders turned back around, thus the Third Crusade failed

1191 - 1197 - Henry VI (All Facts)

• 22nd Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, 12th King of Germany, 2nd Emperor of the Hohenstaufen Dynasty, and 3rd King of the Hohenstaufen Dynasty

  • He was crowned Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Celestine III at Palermo

• He granted wide concessions to win Pope Celestine III’s cooperation in the preservation of the union of the Holy Roman Empire with the Kingdom of Sicily

• He imprisoned Richard Lionheart of England after the Third Crusade and demanded a ransom from England of 150K gold for his release, most of which he secured

  • He was threatened to be excommunicated by Pope Celestine III for this act

• He died at Messina

1198 - 1208 - Philip of Swabia (All Facts)

• King of Germany during the reign of Otto IV, who fought with him over the throne until the namesake’s assassination

• Usurper of the Hohenstaufen Dynasty from his own dynasty

1198 - 1215 - Otto IV (All Facts)

• 23rd Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, 13th King of Germany, and sole ruler of the Welf Dynasty

  • Upon his assumption to the throne, he fought over the throne with Philip of Swabia, the typical Hohenstaufen successor and civil war ensued

  • He was eventually recognized and crowned as emperor by Pope Innocent III after the murder of his rival Philip of Swabia

1212 - 1250 - Frederick II (All Facts)

• 24th Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, 14th King of Germany, and 3rd King of the Hohenstaufen Dynasty

  • He was crowned with papal backing by Pope Innocent III

  • He was officially crowned by Pope Honorius III after he promised to go to the aid of the Fifth Crusade

    • However, he was excommunicated twice by Pope Honorius III for his delayed crusading

      • The first time he vowed to fight for the Holy Land, he did not succeed in getting away as expected

      • The second time he vowed to fight for the Holy Land, he said he would be ready to sail, but then got distracted by domestic problems and the Mongol invasions

        • This was the first time was excommunicated by Pope Gregory IX

      • The third time he set a date to fight for the Holy Land, his troops did indeed sail from Brindisi but went without him for he was unwell in Otranto and without him, many of his troops were demoralized

        • This was the second time he was excommunicated by Pope Gregory IX, for crusading while excommunicated

      • When he did eventually arrive in Jerusalem for the Sixth Crusade, having arrived in the Christian port of Acre, he did not have much of an army with him

  • As King of Germany, he paid little to no attention to it, leaving it instead in the hands of the nobles, and thus led to it a period of political instability

    • He instead concentrated on the reorganization of Sicily and northern Italy, which led the Vatican to suspect that it was his potential target in the middle

• His delayed efforts to fight in the Fifth and Sixth Crusades were explained by his clandestine diplomatic contact with the Ayyubid Sultan Al-Kamil, in which he tried to negotiate with the “infidel” to organize a bloodless coup

  • He had Al-Kamil and the Ayyubid Sultanate sign the Treaty of Jaffa to end the Sixth Crusade, resulting in a bloodless coup, a novelty in the history of the Crusades, whose protagonists usually preferred to do things the hard way

• He experienced significant disgrace for his choice to negotiate with Al-Kamil and the Ayyubid Sultanate that culminated in the Treaty of Jaffa

  • He was publicly denounced as the Antichrist

  • He was excommunicated a third time for dealing with an infidel

• Under his reign

  • His son and vice-regent of the Holy Roman Empire Henry revolts against him and makes an alliance with the Lombard League

  • He then had his son and vice-regent Henry deposed and imprisoned

  • He then defeated the armies of the Lombard League

  • The University of Padua was founded

  • The University of Rome was founded

• He and his forces fought against and defeated Pope Gregory IX and the Papacy in the War of the Keys

• In the (First) Council of Lyon, he was condemned, deposed, and found guilty of sacrilege and suspected of heresy, and a crusade was called against him as a result by Pope Innocent IV

• He was a scholarly king with a scientific curiosity and a serious student of natural science

  • He wrote a treatise on falconry that is a model of natural history for its combined learning and observation

  • In one experiment he conducted, he raised children in silence in an effort to discover what language was spoken by Adam and Eve

    • This, of course, was extremely cruel to those children

• He died at Castel Fiorentino near Lucera

  • There were sighs of relief throughout the Vatican afterwards given how much they had to excommunicate him

• After his deposition, there was an interregnum of nearly 30 years

  • He thus left his heirs the task of sorting out a chaotic Europe

  • Following his death, rebellions broke out in northern Italy against the feudal lords there

1246 - 1247 - Henry Raspe (All Facts)

• 15th King of Germany and First King of the House of Thuringia

  • The landgrave of Thuringia, he was elected anti-king by the Rhenish prelates

• He and his forces defeated Conrad IV, the son of the namesake’s predecessor and rightful heir to the throne in the Battle of Nidda

  • He was supported by Pope Innocent IV

1237 - 1254 - Conrad IV (All Facts)

• 15th King of Germany and 4th King of the Hohenstaufen Dynasty

• He and his forces were defeated by Henry Raspe in the Battle of Nidda

• Under his reign,

  • The University of Siena was founded

1247 - 1256 - William of Holland (All Facts)

• 16th King of Germany and 1st of the House of Holland

  • He was elected anti-king by the Rhenish prelates