The Kingdom of Germany or German Kingdom ( la, regnum Teutonicorum "kingdom of the Germans", "German kingdom", "kingdom of Germany") was the mostly Germanic-speaking

East Frankish kingdom East Francia (Medieval Latin: ) or the Kingdom of the East Franks () was a successor state of Charlemagne's Carolingian Empire, empire ruled by the Carolingian dynasty until 911. It was created through the Treaty of Verdun (843) which divided t ...

, which was formed by the

Treaty of Verdun The Treaty of Verdun (), agreed in , divided the Frankish Empire into three kingdoms among the surviving sons of the emperor Louis I, the son and successor of Charlemagne. The treaty was concluded following almost three years of civil war and ...

in 843, especially after the kingship passed from Frankish kings to the Saxon

Ottonian The Ottonian dynasty (german: Ottonen) was a Saxon dynasty of German monarchs (919–1024), named after three of its kings and Holy Roman Emperors named Otto, especially its first Emperor Otto I. It is also known as the Saxon dynasty after the ...

dynasty in 919. The king was elected, initially by the rulers of the stem duchies, who generally chose one of their own. After 962, when Otto I was crowned emperor, East Francia formed the bulk of the

Holy Roman Empire The Holy Roman Empire was a political entity in Western, Central, and Southern Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its dissolution in 1806 during the Napoleonic Wars. From the accession of Otto I in 962 ...

, which also included the Kingdom of Italy and, after 1032, the

Kingdom of Burgundy Kingdom of Burgundy was a name given to various states located in Western Europe during the Middle Ages. The historical Burgundy correlates with the border area of France, Italy and Switzerland and includes the major modern cities of Geneva and ...

. Like

medieval England England in the Middle Ages concerns the history of England during the medieval period, from the end of the 5th century through to the start of the Early Modern period in 1485. When England emerged from the collapse of the Roman Empire, the econ ...

and medieval France,

medieval Germany The Germani tribes i.e. Germanic tribes are now considered to be related to the Jastorf culture before expanding and interacting with the other peoples. The concept of a region for Germanic tribes is traced to time of Julius Caesar, a Roman ge ...

consolidated from a conglomerate of smaller tribes, nations or polities by the

High Middle Ages The High Middle Ages, or High Medieval Period, was the period of European history that lasted from AD 1000 to 1300. The High Middle Ages were preceded by the Early Middle Ages and were followed by the Late Middle Ages, which ended around AD 150 ...

. The term ''rex teutonicorum'' (" king of the Germans") first came into use in Italy around the year 1000. It was popularized by the chancery of Pope Gregory VII during the Investiture Controversy (late 11th century), perhaps as a

polemical Polemic () is contentious rhetoric intended to support a specific position by forthright claims and to undermine the opposing position. The practice of such argumentation is called ''polemics'', which are seen in arguments on controversial topics ...

tool against Emperor Henry IV. In the twelfth century, in order to stress the imperial and transnational character of their office, the emperors began to employ the title ''rex Romanorum'' ( king of the Romans) on their election. The Archbishop of Mainz was ''ex officio'' arch-chancellor of Germany, as his colleagues the Archbishop of Cologne and

Archbishop of Trier The Diocese of Trier, in English historically also known as ''Treves'' (IPA "tɾivz") from French ''Trèves'', is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic church in Germany. Reigns were either dated from the day a ruler was elected king ( Philip of Swabia,

Rudolf of Habsburg Rudolf I (1 May 1218 – 15 July 1291) was the first King of Germany from the House of Habsburg. The first of the count-kings of Germany, he reigned from 1273 until his death. Rudolf's election marked the end of the Great Interregnum whic ...

) or crowned king (

Otto IV Otto IV (1175 – 19 May 1218) was the Holy Roman Emperor from 1209 until his death in 1218. Otto spent most of his early life in England and France. He was a follower of his uncle Richard the Lionheart, who made him Count of Poitou in 119 ...

, Henry VII, Louis IV, Charles IV). The election day became the starting date permanently with Sigismund. Throughout the Middle Ages, the King of Germany was known as "King of the Romans" from his election as king until the Pope crowned him Emperor in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

Background

Carolingian East Francia, 843–911

The tripartite division of the Carolingian Empire effected by the Treaty of Verdun was challenged very early on with the death of the

Emperor Lothair I Lothair I or Lothar I (Dutch and Medieval Latin: ''Lotharius''; German: ''Lothar''; French: ''Lothaire''; Italian: ''Lotario'') (795 – 29 September 855) was emperor (817–855, co-ruling with his father until 840), and the governor of Bavar ...

in 855. He had divided his kingdom of

Middle Francia Middle Francia ( la, Francia media) was a short-lived Frankish kingdom which was created in 843 by the Treaty of Verdun after an intermittent civil war between the grandsons of Charlemagne resulted in division of the united empire. Middle Franc ...

between his three sons and immediately the northernmost of the three divisions,

Lotharingia Lotharingia ( la, regnum Lotharii regnum Lothariense Lotharingia; french: Lotharingie; german: Reich des Lothar Lotharingien Mittelreich; nl, Lotharingen) was a short-lived medieval successor kingdom of the Carolingian Empire. As a more durable ...

, was disputed between the kings of East and West Francia. The war over Lotharingia lasted until 925. Lothair II of Lotharingia died in 869 and the 870

Treaty of Meerssen The Treaty of Mersen or Meerssen, concluded on 8 August 870, was a treaty to partition the realm of Lothair II, known as Lotharingia, by his uncles Louis the German of East Francia and Charles the Bald of West Francia, the two surviving sons of ...

divided his kingdom between East and West Francia, but the West Frankish sovereigns relinquished their rightful portion to East Francia by the

Treaty of Ribemont , Participants = Louis the Younger, Louis III of France, Carloman II , Location = Ribemont , Date = 880 , Result = All of Lotharingia given to East Francia The Treaty of Ribemont in 880 was the last treaty on th ...

in 880. Ribemont determined the border between France and Germany until the fourteenth century. The Lotharingian nobility tried to preserve their independence of East or West Frankish rule by switching allegiance at will with the death of king Louis the Child in 911, but in 925 Lotharingia was finally ceded to East Francia by Rudolph of West Francia and it thereafter formed the

Duchy of Lorraine The Duchy of Lorraine (french: Lorraine ; german: Lothringen ), originally Upper Lorraine, was a duchy now included in the larger present-day region of Lorraine in northeastern France. Its capital was Nancy. It was founded in 959 following th ...

within the East Frankish kingdom. Louis the German was known at the time as ''"Rex Germaniae"'' (King of Germany) as his brother was called King of Gaul. This was meant to distinguish the different parts of a theoretically single Frankish kingdom, although it is not known if this was meant to signify anything further. East Francia was itself divided into three parts at the death of Louis the German (875). Traditionally referred to as "Saxony", "Bavaria", and "Swabia" (or "Alemannia"), these kingdoms were ruled by the three sons of Louis in cooperation and were reunited by

Charles the Fat Charles III (839 – 13 January 888), also known as Charles the Fat, was the emperor of the Carolingian Empire from 881 to 888. A member of the Carolingian dynasty, Charles was the youngest son of Louis the German and Hemma, and a great-grandso ...

in 882. Regional differences existed between the peoples of the different regions of the kingdom and each region could be readily described by contemporaries as a ''regnum'', though each was certainly not a kingdom of its own. The common

Germanic language The Germanic languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family spoken natively by a population of about 515 million people mainly in Europe, North America, Oceania and Southern Africa. The most widely spoken Germanic language, E ...

and the tradition of common rule dating to 843 preserved political ties between the different ''regna'' and prevented the kingdom from coming apart after the death of Charles the Fat. The work of Louis the German to maintain his kingdom and give it a strong royal government also went a long way to creating an East Frankish (i.e. German) state.

Stem duchies

Within East Francia were large duchies, sometimes called kingdoms (''regna'') after their former status, which had a certain level of internal solidarity. Early among these were Saxony and

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

, which had been conquered by

Charlemagne Charlemagne ( , ) or Charles the Great ( la, Carolus Magnus; german: Karl der Große; 2 April 747 – 28 January 814), a member of the Carolingian dynasty, was King of the Franks from 768, King of the Lombards from 774, and the first ...

.Reynolds, ''Kingdoms and Communities'', pp. 290–91. In German historiography they are called the ''jüngere Stammesherzogtümer'', or "younger stem duchies",glossed as "more recent tribal duchies" in Patrick J. Geary, ''Phantoms of Remembrance: Memory and Oblivion at the End of the First Millennium'' (Princeont, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1994), p. 44. The conventional five "younger stem duchies" of the Holy Roman Empire are Saxony,

, Franconia, Swabia and

Thuringia Thuringia (; german: Thüringen ), officially the Free State of Thuringia ( ), is a state of central Germany, covering , the sixth smallest of the sixteen German states. It has a population of about 2.1 million. Erfurt is the capital and lar ...

, while one of the "old stem duchies", is not counted among the young stem duchies because it had been absorbed into Saxony in 908, before the foundation of the Holy Roman Empire. The conventional term "younger" serves to distinguish them from the (poorly documented) duchies under the Merovingian monarchs.

Herwig Wolfram Herwig Wolfram (born 14 February 1934) is an Austrian historian who is Professor Emeritus of Medieval History and Auxiliary Sciences of History at the University of Vienna and the former Director of the . He is a leading member of the Vienna Sc ...

(1971) denied any real distinction between older and younger stem duchies, or between the stem duchies of Germany and similar territorial principalities in other parts of the Carolingian empire:

I am attempting to refute the whole hallowed doctrine of the difference between the beginnings of the West-Frankish, "French", ''principautés territoriales'', and the East-Frankish, "German," stem-duchies ... Certainly, their names had already appeared during the Migrations. Yet, their political institutional, and biological structures had more often than not thoroughly changed. I have, moreover, refuted the basic difference between the so-called ''älteres Stammesfürstentum'' lder tribal principalityand ''jüngeres Stammesfürstentum'' ounger tribal principality since I consider the duchies before and after Charlemagne to have been basically the same Frankish institution ...

There has been debate in modern German historiography over the sense in which these duchies were "tribal", as in a people sharing a common descent ("stem"), being governed as units over long periods of time, sharing a tribal sense of solidarity, shared customs, etc. In the context of modern German nationalism, Gerd Tellenbach (1939) emphasised the role of feudalism, both of the kings in the formation of the German kingdom and of the dukes in the formation of the stem duchies, against Martin Lintzel and

Walter Schlesinger Walter Schlesinger (April 28, 1908, Glauchau – June 10, 1984, Weimar-Wolfshausen, near Marburg) was a German historian of medieval social and economic institutions, particularly in the context of German regional history ("Landesgeschichte"). Sch ...

, who emphasised the role of the individual "stems" or "tribes" (''Stämme''). The existence of a "tribal" self-designation among

Saxons The Saxons ( la, Saxones, german: Sachsen, ang, Seaxan, osx, Sahson, nds, Sassen, nl, Saksen) were a group of Germanic * * * * peoples whose name was given in the early Middle Ages to a large country (Old Saxony, la, Saxonia) near the Nor ...

and Bavarians can be asserted for the 10th and 12th centuries, respectively, although they may have existed much earlier. After the death of the last Carolingian, Louis the Child, in 911, the stem duchies acknowledged the unity of the kingdom. The dukes gathered and elected Conrad I to be their king. According to Tellenbach's thesis, the dukes created the duchies during Conrad's reign. No duke attempted to set up an independent kingdom. Even after the death of Conrad in 918, when the election of Henry the Fowler was disputed, his rival,

Arnulf, Duke of Bavaria Arnulf II (birth unknown; died 14 July 937), also known as the Bad (german: der Schlimme), the Evil (''der Böse'') or the Wicked, a member of the Luitpolding dynasty, held the title of Duke of Bavaria from about 907 until his death in 937. He ...

, did not establish a separate kingdom but claimed the whole, before being forced by Henry to submit to royal authority. Henry may even have promulgated a law stipulating that the kingdom would thereafter be united. Arnulf continued to rule it like a king even after his submission, but after his death in 937 it was quickly brought under royal control by Henry's son Otto the Great. The Ottonians worked to preserve the duchies as offices of the crown, but by the reign of Henry IV the dukes had made them functionally hereditary.

Emergence of "German" terminology

Ottonians

The eastern division of the

was called the ''regnum Francorum Orientalium'' or ''Francia Orientalis'': the Kingdom of the Eastern Franks or simply East Francia. It was the eastern half of the old Merovingian '' regnum Austrasiorum''. The "east Franks" (or Austrasians) themselves were the people of Franconia, which had been settled by Franks. The other peoples of East Francia were Saxons, Frisians, Thuringii, and the like, referred to as ''Teutonici'' (or Germans) and sometimes as Franks as ethnic identities changed over the course of the ninth century. An entry in the ''

Annales Iuvavenses The ''Annales iuvavenses'' or Annals of Salzburg were a series of annals written in the 9th and 10th centuries at Salzburg (the former Roman ''Iuvavum'') in the East Frankish stem duchy of Bavaria. They are a useful source for southeastern German ...

'' (or ''Salzburg Annals'') for the year 919, roughly contemporary but surviving only in a twelfth-century copy, records that ''Baiuarii sponte se reddiderunt Arnolfo duci et regnare ei fecerunt in regno teutonicorum'', i.e. that " Arnulf, Duke of the Bavarians, was elected to reign in the Kingdom of the Germans". Historians disagree on whether this text is what was written in the lost original; also on the wider issue whether the idea of the Kingdom as German, rather than Frankish, dates from the tenth or the eleventh century; but the idea of the kingdom as "German" is firmly established by the end of the eleventh century. In the tenth century, German writers already tended toward using modified terms such as "Francia and Saxony" or "land of the Teutons". Any firm distinction between the kingdoms of Eastern Francia and Germany is to some extent the product of later retrospection. It is impossible to base this distinction on primary sources, as Eastern Francia remains in use long after Kingdom of Germany comes into use. The 12th century imperial historian

Otto von Freising Otto is a masculine German given name and a surname. It originates as an Old High German short form (variants ''Audo'', '' Odo'', '' Udo'') of Germanic names beginning in ''aud-'', an element meaning "wealth, prosperity". The name is recorded ...

reported that the election of Henry the Fowler was regarded as marking the beginning of the kingdom, though Otto himself disagreed with this. Thus:

From this point some reckon a kingdom of the Germans as supplanting that of the Franks. Hence, they say that Pope Leo in the decrees of the popes, called Henry's son Otto the first king of the Germans. For that Henry of whom we are speaking refused, it is said, the honor offered by the supreme pontiff. But it seems to me that the kingdom of the Germans — which today, as we see, has possession of Rome — is a part of the kingdom of the Franks. For, as is perfectly clear in what precedes, at the time of Charles the boundaries of the kingdom of the Franks included the whole of Gaul and all Germany, from the Rhine to Illyricum. When the realm was divided between his son's sons, one part was called eastern, the other western, yet both together were called the Kingdom of the Franks. So then in the eastern part, which is called the Kingdom of the Germans, Henry was the first of the race of Saxons to succeed to the throne when the line of Charles failed ... estern Franks discussed... Henry's son Otto, because he restored to the German East Franks the empire which had been usurped by the Lombards, is called the first king of the Germans — not, perhaps, because he was the first king to reign among the Germans.

It is here and elsewhere that Otto distinguishes the first German king (Henry I) and the first German king to hold imperial power ( Otto I). Henry II (r. 1002-1024) was the first to be called "King of the Germans" (''rex Teutonicorum''). The Ottonians seem to have adopted the use of the "Teutonic" label as it helped them to counter critics who questioned how the Ottonians, who were neither Carolingian nor Frankish, could legitimately rule. The Ottonians, by calling themselves "German" kings, instead presented themselves as rulers of all peoples north of the Alps and east of the Rhine. This "German kingdom" was later regarded as a subdivision of the Empire alongside Italy, Burgundy and Bohemia.

Salians and Staufer

In the late eleventh century the term "Kingdom of the Germans" (''Regnum Teutonicorum'') had become utilised more favourably in Germany due to a growing sense of national identity; by the twelfth century, German historian Otto of Freising had to explain that East Francia was "now called the Kingdom of the Germans". In 1028, after his coronation as Emperor in 1027, Conrad II had his son, Henry III, elected King by the prince electors. When, in 1035, Conrad attempted to depose

Adalbero Adalbero or Adalberon (french: Adalbéron) is a masculine given name, a variant of Adalbert (given name), Adalbert, derived from the Old High German words ''Ethel (disambiguation), adal'' ("noble") and ''beraht'' ("bright") or '':en:wikt:bero#Old_Hi ...

, Duke of Carinthia, Henry, acting on the advice of his tutor, Egilbert, Bishop of Freising, refused to allow it, as Adalbero was a vassal of the King, not the Emperor. The German magnates, having legally elected Henry, would not recognise the deposition unless their king did also. After many angry protests, Conrad finally knelt before his son and pleaded for his desired consent, which was finally given. However, Conrad II used the simple title "king" or on occasion "king of the Franks and Lombards" before Imperial coronation, while his son Henry III introduced the title "King of the Romans" before the Imperial coronation. His grandson Henry IV used both "king of the Franks and Lombards" and King of the Romans before Imperial coronation. Beginning in the late eleventh century, during the Investiture Controversy, the Papal curia began to use the term ''regnum teutonicorum'' to refer to the realm of Henry IV in an effort to reduce him to the level of the other kings of Europe, while he himself began to use the title ''rex Romanorum'' or King of the Romans to emphasise his divine right to the ''imperium Romanum''. This title was employed most frequently by the German kings themselves, though they did deign to employ "Teutonic" titles when it was diplomatic, such as Frederick Barbarossa's letter referring to his receiving the ''coronam Theutonici regni'' (crown of the German kingdom). Foreign kings and ecclesiastics continued to refer to the ''regnum Alemanniae'' and ''règne'' or ''royaume d'Allemagne''. The terms ''imperium''/''imperator'' or empire/emperor were often employed for the German kingdom and its rulers, which indicates a recognition of their imperial stature. However foreign sources combined the imperial titles with "Teutonic" and "Alemannic" which reference a denial of their ''Romanitas'' or universal rule. The term ''regnum Germaniae'' begins to appear even in German sources at the beginning of the fourteenth century. During the celebrations on the canonisation of Charlemagne in December 1165 and January 1166, Barbarossa also called Aachen the "head and seat of the German Kingdom". When Pope Gregory VII started using the term ''Regnum Teutonicorum'', the concept of a "distinct territorial kingdom" separate from Kingdom of Italy was already widely recognised on both sides of the Alps, and this entity was at least externally perceived as "German" in nature. Contemporary writers representing various German vassal rulers also adopted this terminology under papal influence. In the Papal-Imperial Concordat of Worms of 1122, which put an end to the Investiture Controversy, the authority of the Emperor regarding Church offices in this "German kingdom" was legally distinguished from his authority in "other parts of the Empire". The Imperial chancery did adopt the "German" titles, albeit inconsistently. Pope Gregory began using the term Regnum Teutonicorum even before his conflict with Henry IV. He was highly successful at encouraging his German supporters such as Berthold of Reichenau or Bernold of St Blasien to use the terms "Regnum Teutonicorum" or "Teutonicae partes". Prior to the civil wars of Henry IV and the letters of Pope Gregory VII which address the German people as a whole, the loyalties of Germans were primarily focused on local regions such as Bavaria, Swabia, Franconia, Upper or Lower Lotharingia, East or West Saxony. Only from the mid-1070s was there a common political awareness of a "German Kingdom" as a single unit of political loyalty. In the 13th century the term ''Regnum Teutonicorum'' started being replaced in Germany by the similar ''Regnum Alemanniae'', possibly due to French or Papal influence, or alternatively due to the Staufer emperors' base of power in the Duchy of Swabia, also known as Alamannia. Emperor Frederick II even proclaimed his son Henry VII as ''Rex Alemannie'' (King of Germany), to rule Germany under him while he ruled the rest of the empire. The Kaiserchronik explicitly describes Henry as having rule of a separate German kingdom (''siniu Tiuschen riche'') under the empire. Henry's successor Konrad IV was also called king-designate of Germany (rex Theutonie designatus) by a contemporary writer. The

Count Palatine of the Rhine The counts palatine of Lotharingia /counts palatine of the Rhine /electors of the Palatinate (german: Kurfürst von der Pfalz) ruled some part of Rhine area in the Kingdom of Germany and the Holy Roman Empire from 915 to 1803. The title was a kind ...

was legally authorised to judge on the princes' affairs should the king leave Germany ("von teutchem lande"). In the

Sachsenspiegel The (; gml, Sassen Speyghel; modern nds, Sassenspegel; all literally "Saxon Mirror") is one of the most important law books and custumals compiled during the Holy Roman Empire. Originating between 1220 and 1235 as a record of existing loc ...

and

Schwabenspiegel The ''Schwabenspiegel'' is a legal code, written in ca. 1275 by a Franciscan friar in Augsburg. It deals mainly with questions of land ownership and fiefdom, and it is based on the Pentateuch, Roman law as well as Canon law. It draws on the early ...

of the Medieval German law, the vassal princes were only required to provide service to the Empire and attend court within the German lands; Frederick II or his successors were unable to call upon the German lords to Bohemia, Italy or their other domains. Royal and Imperial legislation were sometimes specifically binding only within the borders of Germany, excluding the rest of the Empire.

Post-Staufer period

German writers after the Staufen period used variants of the term "''Regnum Alemanniae''" to indicate the weakened reach of the emperors who now confined themselves mainly to German matters.

Anti-king An anti-king, anti king or antiking (german: Gegenkönig; french: antiroi; cs, protikrál) is a would-be king who, due to succession disputes or simple political opposition, declares himself king in opposition to a reigning monarch. OED "Anti-, ...

Henry Raspe Henry Raspe (; – 16 February 1247) was the Landgrave of Thuringia from 1231 until 1239 and again from 1241 until his death. In 1246, with the support of the Papacy, he was elected King of Germany in opposition to Conrad IV, but his contest ...

also described himself as "king of Germany and prince of the Romans". There were also scattered references to a political community of "Germans" excluding the rest of the empire. For instance, in 1349, Charles IV met the nobles and burghers of "''regnum Alamannie''", in 1355 he summoned the electors and burghers "''in regno Alemannie''". However, this tendency to refer to a "German" polity after the collapse of the Staufen empire did not develop further in the following period. The term "''regnum''" was sometimes used to refer a distinct political entity within the "''imperium''", but sometimes they were used interchangeably, and sometimes they were combined in phrases like "''Regnum Romanorum''". In the German language it was most common to simply use the term "German lands" rather than "kingdom". In 1349 Charles IV (King of the Romans) appointed the Duke of Brabant's son to govern on his behalf "in our ''kingdom of the Romans'' throughout ''Germania'' or ''Theutonia''". There were persistent proposals, including one that

Ptolemy of Lucca Bartholomew of Lucca, born Bartolomeo Fiadoni, and also known as Tolomeo da Lucca or Ptolemy da Lucca (c. 1236 – c. 1327), was a medieval Italian historian. Biography Born in Lucca, probably in 1236, at an early age Bartholomew entered the ...

claimed was discussed between

Pope Nicholas III Pope Nicholas III ( la, Nicolaus III; c. 1225 – 22 August 1280), born Giovanni Gaetano Orsini, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 25 November 1277 to his death on 22 August 1280. He was a Roman nobleman who ...

and Rudolf I, to create a hereditary German kingdom independent from the Holy Empire. This idea was met with horror in Germany. When Rudolf I was elected, the emotional attachment the German people had with the superior dignity of the universalistic Roman title had become so firmly established that it was unacceptable to separate the German kingship from it. There was a strong reluctance by the Emperors to use "German" titles due to strong attachment to Roman symbolism, and it seemed to be actively avoided. References to "German" titles were less rare but still uncommon among vassals and chroniclers. From 1250 onward, the association between "Germans" and the whole Empire became stronger. As post-Staufer German monarchs were too weak to secure coronation as emperor, German writers became concerned that Germany was losing the prestige of Imperial status. The lack of concentration of power in one ruler or region also made the monarchy more attractive to all Germans. These led to more interest in connecting German identity to being heirs of Imperial Rome (

Translatio Imperii ''Translatio imperii'' (Latin for "transfer of rule") is a historiographical concept that originated from the Middle Ages, in which history is viewed as a linear succession of transfers of an ''imperium'' that invests supreme power in a singular r ...

), by right of their military strength as defenders of Christendom. At the same time, the replacement of Latin with German in official documents entrenched the German character of the empire at large. In 1474 the term "Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation" appeared, becoming more common after 1512. However, even after 1560, only 1 in 9 official documents mention "Germany", and most omitted the rest as well and simply called it "the Empire". In 1544 the Cosmographia (Sebastian Münster) was published, which used "Germany" (''Teütschland'') as synonymous with the empire as a whole. Johann Jacob Moser also used "German" as a synonym for "Imperial". This conflated definition of "German" even included non-German speakers. In 1508, Maximilian I, with papal approval, adopted the title "emperor elect" (''Dei gratia Romanorum imperator electus semper augustus''). Subsequent rulers adopted that title after their coronation as kings. At the same time, the custom of having the heir-apparent elected as king of the Romans in the emperor's lifetime resumed. For this reason, the title "king of the Romans" (''rex Romanorum'') came to mean heir-apparent, the successor elected while the emperor was still alive. After the ''

Imperial Reform Imperial Reform ( la, Reformatio imperii, german: Reichsreform) is the name given to repeated attempts in the 15th and 16th centuries to adapt the structure and the constitutional order () of the Holy Roman Empire to the requirements of the early ...

'' and Reformation settlement, the German part of the Holy Roman Empire was divided into '' Reichskreise'' (Imperial Circles), which in effect defined Germany against imperial territories outside the Imperial Circles: imperial Italy, the Bohemian Kingdom, and the Old Swiss Confederacy. Brendan Simms called the Imperial circles as "an embryonic German collective-security system" and "a potential vehicle for national unity against outsiders". Nevertheless, there are relatively few references to a German kingdom distinct from the Holy Roman Empire.

Notes

Bibliography

* * * * * * * * Beumann, H., "Die Bedeutung des Kaisertums für die Entstehung der deutschen Nation im Spiegel der Bezeichnungen von Reich und Herrscher", in ''Nationes'', 1 (1978), pp 317–366 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * {{refend .

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

Monarchy of the Holy Roman Empire Former monarchies of Europe East Francia