After the second coalition against France had failed, General Napoleon
Bonaparte, First Consul of the French Republic and President of the Italian
Republic, became instrumental in the reform of the Holy Roman Empire. Princes
that had lost territory in the Rhineland were compensated with the lands of the
ecclesiastical
states. These ecclesiastical
states, once
a core-feature of the Empire, now
virtually disappeared. Also hundreds of smaller states were abolished. The
ruling families of these smaller states were allowed to keep their rank and
titles, and were still regarded as royalty, but their political role was over.
Princes that supported Bonaparte, like the rulers of Baden and Wurttemberg, saw
their dominions increased. The rulers of Hesse-Cassel, Salzburg, Baden and
Wurttemberg were elevated to the position of Elector (Princes choosing the
Emperor). The Electoral College now had a protestant majority, since the
Prince-Bishops and Electors of Cologne and Trier had lost their states. A
protestant Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire was now a possibility. In
1804, Bonaparte proclaimed himself, Emperor of the French and King of Italy. The
Dukes and Electors of Saxony, Bavaria and Wurttemberg took the title of King.
Emperor Francis II realised that the days of the Old Empire, that had dominated
the map of Europe for over a thousand years, were numbered.
A Catholic republican
uprising in Ireland was put down by the ruling British and a formal Union
between Britain and Ireland was forged, ending Irelands existence as a
theoretically separate (protestantly ruled) Kingdom in 1801. The United Kingdom
of Great Britain & Ireland was born in that year.
