Germany   

The Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation had developed from a feudal Kingdom in which lands were handed out by the King or Emperor to hereditary and ecclesiastical magnates to a loose confederation of virtually sovereign entities. The Westphalian Peace Treaties of 1648, defining the very concept of a sovereign state as we still know it today, was the last and defining step in that process.

The Empire is generally regarded as the successor to Charlemagne’s Frankish Empire of the Romans, founded in the year 800 in the Kingdom of the Franks after it had taken over the Lombard or Longobard state in Northern Italy. The position of Emperor was first handed out by the Papacy and later became adopted by the German King, elective among a number of the magnates of the Frankish successor Kingdom of Germany. After Charlemagne’s death the Empire was soon subdivided into smaller Kingdoms, giving rise to Germany and France, representing the Germanic homeland of the original Franks and the other German tribes they had incorporated in their state, and the Romance speaking lands of Gaul, that were taken over by the Franks at the demise of the Roman Empire respectively. Other Kingdoms carved out of Charlemagne’s Empire were Italy, successor to the Longobard state, (rather Northern Italy) and Burgundy, a part of Romance Gaul that the Franks had taken from the Eastern Germanic Burgundians, who had founded a pre Frankish Kingdom there at the demise of the Roman Empire.
In the days of the successor Kingdoms to Charlemagne’s Empire (843-962) the position of Emperor was sometimes held by one of its Kings and sometimes in abeyance altogether. The Middle Frankish Kings held it for a while, France’s Charles II held it as did Germany’s Charles III who briefly reunited the Empire. Later Germany’s King Arnulf was made Emperor, but a Holy Roman Empire was only finally re-established after the extinction of the Carolingian dynasty in the successor Kingdoms, when Germany’s Otto the Great did not only gain the Imperial title but also extended his rule to the adjacent successor Kingdoms of Italy and Burgundy, establishing the Empire in these three Kingdoms. The further history of the Romance West Frankish Kingdom, or France, would remain detached from the Holy Roman Empire.

 In Ottonian (after Otto the Great and his successors) Germany was subdivided into five Duchies that were organised more or less along the lines of the different tribes of Germany, Saxons, Franks, Bavarians and Swabians. Also a Lotharingian Duchy was organised. The King gave these Duchies to relatives or other great Lords as hereditary fiefs. The Dukes themselves handed out lands to their subordinate nobles. To maintain influence on the affairs of the Empire, Otto and his successors started giving out lands to Bishops and Abbots, thus ruling out the hereditary factor. Since the Emperors appointed these prelates in those days, he could count on them as a source of influence. The Papacy, that tried to gain ascendance in Europe over the Emperor and the other European Kings, sought the right of Investiture for itself. A conflict with the Franconian Emperors, who succeeded the Saxon line, was the result. In the end a compromise was reached.

The power of the Emperors declined however. The elevation to equal status of the lower Princes eroded the system of the five Duchies and soon Germany was littered with smaller states. In 1277 the Emperor Frederick II, who was more interested in his Italian dominions anyway issued the “Statutem in favorem Principum” giving up a lot of royal rights to the Princes of the territories of the Empire.

The consequences of the Thirty Years War were devestating for Germany. The Empire's population was decimated. Because of the religious character of the conflict it would henceforth be divided into Protestant and Catholic states. The ruler deciding what religion the State would have. The Peace settlement in 1648 also cost the Empire large parts of its territory and finally delegated the position of the Emperor to that of little more than a figurehead outside of his own territories.

 

On the maps that follow, the Holy Roman Empire and its immediate successor, the German Confederation are marked by a red border. I provide a legenda on this page showing what colours I use for the different territories of the Empire and the adjoining countries. Most of the smaller states that didn’t survive well into the 19th century are given a common yellowish color.

One of the factors contributing to the fragmenting of the Empire was the habit of several dynasties to split up their lands to be given to different sons. Remember that in Germany succession to the ancestral lands was generally only in the male line.

In some instances I have given lands ruled by different branches of the same dynasty similar colours. In some cases when one branch of the dynasty became extinct, the eldest branch would succeed to the lands of the extinct one. Countries were sometimes divided and reunited and then divided up again.

For instance in the case of the Wittelsbach rulers of Bavaria and the Palatinate I have used different colours in shades of greenish blue. In that case however, the biggest segments, the Electorate Palatine and Bavaria, were inherited by younger branches on several occasions. I have not changed the colours of the main parts into that of the younger parts however. Bavaria and the Electorate Palatine retain their distinct colours and the colours of the younger branches are discontinued when they succeed to Bavaria.

For Nassau I use two colours. The lighter one depicting the branch of Nassau-Dietz that later became the House of Orange-Nassau, the darker one all the other branches, be they of the Walram or Ottonic main branches, because here I wanted to single out only that branch that was associated with the Frisian Stadtholders of the United Provinces and later the House of Orange-Nassau.