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Holy Roman Emperor

emperor of the Holy Roman Empire

73 dated entries naming Holy Roman Emperor, drawn from 68 separate years between 800 CE and 1806 CE. Nothing here is written by us: each line is the sentence a Wikipedia year article used, and the link beside it opens the exact revision.

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8th century

  • 800December 25 – Charlemagne, king of the Franks, is crowned Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Leo III as Charles I, with the title "Emperor of the Romans". The coronation takes place during Mass at the Basilica of St. Peter in Rome, on Christmas Day. The Frankish Empire is formed in Western Europe, which is not recognized by Empress Irene at Constantinople. This triggers a series of disputes with the Byzantines around who is officially ruling the former Western Roman Empire.source

9th century

  • 814January 28 – Charlemagne dies of pleurisy in Aachen, after an almost 14-year reign (since 800) as the first Roman Emperor of Frankish origin (the precursor of the Holy Roman Emperor). He is embalmed and buried in Aachen Cathedral. Charlemagne is succeeded by his son Louis the Pious, as king of the Frankish Empire.source
  • 824November 11 – The Constitutio Romana, drawn up between King Lothair I of Italy, Louis the Pious, since 817, and Pope Eugene II, establishes the authority of the Holy Roman Emperors over the papacy of Rome.source
  • 825Louis II, king of Italy and Holy Roman Emperor (d. 875)source
  • 840June 20 – Louis the Pious, Emperor of the Romans and King of the Franks, falls ill and dies at his hunting lodge, on an island in the Rhine, near the Ingelheim Imperial Palace in Francia, while suppressing a revolt. He proclaims his eldest son Lothair I as his successor as Emperor. Lothair tries to seize all the territories of his late grandfather Charlemagne. Louis' son by his second wife, Charles, 17, becomes King of the Franks, and joins with his half-brother Louis the German in resisting Lothair.source
  • 847April 10 – Leo IV is consecrated 103rd pope of Rome (where he was born c.790). Because of the sense of urgency driven by the previous year's Arab raid against Rome, he is consecrated without waiting for the consent of the Holy Roman Emperor. He will reign until 855.source
  • 855September 29 – Emperor Lothair I dies after a 15-year reign (co-ruling with his father Louis the Pious until 840). He divides the Middle Frankish Kingdom between his three sons in an agreement called the Treaty of Prüm—the eldest, Louis II, receives the northern half of Italy and the title of Holy Roman Emperor. The second, Lothair II, receives Lotharingia (the Low Countries and Upper Burgundy). The youngest, Charles, receives Lower Burgundy and Provence.source
  • 872May 18 – After his successful campaign against the Saracens, Louis II is crowned as Roman Emperor ("Emperor of the Franks") for the second time and converts the Muwalladun, and the Arab elite.source
  • 875August 12 – Louis II, king of Italy and Holy Roman Emperor (b. 825)source
  • 875December 29 – King Charles the Bald, supported by Pope John VIII, travels to Italy. He receives the Imperial Regalia at Pavia, and is crowned Holy Roman Emperor as Charles II at Rome.source
  • 880Louis the Blind, Frankish king and Holy Roman Emperor (d. 928)source
  • 881February 12 – King Charles the Fat, the third son of the late Louis the German, is crowned as Holy Roman Emperor by Pope John VIII at Rome.source
  • 891February 21 – Guy III, duke of Spoleto, is crowned Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Stephen V. His son Lambert is proclaimed king of Italy, at the capital of Pavia in Lombardy.source
  • 894December 12 – Guy III, king of Italy and Holy Roman Emperorsource
  • 896February – King Arnulf of Carinthia invades Italy at the head of an East Frankish expeditionary army. He storms Rome (the Leonine City), and has himself crowned Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Formosus at St. Peter's. Arnulf sets out to establish his authority in Spoleto, but suffers a stroke; he is forced to call off the campaign, and returns to Bavaria.source
  • 898October 15 – Lambert II, king of Italy and Holy Roman Emperorsource

10th century

  • 901February – King Louis III (the Blind) is crowned as Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Benedict IV at Rome. His rival Berengar I seeks refuge in Bavaria at the court of King Louis IV (the Child).source
  • 915December 3 – John X crowns the Italian sovereign Berengar I as the Holy Roman Emperor in Rome. Berengar returns to northern Italy, where Friuli is threatened by the Hungarians.source
  • 924April 7 – After having made a new alliance with the Hungarians, the Holy Roman Emperor Berengar I, King of Italy, is assassinated in Verona by one of his guards. Rudolph II, King of Burgundy and a claimant to the throne, takes full control of the Kingdom of Italy, while the office of the Holy Roman Emperor will not be re-created until 38 years later.source
  • 924April 7 – Berengar I, king of Italy and Holy Roman Emperorsource
  • 928June 5 – Louis the Blind, Frankish king and Holy Roman Emperorsource
  • 931Spring – Hugh of Provence, king of Italy, cedes Lower Burgundy to Rudolph II, in return for Rudolf's renunciation of all claims to the Italian crown. He receives the imperial crown, and induces the Italian nobility to recognize his son Lothair II as the co-ruler of Lombardia (Regnum Italiae).source
  • 962February 2 – King Otto I (the Great) is crowned Holy Roman Emperor by Pope John XII at the Old St. Peter's Basilica, ending Rome's feudal anarchy. Otto's wife Adelaide is anointed as empress; the East Frankish Kingdom and the Kingdom of Italy are unified into a common realm, called the Roman Empire.source

11th century

  • 1002June 7 – Henry II, a cousin of Otto III, is elected and crowned as King of Germany by Archbishop Willigis at Mainz. Henry does not recognise the coronation of Arduin. Otto of Worms withdraws his nomination for the title of Holy Roman Emperor and receives the Duchy of Carinthia (modern Austria) - Henry is the first King to be elected away from the Cathedral of Aachen since the tradition was begun by Otto I in 936.source
  • 1013Winter – Henry II (anxious to be crowned as Holy Roman Emperor) mobilises a German expeditionary army at Augsburg, to begin his second Italian military campaign.source
  • 1014February 14 – King Henry II arrives at Rome and is crowned Holy Roman Emperor together with his wife Cunigunde by Pope Benedict VIII in St. Peter's Basilica. Henry establishes the Diocese of Bobbio (Northern Italy) and returns to Germany.source
  • 1027March 26 – Pope John XIX crowns Conrad II ("the Elder") and his wife Gisela of Swabia as Holy Roman Emperor and Empress, respectively, in Old St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. Cnut the Great, King of Denmark and England, attends the coronation, proving his position as sole ruler of the Danish North Sea Empire.source
  • 1046December 25 – Pope Clement II succeeds Gregory VI as the 149th pope, and crowns Henry III as Holy Roman Emperor.source

12th century

  • 1111April 13 – Henry V is crowned as Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Paschal II. Henry returns to Germany where he strengthens his power by granting privileges to the German nobles of the region of the Upper Rhine.source
  • 1133Spring – A German expeditionary force, led by King Lothair III, marches into northern Italy, and arrives at Rome, after a 6-month journey across the Alps. Accompanied by Bernard of Clairvaux, French abbot and Doctor of the Church, Lothair is crowned by Pope Innocent II as Holy Roman Emperor at the Church of the Lateran, on June 4. He receives as papal fiefs the vast estates of Matilda, former margravine of Tuscany, which he secures for his daughter Gertrude of Süpplingenburg and her husband, Duke Henry X (the Proud) of Bavaria.source
  • 1155June 18 – King Frederick Barbarossa is crowned as Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Adrian IV at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.source
  • 1162March 6 – German forces led by Frederick Barbarossa, Holy Roman Emperor, capture Milan; much of the city is destroyed three weeks later on the emperor's orders. The fortifications are demolished and the churches are destroyed. The population is dispersed, and the commune abolished. The fate of Milan leads to the submission of Brescia, Piacenza, and many other northern Italian cities.source
  • 1165Spring – Byzantine Emperor Manuel I Komnenos makes an alliance with Venice against Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, who takes an oath at the Diet of Würzburg to support Antipope Paschal III against Pope Alexander III.source

13th century

  • 1202Spring – Pope Innocent III reasserts his right to evaluate and crown the Holy Roman Emperor, in a letter to Berthold V, Duke of Zähringen.source
  • 1207Pope Innocent III declares for King Philip of Swabia as Holy Roman Emperor, a reversal of his previous support for Philip's rival Otto IV.source
  • 1220November 22 – Frederick II is crowned Holy Roman Emperor at Rome by Pope Honorius III. He makes Sicily an absolute monarchy and adopts Palermo as its principal seat.source
  • 1268October 29 – Conradin, the last legitimate male heir of the Hohenstaufen Dynasty of Kings of Germany and Holy Roman Emperors, is executed, along with his companion Frederick I, Margrave of Baden, by Charles I of Sicily, a political rival and ally to the hostile Roman Catholic Church.source
  • 1274Gregory X obtains the region of Romagna from Rudolf I, in exchange for acknowledging him as Holy Roman Emperor. With this important acquisition, the Papal States become the second-largest power block in Italy after the Kingdom of Sicily.source

14th century

  • 1308November 27 – Henry VII Count of Luxemburg, is elected the new Holy Roman Emperor at Frankfurt. The election comes with the support of his brother Baldwin, Archbishop of Trier, who wins over most of the electors, in exchange for some substantial concessions. The only elector who does not support Henry of Luxemburg is Henry of Bohemia.source
  • 1314October 19 – 19 October 1314 imperial election for the Holy Roman Emperor at Sachsenhausen (Frankfurt am Main). The 25-year-old Frederick the Fair of the House of Habsburg is elected by four of the electors and is crowned at Bonn Minster on November 25; however, in a dispute over validity of the election, Louis IV the Bavarian of the House of Wittelsbach is elected the following day by the remaining three electors and is crowned at Aachen, leading to civil war in the Empire.source
  • 1319August 12 – The Duchy of Bavaria, split between two brothers since 1294, is reunited upon the death of Rudolf the Stammerer, Duke of Upper Bavaria. Ludwig the Barbarian, King of the Romans and Duke of Lower Bavaria. In 1328, Ludwig will later be elected the Holy Roman Emperor as Louis IV.source
  • 1328January 17 – Louis IV, "the Bavarian", is crowned Holy Roman Emperor at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. Because of conflict with the Avignon Papacy, the ceremony is carried out by a senator and three Italian bishops.source
  • 1349January 30 – Günther von Schwarzburg is elected Holy Roman Emperorsource
  • 1378November 29 – Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor, dies in Prague. He is succeeded by his son, Wenceslaus, as King of Bohemia, but the office of Holy Roman Emperor falls into abeyance, until Charles's son Sigismund is crowned in 1433.source
  • 1397August 10 – Albert II of Germany, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1439)source

15th century

  • 1433May 31 – Sigismund is crowned as the Holy Roman Emperor in Rome. The Imperial throne has been vacant for more than 52 years since the death of Sigismund's father, Charles IV, in 1378.source
  • 1439October 27 – Albert II of Germany, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1397)source
  • 1457May 15 – The Swiss city of St. Gallen becomes a free imperial city within the Holy Roman Emperor upon payment of 7,000 gulden to its former abbot, Kaspar von Breitenlandenberg.source
  • 1493August 19 – Maximilian I succeeds his father, Frederick III, as Holy Roman Emperor.source

16th century

  • 1508February 4 – Maximilian, King of the Romans, proclaims himself Holy Roman Emperor at the Italian city of Trento, after having been blocked by Venice from traveling to Rome to be crowned by Pope Julius II.source
  • 1519June 28 – King Carlos I of Spain is elected as the new Holy Roman Emperor and takes the regnal name of Charles V. He will reign until 1556).source
  • 1520February 6 – The Swabian League sells the Duchy of Württemberg to the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, for 220,000 florins and payment of the Duchy's debt of 1,100,000 Goldguldensource
  • 1555October 25 – Charles V abdicates as Holy Roman Emperor and is succeeded by his brother Ferdinand.source
  • 1556August 27 – Charles V abdicates his position as Holy Roman Emperor in favor of his younger brother, Ferdinand, King of the Romans. The Imperial Diet postpones recognizing the abdication for the next 18 months.source
  • 1558May 3 – The Imperial Diet of the Holy Roman Empire gives recognition to Ferdinand as Holy Roman Emperor, two months after his proclamation on March 14 as the successor to his brother Charles V.source
  • 1564July 25 – Maximilian II becomes the new Holy Roman Emperor upon the death of his father, Ferdinand I. Ferdinand's son Charles succeeds his father as the new Archduke of Austria.source

17th century

  • 1608June 26 – Matthias I, already King of Bohemia becomes the King of Hungary and the King of Croatia upon the abdication of both jobs by his older brother, Rudolf II, who continues as Holy Roman Emperor.source
  • 1612June 13 – Archduke Matthias of Austria is formally elected as the new Holy Roman Emperor.source
  • 1616February 28 – In the aftermath of the 1613–1614 anti-Jewish pogrom called the Fettmilch uprising in Frankfurt, Germany, mob leader Vincenz Fettmilch is beheaded, but the Jews, who had been expelled from the city on August 23, 1614, following the plundering of the Judengasse, can return only as a result of direct intervention by Holy Roman Emperor Matthias. After long negotiations, the Jews are left without any compensation for their plundered belongings.source
  • 1619August 28 – Ferdinand II, Archduke of Austria and King of Bohemia, is elected Holy Roman Emperor unanimously by the prince-electors.source
  • 1625April 7 – Albrecht von Wallenstein is appointed German supreme commander of the armies of Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II.source
  • 1637November 18 – The coronation as the new Holy Roman Emperor of Ferdinand III, Archduke of Austria, King of Hungary, Croatia and Bohemia, takes place in Vienna.source
  • 1653May 31 – Ferdinand IV, already the King of Bohemia, Hungary and Croatia, is elected King of the Romans by his fellow German monarchs, making him eligible to succeed his father Ferdinand III as Holy Roman Emperor. Ferdinand IV will not live to become Holy Roman Emperor, instead dying from smallpox 14 months after his designation.source
  • 1658July 18 – Prince Leopold of the House of Habsburg, son of the late Ferdinand III, is elected as the new Holy Roman Emperor.source
  • 1670February 27 – The royal wedding in Poland, between King Michal Wisniowiecki (who is also the Grand Duke of Lithuania) and Eleonore of Austria (daughter of the late Ferdinand III, Holy Roman Emperor), with ceremonies taking place at the Denhoff Palace in Kruszyna.source

18th century

  • 1712January 26 – The Old Pummerin, a 18,161 kg bell newly installed in the Stephansdom, St. Stephen's Cathedral, in Vienna, is rung for the first time to mark the entry of Charles VI to Vienna from Frankfurt after his coronation as Emperor. It takes a quarter-hour for 16 men pulling on the bell rope to swing the heavy bell back-and-forth enough for the clapper to strike; the resulting forces endanger the tower so the architect orders that in future the bell be rung only by pulling its clapper.source
  • 1742January 24 – Charles VII becomes Holy Roman Emperor.source
  • 1745April 22 – Having recently turned 18, Bavaria's ruler Maximilian III Joseph agrees to sign the Treaty of Füssen with Austria, withdrawing Bavaria from further participation in the War of the Austrian Succession, and agreeing to support Austria's candidate for the next Holy Roman Emperor.source
  • 1745January 20 – Less than two weeks after the disastrous Battle of Amberg leaves Bavaria undefended, the electorate's ruler (and Holy Roman Emperor) Charles VII dies from gout at the age of 47, leaving the duchy without an adult to lead it. His 17-year-old son, Maximilian III Joseph, signs terms of surrender in April.source
  • 1745March 1 – Augustus III, the King of Poland and Elector of Saxony, declares his candidacy to become the next Holy Roman Emperor, but loses in September to Francis, Duke of Tuscany.source
  • 1745September 12 – Francis I, the Grand Duke of Tuscany, is elected Holy Roman Emperor by the nine prince-electors of the Empire (from Bavaria, Bohemia, Brandenburg, Cologne, Hanover, Mainz, the Palatinate, Saxony and Trier) with the support of his wife, Maria Theresa. He is the successor of Charles VII Albert of Bavaria, an enemy of the House of Habsburg, who died on January 20 of this year.source
  • 1765August 18 – Joseph II becomes Holy Roman Emperor.source

19th century

  • 1806August 6 – Francis II, the last Holy Roman Emperor, abdicates, thus ending the Holy Roman Empire after 844 years.source

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