Holy Roman Empire Golden Age Essay

481 Words1 Page

Holy Roman Empire golden age was in the early medieval period well to the high Middle Ages when it participated in many European events, and its emperors played key role in the politics, dynastic disputes, papacy, and international conflicts. The HRE was a conglomerate of various states, kingdoms and cities, with diverse population and economical level of the development, but after 1450, its started to lag behind the western Europe as its trade, commerce, and industry declined. The economical fallout of the central Europe in comparison of Atlantic powers became evident, as the economic center of Europe shifted toward Northern Sea, leaving major key players (German cities like Nuremberg, Frankfurt, Lubbeck; Bohemia, Saxony, Austria) failing …show more content…

Each previous emperor derived his power from his own hereditary domain. Luxembourgs from Bohemia, Hapsburgs from Austria, but their power through the entire realm was rather informal than real. It was ruled on consensus among major players, but once the consensus was gone and entities stop caring about it, the HRE was unable to stop its political decline. This is evident, when for example Bohemia, one of the elector of the office withdrew from the imperial politics in 1419 and have not participated in any of the events for the next 125 years in it. Similarly, northern Germany lost interest in the catholic south as it went through reformation and oriented toward more ideologically aligned countries, away from Hapsburg's control. The acquisition of the imperial title in the hand of only one dynasty that represented only one acceptable view weakened the state that split among catholic-protestant lines while at the same time larger powers like France, England, Spain and Portugal became increasingly centralized monarchies. Hapsburg were having between 1517-1648 hard time to control their own domain as was the revolt of 1547 or 1618, which caused them to shift attention from international ambition toward keeping their own crown. Without ability to continuously depend on their hereditary domains to push toward greater role of HRE in the European scene, their own power declined in comparison of the major European

More about Holy Roman Empire Golden Age Essay

Open Document