What is the date of formation of the Holy Roman Empire. VI. The Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation and the Development of Papal Power. Austro-Prussian confrontation and the decline of the empire…………….…….20

The principalities functioned autonomously. The Reformation split the state into Protestants and Catholics. The reforms could not contain separatist sentiments. By 1805, when France was incredibly strong, the empire was no longer able to resist.

Rise of the Holy Roman Empire

The founder of the empire was the King of Germany, Otto I the Great. In 951, he took the capital of the Lombard kingdom of Pavia. In 961, he undertook a campaign against Rome, without encountering serious resistance along the way. On February 2, 962, he was crowned emperor. One of the first actions of an ambitious ruler was to assert the supremacy of his power over the power of the Pope. Pontiff John XII was not going to put up with this state of affairs. For excessive independence, he paid with his title: the court found him guilty of murder and incest. Leo VIII, loyal to Otto I, ascended the papal throne.

Otto I the Great and his brother Henry. (wikipedia.org)

Without the support of Rome, the new state formation could not count on a long life. The power of the emperor was based on the unified Christian tradition of Western Europe; he had to patronize Catholicism, protect the territories entrusted to him from external threats, and take care of maintaining a single spiritual space. This concept found a wide response in society and revived hope for the former power of the Western Roman Empire.

However, at every opportunity, Rome sought to regain its lost positions and assert the primacy of spiritual power over secular. This happened, for example, in the reign of Henry IV (1050−1106). He suffered a humiliating defeat in the struggle against the papacy for investiture and was excommunicated. For three days, the hungry and barefoot emperor waited for permission to meet with Pope Gregory VII, and begged for forgiveness on his knees. But the humiliation did not end there - the German princes and their own children took up arms against Henry IV. His son Conrad spread rumors that Henry IV was in a sect and was involved in orgies. In 1093, in a conflict between spiritual and secular power, Conrad sided with the Pope. The second son, Henry, renounced his father, threw him into the fortress and forced him to abdicate. Subsequently, he also entered the struggle for investiture and won it.

Composition of the Holy Roman Empire

In the X-XIII centuries, the empire included Germany, a significant part of Italy, the Czech Republic and the kingdom of Burgundy. Thus, vast territories were united under its wing, but the empire did not have the status of a state. In numerous principalities and counties, the rules of law were in force, which often conflicted with the imperial bulls.

The situation was complicated by internecine wars - instead of building an effective management apparatus, they had to deal with the rebellious princes. In addition, the subjects of the empire sought independence; starting from the XIII century, the principalities actually turned into independent states, and the powers of the emperor were nominal. The princes, who did not benefit from a strong central government, formed an alliance and, without hesitation, sought to enrich themselves. Thus, for example, the opening of the road through St. Gotthard made the Rhine Valley a popular trade route; princes raised fares until they reached astronomical proportions. Aristocrats were full owners of their land.

Holy Roman Empire of the 14th century. (wikipedia.org)

The head of the First Reich, which is surprising for medieval Europe, was chosen. The procedure for electing the emperor was determined by the Golden Bull (1356). The right to vote was given to seven electors (the most influential imperial princes). In addition, the document recognized the sovereignty of local rulers, which was another step towards decentralization.

Coat of arms of the empire. (wikipedia.org)

Under the emperor, there was a secret council, which to a large extent influenced the decisions he made. One of the duties of the head of the Holy Roman Empire was the administration of justice; there was no court organ until the end of the 15th century. Like the capitals with the treasury, administrative and financial bodies “migrated” from one city to another.

The emperor, and with him the office, constantly traveled around his possessions - he went where business required his presence, or where he could have fun. The "mobile yard" usually consisted of a small number of people. But, surprisingly, there were a lot of eaters at the court. Thus, data have been preserved that about twenty barrels of alcohol and thousands of rams and pigs were consumed daily. The money was very expensive, and the hospitality of the principalities became one of the reasons for the constant movement of the emperor and his court.

The rise of absolutism

The system of government, in which the interests of power collided with the interests of the principalities, was reorganized at the end of the 15th century. Emperor Maximilian I, who conceived the reform, decided to follow the path of centralization. This process was characteristic not only for the Holy Roman Empire, but for the entire West. In England, France, Russia, power passed from the regional nobility to emperors and kings.

Maximilian I. (wikipedia.org)

The reform included the establishment of the Supreme Imperial Court, which played an important role in the formation of uniform rules of law; the creation of imperial districts with their own governing bodies, which, among other things, were in charge of collecting taxes; a ban on military conflicts between the subjects of the empire; and, finally, the creation of the Reichstag. But there was one problem - there was still not enough money, so Maximilian I tried to put things in order with taxes. Alas, the nobility strongly resisted the prospect of sharing their wealth, and this initiative was doomed to failure. However, debts grew; in the end, the emperor paid them off with a rich dowry, which was given for his bride, the daughter of the Duke of Milan, Bianca Maria Sforza. The dowry came in handy, but emotional attachment did not arise - it is known that the emperor did not like his wife.

Maximilian I annexed territories in East Tyrol, united the Bavarian lands in his hands. Charles V (1500−1558), who proclaimed himself Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, without waiting for the recognition of this title by the Pope, continued the course of reforms. He changed the administrative-territorial division of the empire: now it consisted of the kingdoms of Germany, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Spain and Italy. The power of the emperor increased significantly. Since he had more than a dozen crowns, the list of his titles took about half a page.

Empire in 1512. (wikipedia.org)

Fall of the Holy Roman Empire

Since 1512, the state formation began to be called the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, which was already a symptomatic moment of departure from the idea of ​​a pan-Christian state. In the 17th century, the empire, which was originally created as a single religious and cultural space, was no longer such. The Reformation split the empire into Protestants and Catholics, who entered into a bitter struggle. The reforms failed to prevent the growth of separatist sentiments. The territories within the empire were radically different from each other in terms of economic development. The principalities formed their own armies and, in fact, functioned autonomously. Another blow was the Thirty Years' War, which caused significant damage to the German economy. In the context of the growth of national self-consciousness, the rivalry between Prussia and Austria was inevitable. Strengthened the position of France, and in 1805 the French army defeated the army of the Holy Roman Empire. The organization, which was designed to ensure order and tranquility in the Catholic world, ceased to exist.

210 years ago, on August 6, 1806, the Holy Roman Empire ceased to exist. The mortal blow to the Holy Roman Empire was dealt by the War of the Third Coalition in 1805. The Austrian army was utterly defeated at the battle of Ulm and at the battle of Austerlitz, and Vienna was captured by the French. Emperor Franz II was forced to conclude the Treaty of Pressburg with France, according to which the emperor not only renounced possessions in Italy, Tyrol, etc. in favor of Napoleon and his satellites, but also recognized the titles of kings for the rulers of Bavaria and Württemberg. This legally removed these states from any power of the emperor and granted them almost complete sovereignty.

The empire has become a fiction. As Napoleon emphasized in a letter to Talleyrand after the Treaty of Pressburg: "There will be no more Reichstag ..., there will be no more German Empire." A number of German states formed the Confederation of the Rhine under the auspices of Paris. Napoleon I proclaimed himself the true successor of Charlemagne and claimed dominance in Germany and Europe.

On July 22, 1806, the Austrian envoy in Paris received an ultimatum from Napoleon, according to which, if Francis II did not abdicate the throne of the empire by August 10, the French army would attack Austria. Austria was not ready for a new war with Napoleon's empire. Rejection of the crown became inevitable. By the beginning of August 1806, having received guarantees from the French envoy that Napoleon would not put on the crown of the Roman emperor, Francis II decided to abdicate. On August 6, 1806, Franz II announced the resignation of the title and powers of Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, explaining this by the impossibility of fulfilling the duties of emperor after the establishment of the Confederation of the Rhine. The Holy Roman Empire ceased to exist.

Coat of arms of the Holy Roman Emperor from the Habsburg dynasty, 1605

Major milestones from the empire

February 2, 962 in St. Peter's Cathedral in Rome, the German king Otto I was solemnly crowned with the imperial crown. The coronation ceremony heralded the revival of the Roman Empire, to the name of which the epithet Sacred was later added. It was not for nothing that the capital of the once existing Roman Empire was nicknamed the Eternal City: for centuries, it seemed to people that Rome has always existed and will exist forever. The same was true of the Roman Empire. Although the ancient Roman Empire collapsed under the onslaught of the barbarians, the tradition continued to live. In addition, not the entire state perished, but only its western part - the Western Roman Empire. The eastern part survived and under the name of Byzantium existed for about a thousand years. The authority of the Byzantine emperor was at first recognized in the West, where the Germans created the so-called "barbarian kingdoms". Recognized until the Holy Roman Empire appeared.

In fact, the first attempt to revive the empire was made by Charlemagne in 800. The empire of Charlemagne was a kind of "European Union-1", which united the main territories of the main states of Europe - France, Germany and Italy. The Holy Roman Empire, a feudal-theocratic state formation, was supposed to continue this tradition.

Charlemagne felt himself the heir of the emperors Augustus and Constantine. However, in the eyes of the Basileus rulers of the Byzantine (Romaic) Empire, the true and legitimate heirs of the ancient Roman emperors, he was only a usurper barbarian. Thus arose the "problem of two empires" - the rivalry between Western and Byzantine emperors. There was only one Roman Empire, but two emperors, each of whom claimed the universal character of his power. Charlemagne, immediately after his coronation in 800, used the long and clumsy title (soon forgotten) "Charles, most illustrious Augustus, divinely crowned, great and peaceful emperor, ruler of the Roman Empire." Later emperors, from Charlemagne to Otto I, called themselves simply "Emperor August", without any territorial specification. It was believed that over time, the entire former Roman Empire, and ultimately the whole world, would enter the state.

Otto II is sometimes referred to as "Emperor Augustus of the Romans", and starting from Otto III this is already an indispensable title. The phrase "Roman Empire" as the name of the state began to be used from the middle of the 10th century, and was finally fixed in 1034. The "Holy Empire" is found in the documents of Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa. Since 1254, the full designation “Holy Roman Empire” has taken root in the sources, and since 1442 the words “German Nation” (Deutscher Nation, lat. Nationis Germanicae) have been added to it - at first to distinguish the German lands proper from the “Roman Empire” in in general. Emperor Frederick III's 1486 "universal peace" decree referred to the "Roman Empire of the German Nation", while the Cologne Reichstag decree of 1512 used the definitive form "Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation", which lasted until 1806.

The Carolingian empire turned out to be short-lived: already in 843, the three grandsons of Charlemagne divided it among themselves. The eldest of the brothers retained the imperial title, which was inherited, but after the collapse of the Carolingian Empire, the prestige of the Western emperor began to fade uncontrollably, until it completely died out. However, no one canceled the project of unification of the West. After several decades filled with turbulent events, wars and upheavals, the eastern part of the former empire of Charlemagne, the East Frankish kingdom, the future Germany, became the most powerful military and political power in Central and Western Europe. The German king Otto I the Great (936-973), having decided to continue the tradition of Charlemagne, took possession of the Italian (formerly Lombard) kingdom with its capital in Pavia, and a decade later he made the pope crown him in Rome with the imperial crown. Thus, the re-establishment of the Western Empire, which existed, continuously changing, until 1806, was one of the most important events in the history of Europe and the world, and had far-reaching and profound consequences.

The Roman Empire became the foundation of the Holy Roman Empire, a Christian theocratic power. Through its incorporation into the sacred history of Christianity, the Roman Empire acquired a special sanctification and dignity. Her shortcomings tried to forget. Inherited from Roman antiquity, the idea of ​​the world domination of the empire was closely intertwined with the claims of the Roman throne for supremacy in the Christian world. It was believed that the emperor and the pope, the two highest, called to serve by God himself, the representative of the Empire and the Church, should rule the Christian world in agreement. In turn, the whole world was sooner or later to fall under the domination of the "Bible project" headed by Rome. One way or another, the same project determined the entire history of the West and a significant part of world history. Hence the crusades against the Slavs, Balts and Muslims, the creation of huge colonial empires and the millennial confrontation between Western and Russian civilizations.

The power of the emperor, by its very idea, was a universal power, oriented towards world domination. However, in reality, the emperors of the Holy Roman Empire ruled only Germany, most of Italy and Burgundy. But in its inner essence, the Holy Roman Empire was a synthesis of Roman and German elements, which gave rise to a new civilization that tried to become the head of all mankind. From ancient Rome, the papal throne, which became the first "command post" (conceptual center) of Western civilization, inherited the great idea of ​​the world order, embracing many peoples in a single spiritual and cultural space.

Civilizing claims were inherent in the Roman imperial idea. The expansion of the empire, according to Roman ideas, meant not just an increase in the sphere of domination of the Romans, but also the spread of Roman culture (later - Christian, European, American, post-Christian-popular). The Roman concepts of peace, security and freedom reflected the idea of ​​a higher order, which brings to civilized mankind the domination of the Romans (Europeans, Americans). This culturally based idea of ​​empire was merged with the Christian idea, which fully prevailed after the fall of the Western Roman Empire. From the idea of ​​uniting all peoples in the Roman Empire, the idea of ​​uniting all mankind in the Christian Empire was born. It was about the maximum expansion of the Christian world and its protection from pagans, heretics and Gentiles, who took the place of the barbarians.

Two ideas gave the Western empire a special resilience and strength. First, the belief that the dominion of Rome, being universal, must also be eternal. The centers may change (Rome, London, Washington...), but the empire will remain. Secondly, the connection of the Roman state with the sole ruler - the emperor and the sanctity of the imperial name. From the time of Julius Caesar and Augustus, when the emperor assumed the rank of high priest, his person became sacred. These two ideas - world power and world religion - thanks to the Roman throne, became the basis of the Western project.

The imperial title did not give the kings of Germany great additional powers, although they formally stood above all the royal houses of Europe. The emperors ruled in Germany using already existing administrative mechanisms, and interfered very little in the affairs of their vassals in Italy, where their main support was the bishops of the Lombard cities. Beginning in 1046, Emperor Henry III was given the right to appoint popes, just as he held in his hands the appointment of bishops in the German church. After the death of Henry, the struggle with the papacy continued. Pope Gregory VII asserted the principle of the superiority of spiritual over secular power and, in what went down in history as the "struggle for investiture", which lasted from 1075 to 1122, launched an attack on the emperor's right to appoint bishops.

The compromise reached in 1122 did not lead to final clarity on the question of supremacy in state and church, and under Frederick I Barbarossa, the first emperor of the Hohenstaufen dynasty, the struggle between the papacy and the empire continued. Although now the main reason for the confrontation was the question of ownership of Italian lands. Under Frederick, the definition of "Sacred" was added to the words "Roman Empire" for the first time. This was the period of the highest prestige and power of the empire. Frederick and his successors centralized the system of government in their territories, conquered the Italian cities, established feudal suzerainty over states outside the empire, and, as the Germans moved east, extended their influence in this direction as well. In 1194, the Kingdom of Sicily passed to the Hohenstaufen, which led to the complete encirclement of papal possessions by the lands of the Holy Roman Empire.

The power of the Holy Roman Empire was weakened by the civil war that broke out between the Welfs and the Hohenstaufens after the premature death of Henry in 1197. Under Pope Innocent III, Rome dominated Europe until 1216, even gaining the right to resolve disputes between contenders for the imperial throne. After the death of Innocent, Frederick II returned the imperial crown to its former glory, but was forced to leave the German princes to do whatever they please in their destinies. Relinquishing leadership in Germany, he concentrated all his attention on Italy in order to strengthen his position here in the struggle against the papal throne and the cities under the rule of the Guelphs. Shortly after the death of Frederick in 1250, the papacy, with the help of the French, finally overcame the Hohenstaufen. In the period from 1250 to 1312, there were no coronations of emperors.

Nevertheless, in one form or another, the empire existed for more than five centuries. The imperial tradition was preserved despite the constantly renewed attempts of the French kings to seize the crown of emperors into their own hands and the attempts of Pope Boniface VIII to belittle the status of imperial power. But the former power of the empire remained in the past. The power of the empire was now limited to Germany alone, since Italy and Burgundy had fallen away from it. It received a new name - "Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation". The last links with the papacy broke off towards the end of the 15th century, when the German kings made it a rule to assume the title of emperor without going to Rome to receive the crown from the hands of the pope. In Germany itself, the power of the elector princes was greatly strengthened, and the rights of the emperor were weakened. The principles of election to the German throne were enshrined in 1356 by the Golden Bull of Emperor Charles IV. The seven electors chose the emperor and used their influence to strengthen their own and weaken the central power. Throughout the 15th century, the princes unsuccessfully tried to strengthen the role of the imperial Reichstag, in which the electors, lesser princes and imperial cities were represented, at the expense of the power of the emperor.

From 1438 the imperial crown was in the hands of the Austrian Habsburg dynasty and gradually the Holy Roman Empire became associated with the Austrian Empire. In 1519, King Charles I of Spain was elected Holy Roman Emperor under the name of Charles V, uniting Germany, Spain, the Netherlands, the Kingdom of Sicily and Sardinia under his rule. In 1556, Charles abdicated, after which the Spanish crown passed to his son Philip II. Charles' successor as Holy Roman Emperor was his brother Ferdinand I. Charles tried to create a "pan-European empire", which resulted in a series of brutal wars with France, the Ottoman Empire, in Germany itself against the Protestants (Lutherans). However, the Reformation destroyed all hopes for the reconstruction and revival of the old empire. Secularized states emerged and religious wars broke out. Germany broke up into Catholic and Protestant principalities. The Augsburg Religious Peace of 1555 between the Lutheran and Catholic subjects of the Holy Roman Empire and the Roman king Ferdinand I, acting on behalf of Emperor Charles V, recognized Lutheranism as the official religion and established the right of the imperial estates to choose their religion. The power of the emperor became decorative, the meetings of the Reichstag turned into congresses of diplomats occupied with trifles, and the empire degenerated into a loose union of many small principalities and independent states. Although the core of the Holy Roman Empire - Austria, for a long time retained the status of a great European power.

On August 6, 1806, the last emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, Franz II, who had already become Emperor Franz I of Austria in 1804, after a military defeat by France, renounced the crown and thus put an end to the existence of the empire. By this time, Napoleon had already proclaimed himself the true successor of Charlemagne, and he was supported by many German states. However, in one way or another, the idea of ​​a single Western empire, which should dominate the world, was preserved (Napoleon's empire, the British Empire, the Second and Third Reich). At present, the idea of ​​"eternal Rome" is being implemented by the United States.

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§ 20. Germany and the Holy Roman Empire in the X-XV centuries

Birth of the Holy Roman Empire

The German state appeared on the map of medieval Europe in the 9th century. According to the Treaty of Verdun, the lands east of the Rhine became the possession of the grandson of Charlemagne. But the power of the Carolingian dynasty in Germany was short-lived. In 919, the local nobility elected one of the most powerful German feudal lords, Duke of Saxony Henry I the Fowler (919–936), to the German throne. The new German king expanded the territory of the state and strengthened his power.

Heinrich the Ptitselov is brought the royal crown. Artist G. Dogel

Remember the date of the conclusion of the Treaty of Verdun and its main provisions.

Success accompanied the son of Henry - Otto I (936-973). To fight the recalcitrant German dukes, Otto I used the church. The king himself appointed bishops and abbots, effectively turning them into his vassals. Priests had to participate in military campaigns, carry out the instructions of the ruler, give a significant part of church income to the royal treasury.

Otto I managed to defeat many external enemies. His army inflicted a crushing defeat on the Hungarians. The king also briefly took possession of the lands of the Slavs between the Elbe and Oder rivers. The victories helped Otto I subdue the German dukes. Having strengthened his position within the country, the king turned to the idea of ​​restoring the Roman Empire.

Remember which of the medieval rulers and when tried to restore the Roman Empire.

To do this, he made trips to Italy, torn apart by internecine wars. German troops invaded the Apennine Peninsula twice. Finally, in 962, at St. Peter's in Rome, the pope crowned Otto I with the imperial crown. So the Holy Roman Empire was created on the territory of Germany and Northern Italy. The creation of the empire Otto I considered his greatest achievement, but his power was fragile. The Italians hated the invaders, and each new emperor had to assert his power in the country by force of arms.

The struggle of popes and emperors

While the power of the German rulers - the successors of Otto I increased, the influence of the Catholic Church weakened. Emperors did not reckon with the opinion of the Pope and appointed bishops and abbots themselves. Those received land from the emperors, becoming their vassals. The German emperors even interfered in the election of the pope, imprisoning people they liked in Rome. The authority of the church and clergy among the faithful was falling. More and more priests broke their vow. Despite the prohibition of marriage, they started families and inherited the lands that belonged to the church to their children.

Emperor Otto I. Medieval sculpture

The state of affairs in the church caused concern among the monks of the monastery of Cluny in Burgundy, who became famous for their austerity and asceticism. The Cluniacs believed that the church should free itself from the power of secular rulers and subjugate the emperors. In the middle of the 11th century, the views of the Cluniac monks were also supported by the pope. The emperor lost the ability to appoint the pope at will, who was now elected by an assembly of cardinals.

Church reform was continued by the Cluniac monk Hildebrand, who was elected pope in 1073 under the name of Gregory VII. Short and nondescript, with a quiet voice, Gregory VII was a man of great will and stubbornness, confident in the superiority of the church over the imperial power. The main goal of Gregory VII was to eliminate the dependence of the clergy on secular feudal lords and the emperor.

Henry IV at Canossa. Artist E. Schweiser

The actions of the pope aroused the concern of the German emperor Henry IV (1056-1106), who saw in them a danger to his power. However, his attempt to remove Gregory VII was unsuccessful. Moreover, the pope excommunicated the emperor from the church, declared him deprived of the kingdom and released Henry's subjects from the oath of allegiance. Dissatisfied with the strengthening of central power, the German dukes immediately opposed the emperor. Henry IV had to ask the Pope for peace. In January 1077, after a difficult crossing of the Alps, the emperor reached the castle of Canossa in Italy, where the pope was.

Having removed all the signs of imperial dignity, barefoot and hungry, in the clothes of a penitent sinner, he stood for three days on the threshold of the castle, begging for forgiveness. Only after this did the pope receive Henry IV. Since then, the expression "go to Canossa" has come to mean the greatest humiliation.

Why did Henry IV go to such humiliation in front of the pope?

After some time, the struggle between the pope and the emperor broke out with renewed vigor. This time Henry IV succeeded, invading Italy and capturing Rome. The pope fled to the south of the country, where he soon died, bequeathing to his successors to continue the fight.

In a clash with the emperors, the papacy nevertheless won. In 1122, the son of Henry IV was forced to sign an agreement with the pope in the city of Worms, according to which the emperor retained the right to influence the election of bishops and abbots only in Germany. But the symbols of the spiritual authority of the bishops - the ring and the staff - were awarded only by the pope. The Treaty of Worms weakened imperial power. From the middle of the 11th to the beginning of the 14th century, the papacy wielded enormous power and influence in Western Europe, subordinating secular rulers.

Two Friedrichs

The struggle between the sovereigns of the Holy Roman Empire and the popes weakened the central power in Germany. To strengthen their position, the emperors tried to completely subjugate Northern Italy and again break the power of the pope. In 1158, the cunning and cruel Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa (1152–1190) invaded the country with a huge army. Having convened a meeting of large Italian feudal lords and representatives of cities, the emperor demanded that the court, coinage and distribution of land holdings were now only in the hands of the emperor. Self-government of cities was also proposed to be abolished. The Italian cities, who did not agree with such conditions, opposed Frederick I. But he brutally cracked down on the rebels. Having captured Milan after a two-year siege, the emperor ordered to evict its inhabitants, and to destroy the city to the ground: to plow the land where it stood and cover it with salt.

Friedrich Barbarossa. Artist X. Sedengerf

The inhabitants of the cities of Northern Italy formed an alliance - the Lombard League, which was supported by the Pope. In 1176, a battle took place between the city militia and the emperor's troops. The detachments of Frederick Barbarossa were defeated, and he himself barely escaped, leaving his sword and banner in the hands of the victors. The defeat forced the emperor to recognize the liberties of the cities and, a hundred years after Canossa, humbly kiss the pope's shoe as a sign of humility.

Barbarossa's grandson Frederick II (1212–1250) attempted to bring Italy back under imperial rule. He owned vast lands and was one of the most powerful sovereigns in Europe. In Italy, Frederick II owned the south of the country and the large rich island of Sicily. Here he lived most of his life.

City Hall in the Italian city of Siena "Golden Bull"

In his Italian possessions, the emperor managed to achieve unlimited power, subjugating the local feudal lords and cities.

The emperor sent all his forces to fight the Italian cities and the pope. First, Frederick defeated the troops of the revived Lombard League, captured the ruler of Milan, and devastated Northern Italy. He declared the pope to be his main enemy. He, in turn, excommunicated Frederick II from the church for deviations from the Christian faith. The Italians refused to obey the heretic emperor. Frederick suffered one defeat after another, several conspiracies were arranged against him, and the German nobility deprived him of the royal crown. In 1250, the emperor suddenly died. The Italian states managed to maintain their independence.

Using the map, determine what lands in Italy Frederick II owned and the directions of his campaigns.

"Onslaught to the East". Germany in the 13th-15th centuries

Simultaneously with the invasion of the emperors in Italy, the attempts of the German feudal lords to expand their possessions at the expense of their eastern neighbors - the Slavs and the peoples of the Baltic states, resumed. A feature of the new conquests, called the "onslaught to the east", was that the fighting was conducted not by the king, but by the German dukes. The Catholic Church acted as an ally of the feudal lords, declaring the "onslaught to the east" a charitable deed - a crusade against the pagans.

In a short time, the feudal lords managed to conquer the lands inhabited by the Slavs to the east of Germany. The Slavs were either exterminated or driven back to remote places. Their lands were settled by German peasants. In the XIII century, the church announced a new Crusade - against the pagan tribes of the Baltic. It was attended by the soldiers of the Teutonic and specially created by the Pope of the Livonian Spiritual and Knightly Order. After fierce battles, the knights captured the lands of the Lithuanian Prussian tribe and other peoples of the Baltic. The attempts of the German feudal lords to move further east and subjugate the Russian lands failed. In 1242, the knights were defeated by the Novgorod prince Alexander Nevsky at the Battle of Lake Peipus. "Onslaught to the East" was stopped.

Remember what spiritual and knightly orders are.

The struggle of the emperors with the papacy, the wars in Italy, the seizure of the eastern lands by the feudal lords weakened the central authority in the Holy Roman Empire. The German cities were not interested in strengthening the imperial power either, as they traded not so much with each other as with other countries. Germany remained a fragmented country. Starting from the XIII century, the emperor began to be elected by the most influential feudal lords and bishops - electors. They, not wanting to lose their independence, tried to elect weak dukes as emperors. And the rulers of Germany themselves, in order to thank the feudal lords for their election, provided them with new rights. Gradually, such areas of the Holy Roman Empire as Austria, Bavaria, Brandenburg, Saxony became more and more independent of the emperor, who ruled only in his duchy.

"Golden bull"

In 1356, Emperor Charles IV (1347-1378) signed a charter - the Golden Bull. She secured the right to choose the emperor by seven electors: three bishops and four dukes, and confirmed that large feudal lords in their possessions could maintain their own army, administer justice, and mint coins. The "Golden Bull" finally consolidated the feudal fragmentation of Germany.

Emperor Charles IV. Medieval sculpture

Summing up

In the X century, as a result of the conquest of Italy by the German emperors, the Holy Roman Empire was formed. Its rulers owned a significant territory, but their power in Germany was weak. Due to the strong positions of the German feudal lords, the unsuccessful struggle of the emperors with the papacy, Germany remained a fragmented country.

1077. "Journey to Canossa" by Emperor Henry IV.

1356. Signing of the Golden Bull by Charles IV.

1. When and how was the Holy Roman Empire formed?

2. What reforms did the Cluny monks carry out in the Catholic Church?

3. What does the expression “go to Canossa” mean and with what episode of the struggle between the German rulers and the popes is it associated?

4. What was the goal pursued by Frederick I Barbarossa, making a trip to Italy? How did the emperor's wars in Italy end?

5. What caused the "onslaught to the east"? What were his results?

6. What document consolidated the feudal fragmentation of Germany? What rights did he grant to the feudal lords?

1. Using the material of the paragraph and the illustration, characterize Friedrich Barbarossa as a historical figure (for a characterization plan, see: assignment to § 3).

2*. What do you think, who did the German king Otto I imitate, calling himself emperor, and his state an empire?

4. The Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation of the 10th-13th centuries and the Habsburg Empire 4. 1. The Empire of the 10th-13th centuries is the sum of two layers Modern ideas about the Holy Roman Empire of the 10th-13th centuries are probably the sum of information from two historical periods. First -