Army of the Holy Roman Empire

The Army of the Holy Roman Empire (French: Armée du Saint-Empire; German: Reichsarmee, Reichsheer, or Reichsarmatur; Latin: Exercitus Imperii) was created in 1422 and came to an end when the Holy Roman Empire was dissolved in 1806 as a result of the Napoleonic Wars.

The Army of the Empire was not a standing army. When there was danger, it was mustered from among the elements constituting it, in order to conduct a military campaign or Reichsheerfahrt during an Imperial War (Reichskrieg) or an Imperial Execution (Reichsexekution). It could only be deployed with the consent of the Imperial Diet and should not be confused with the Imperial Army (Kaiserliche Armee) of the Holy Roman Emperor.

The Reichsarmee formally only refers to troops gathered by the circle system and is thus synonymous with the Kreistruppen (circle troops). It is not to be confused with the Imperial Army of the Holy Roman Emperor, which were troops mustered by the imperial family mostly from their direct estates for use at their own discretion. It is also not to be confused with armies of individual imperial states, even if troops from those states may also be serving in the Reichsarmee. For example in 1695 the electorates of Brandenburg, Bavaria, Saxony, and the Palatinate all maintained independent armies of 10,000 to 20,000 troops while also contributing forces to the Reichsarmee. Troops of the Reichsarmee only accounted for 41,300 out of more than 280,000 soldiers of the Holy Roman Empire in the field at that time.