Holy Roman Empire

The Holy Roman Empire was a large and complex polity comprising and controlling much of Northern, Central and Western Europe, headed by a royal and usually elected Holy Roman Emperor. It developed in the Early Middle Ages (beginning in either 800 or 962), and lasted for a millennium until its dissolution in 1806 during the Napoleonic Wars. Initially, it comprised three parts—Germany, Italy, and (from 1032) Burgundy—held together mostly by the emperor's overlordship. By the 15th century, imperial governance had become concentrated in and upon the Kingdom of Germany — the empire's effective control over Italy and Burgundy had largely disappeared — and thus from the time of the renaissance it increasingly became known as the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation.

On 25 December 800, Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne (the Frankish king) as Roman Emperor, reviving the title more than three centuries after the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476. The title had again lapsed by 924 but was revived again in 962 with the crowning of Otto of Saxony as emperor by Pope John XII. Otto the Great (as he became known), was King of the Germans but as emperor he became Charlemagne's successor, ruling in lands that had been first brought together as the Carolingian Empire. From 962 until the 13th century, the empire was one of the most powerful monarchies in Europe. It depended on continuing cooperation between emperors and still relatively powerful and independent vassals; this was disturbed during the Salian period. The empire reached its apex in terms of territorial expansion and power in the mid-13th century, under the House of Hohenstaufen, but this was an overextension and led to a partial collapse.

The imperial office was traditionally elected: mostly by a handful of (predominantly German) prince-electors and electors-spiritual (archbishops). In theory and diplomacy, the emperors were considered first amongst equals of Europe's (at least its Catholic) monarchies.

A process of Imperial Reform in the late 15th and early 16th centuries transformed the empire, creating a set of institutions which endured until its final demise in the 19th century. On 6 August 1806, Emperor Francis II abdicated and formally dissolved the empire following the creation by French emperor Napoleon of the Confederation of the Rhine from German client states loyal to France. For most of its history, the Empire primarily comprised the entirety of the modern countries of the Czech Republic, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Switzerland, Slovenia, Germany, Austria, and large swathes of what is now eastern France, northern and central Italy, and western Poland.