Lyceum & Book Club - Week 12 - King of the Romans

After 1000AD, the title King of the Romans came into practice. It was sort of a place holder title.

And the story goes that during a power struggle between Pope Gregory and Emperor Henry II over who had the power to appoint bishops, Pope Gregory VII referred the Emperor derisively as “King of the Germans”, to emphasize that he (and “those people”) was a foreigner whose authority was local and not over Italy or the Papacy . In response, the emperor started calling himself “King of the Romans”, indicating that the head of the Holy Roman Empire was over even the Papacy.

And the tradition continued.

You might hear King of the Franks, the Roman King or King of the Romans. What you did not hear either before or during this period is the position referred to as “King of Germany” because there was no legal position of “King of Germany” as a single state called “Kingdom of Germany”; that legal entity did not appear at this time. There was a vast region where Germanic tribes lived that stretched over vast territories and crossed modern state boundaries, but it was not known as the kingdom or state of Germany at this time.

It is only in English texts that you find the title “King of Germany”.

There was often a span of years between when someone was elected to the position and their crowning by the Pope in Rome as Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.

Later on it was used in the same way the title of Prince of Wales indicates the heir-designate to the throne of the United Kingdom while a king/or queen is still sitting on the throne.

And then once emperors stopped being crowned by popes in 1508, the title really no longer served any purpose, but was still used as part of the emperor’s formal title until the Holy Roman Empire itself was dissolved in 1806.

Candidates for the position at first was limited to the heads of Germanic stem duchies. But as time moved on and these units broke up, rulers of smaller principalities and even non-Germanic rulers were eligible for the position.

Originally all noblemen present could vote by unanimous acclamation, but later on around 1147, it evolved into a limited group who had the privilege of voting on the position, consisting of only the most eminent bishops and noblemen. And then in 1356, Emperor Charles IV decreed that there would be a council who would vote that would be made of seven prince-electors - both prince-bishops and secular princes.

From wiki:

They were the Prince-Archbishops of Mainz, Trier and Cologne as well as the King of Bohemia, the Count Palatine of the Rhine, the Saxon duke, and the Margrave of Brandenburg.

After the Investiture Controversy, Charles intended to strengthen the legal status of the Rex Romanorum beyond Papal approbation. Consequently, among his successors only Sigismund and Frederick III were still crowned Emperors in Rome and in 1530 Charles V was the last king to receive the Imperial Crown at the hands of the Pope (in Bologna).

Traditionally, the new king was crowned as King of the Romans at Charlemagne’s throne in the Aachen Cathedral by the Archbishop of Cologne. And then at some point, perhaps years later, the new king would make the pilgrimage over the Alps to receive the Iron Crown of Lombardy as King of Italy in Pavia or Milan and then finally would travel to Rome and be crowned Emperor by the Pope and receive his royal regalia. This made the Pope happy and kept his position as Emperor maker intact while ensuring that the emperor elect could function as emperor even if he could not make that long time consuming trek to Rome.

If the king could not make the trek, and some never did make the trek for one reason or another, they kept the title King of the Romans for their entire reign as emperor without ever receiving the official title of Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.

Later developments

The title Romanorum Rex became functionally obsolete after 1508, when the Pope permitted King Maximilian I to use the title of Electus Romanorum Imperator ("elected Emperor of the Romans") after he failed in a good-faith attempt to journey to Rome. At this time Maximilian also took the new title "King of the Germans" or "King in Germania" (Germaniae rex, König in Germanien), but the latter was never used as a primary title.

The rulers of the Empire thereafter called themselves "Emperors" without going to Rome or soliciting Papal approval, taking the title as soon as they were crowned in Germany or upon the death of a sitting Emperor if they were elected as heir to the throne.