The feudal era in Europe is very different from the feudal era in China, in the land similar to our country, but dozens of hundreds of kingdoms and empires were born, but in the medieval European continent, there is such an empire, the name touches the Roman Empire, it is the Holy Roman Empire, so where is such a Holy Roman Empire? Later Voltaire used the twelve words "neither Roman, nor sacred, nor imperial" to describe the Holy Roman Empire, which can be said to be quite appropriate.
Not Rome
Although the Holy Roman Empire encountered the previous Roman Empire in the name of the country, it was actually an empire established with the German state as the main body, and it was an empire that was crowned by the Roman Church when the German state was strong at that time.
And Rome is now a city in Italy, but the significance of this city for Italy is very unusual, Italy's Mediterranean civilization was born here, and the Holy Roman Empire because it is mainly German, although its territory does not completely coincide, but because the main body is Germany, the emperor's ruling center is mostly in Germany, and even when the Staufen family is in charge of the imperial power, trying to control Italy by means of marriage, but it was strongly opposed by the Italian people. If it was the real Roman Empire, it would not be so.
But the emperors of the empire are not necessarily All Germans, because the Holy Roman Empire is a country that adheres to Christianity, and Christianity has "universalism", that is, as long as it is a Prince and Nobleman who believes in Christianity, he is eligible to inherit the Imperial throne, so there are often foreigners who become Emperors, and this emperor may have nothing to do with Germany and Rome. The Holy Roman Empire only touched the Porcelain Roman Empire because there was a Roman Church.
Two. , is not sacred
Although called the Holy Roman Empire, but this empire from the beginning of the establishment is not sacred at all, Germany is a very good nation, they will have a strong military force to sweep through Europe at some times, but because there are too many races in Europe, it is not easy to get everyone's recognition, so they need what everyone believes in, that is, the Church of Rome, and the Church of Rome also needs a strong military to consolidate and expand its influence, so in this case, the Pope and the King use each other, the Pope crowns the King as emperor, The emperor led troops to the south to conquer the north and expand the empire.
Because it is the product of mutual calculation between the two sides, the pope and the emperor often have contradictions because of the problem of interests, open and secret struggle, and the emperor can not get benefits in front of the pope and his princes, so he has to obtain benefits through foreign conquest, although the foreign war has achieved a lot of results, but because of the neglect of domestic construction, domestic complaints are rife, and the country has not been sacred since its establishment.
Third, it is not an empire
The two words "empire" literally mean "the emperor's country", but in fact, the Holy Roman Empire cannot be called an empire, and the emperor cannot achieve centralized power in China like the emperor of China's feudal era.
The power struggle between the pope and the emperor was a problem that existed since the birth of the Holy Roman Empire, and in the fifty years from 1056 to 1106, the emperor and the pope launched a "dispute over the authority of the main professor" against the problem of bishops everywhere, putting the contradiction on the table, and the major nobles also took sides, some supported the emperor, and some supported the pope.
The contradiction intensified, and later the pope expelled the emperor from the church in anger, and many nobles took the opportunity to openly oppose the emperor, so there was the "Canossa Visit" incident in 1077, the emperor personally took his wife, crossed the Alps, went to the pope to ask for forgiveness, wanted to restore the religious status, and since then the imperial power has secretly lowered the ecclesiastical power.
Later, when the Luxembourg family became emperor, it was announced that the emperor was jointly elected by three bishops and seven princes, so the later emperors, in order to let their sons succeed to the throne smoothly, even laid down their bodies to sell their power to the princes, resulting in the imperial power was much worse than before, and the situation of the division of the princes became more and more intense, the princes became more and more vigorous, suppressed by religion, and divided by the princes, which was not as good as china's Shang Zhou period, this empire was not the emperor's country for a long time.
The Holy Roman Empire existed for 845 years and was once brilliant, but it had begun to decline since the 13th century, but it existed under this stalemate until Napoleon swept through Europe, and it can only be said that in these hundreds of years, the Holy Roman Empire was a hundred-legged worm, dead but not stiff.