Table of Contents
- 1 What was the purpose of the electors within the Holy Roman Empire?
- 2 Why wasnt Austria an elector?
- 3 How did the title of the Holy Roman Emperor get elected into power?
- 4 What does a Margrave do?
- 5 How many electors did the Holy Roman Empire have?
- 6 How did the Holy Roman Empire get its name?
- 7 How did the Roman Emperor get elected?
- 8 What was the highest position in the Holy Roman Empire?
- 9 Who were the prince-electors?
What was the purpose of the electors within the Holy Roman Empire?
The Electoral College (German: Kur; Latin: Collegium Electorale) of the Holy Roman Empire was the gathering of prince electors for an imperial election, where they voted for the next King of the Romans and future Emperor.
Why wasnt Austria an elector?
The only exception was in 1740, when the Habsburgs had no males left that were eligible for the throne, and the electors were unwilling to make Maria Theresia, and thus a FEMALE, Emperor.
How did the title of the Holy Roman Emperor get elected into power?
The election of a Holy Roman Emperor was generally a two-stage process whereby, from at least the 13th century, the King of the Romans was elected by a small body of the greatest princes of the Empire, the prince-electors. This was then followed shortly thereafter by his coronation as Emperor by the Pope.
Who were the electors of the Holy Roman Empire?
Elector. Elector a German prince entitled to take part in the election of the Holy Roman Emperor. There were originally seven Electors, the Archbishops of Cologne, Mainz, and Trier, the Duke of Saxony, the Count Palatine of the Rhine, the Margrave of Brandenburg, and the King of Bohemia.
What does the title elector mean?
“Elector,” “voter,” or “qualified elector,” means a voter whose name appears on the great register of the county in which the district is located, or any supplement thereto, allowed by law to be used to determine the eligibility of persons to vote at municipal or county elections, and whose address as it appears on the …
What does a Margrave do?
Margrave was originally the medieval title for the military commander assigned to maintain the defence of one of the border provinces of the Holy Roman Empire or of a kingdom.
How many electors did the Holy Roman Empire have?
seven
A letter written by Pope Urban IV in 1265 suggests that by “immemorial custom”, seven princes had the right to elect the King and future Emperor. The pope wrote that the seven electors were those who had just voted in the election of 1257, which resulted in the election of two kings.
How did the Holy Roman Empire get its name?
The Holy Roman Empire was named after the Roman Empire and was considered its continuation. This is based in the medieval concept of translatio imperii. The Holy Roman Empire looked to Charlemagne, King of the Franks, as its founder, who had been crowned Emperor of the Romans on Christmas Day in 800 by Pope Leo III.
How did the Habsburgs keep power?
Unlike other aristocratic families, the Habsburgs operated a system of collective inheritance. King Sigismund of Bohemia and Hungary, who had no heirs, nominated Duke Albert of Habsburg (lived 1397-1439) as his successor, and Albert became the first Habsburg to be elected as Holy Roman Emperor in 1438.
What does it mean electors vote?
When people cast their vote, they are actually voting for a group of people called electors. The number of electors each state gets is equal to its total number of Senators and Representatives in Congress. A total of 538 electors form the Electoral College. Each elector casts one vote following the general election.
The prince-electors (or simply electors) of the Holy Roman Empire (German: Kurfürst Latin: Princeps Elector) were the members of the electoral college of the Holy Roman Empire, having since the 13th century the privilege of electing the King of the Romans or, from the middle of the 16th century onwards, directly the Holy Roman Emperor.
How did the Roman Emperor get elected?
Imperial election. The election of a Holy Roman Emperor was generally a two-stage process whereby, from at least the 13th century, the King of the Romans was elected by a small body of the greatest princes of the Empire, the prince-electors.
What was the highest position in the Holy Roman Empire?
Holy Roman Empire. The mostly German prince-electors, the highest-ranking noblemen of the empire, usually elected one of their peers as ” King of the Romans “, and he would later be crowned emperor by the Pope; the tradition of papal coronations was discontinued in the 16th century.
Who were the prince-electors?
From the 13th century, the right to elect kings in the Holy Roman Empire was granted to a limited number of imperial princes, the so called prince-electors. There are various theories over the emergence of their exclusive election right.