Kingdom of Germany
 | This article's factual accuracy is disputed. (March 2017) |
The Kingdom of Germany or German Kingdom (
Like
The
Distinct titulature for Germany, Italy and Burgundy, which traditionally had their own courts, laws, and chanceries,[7] gradually dropped from use as the King/Emperor's influence outside of Germany waned and the German kingdom came to be identified with the Holy Roman Empire.[8]
Reigns were either dated from the day a ruler was elected king (
Background
| History of Germany |
|---|
 |
Carolingian East Francia, 843–911
The tripartite division of the Carolingian Empire effected by the Treaty of Verdun was challenged very early on with the death of the
Louis the German was known at the time as "Rex Germaniae" (King of Germany) as his brother was called King of Gaul. This was meant to distinguish the different parts of a theoretically single Frankish kingdom, although it is not known if this was meant to signify anything further.[9]
East Francia was itself divided into three parts at the death of
Stem duchies
Within East Francia were large duchies, sometimes called kingdoms (regna) after their former status, which had a certain level of internal solidarity. Early among these were Saxony and Bavaria, which had been conquered by Charlemagne.[10] In German historiography they are called the jüngere Stammesherzogtümer, or "younger stem duchies",[11] The conventional five "younger stem duchies" of the Holy Roman Empire are
The conventional term "younger" serves to distinguish them from the (poorly documented) duchies under the
I am attempting to refute the whole hallowed doctrine of the difference between the beginnings of the West-Frankish, "French", principautés territoriales, and the East-Frankish, "German," stem-duchies ... Certainly, their names had already appeared during the Migrations. Yet, their political institutional, and biological structures had more often than not thoroughly changed. I have, moreover, refuted the basic difference between the so-called älteres Stammesfürstentum [older tribal principality] and jüngeres Stammesfürstentum [younger tribal principality], since I consider the duchies before and after Charlemagne to have been basically the same Frankish institution ...[12]
There has been debate in modern German historiography over the sense in which these duchies were "tribal", as in a people sharing a common descent ("stem"), being governed as units over long periods of time, sharing a tribal sense of solidarity, shared customs, etc.[10] In the context of modern German nationalism, Gerd Tellenbach (1939) emphasised the role of feudalism, both of the kings in the formation of the German kingdom and of the dukes in the formation of the stem duchies, against Martin Lintzel and Walter Schlesinger, who emphasised the role of the individual "stems" or "tribes" (Stämme).[13] The existence of a "tribal" self-designation among Saxons and Bavarians can be asserted for the 10th and 12th centuries, respectively, although they may have existed much earlier.[10]
After the death of the last Carolingian,
Emergence of "German" terminology
Ottonians
The eastern division of the
An entry in the
Any firm distinction between the kingdoms of
Henry II (r. 1002–1024) was the first to be called "King of the Germans" (rex Teutonicorum).[24] The Ottonians seem to have adopted the use of the "Teutonic" label as it helped them to counter critics who questioned how the Ottonians, who were neither Carolingian nor Frankish, could legitimately rule. The Ottonians, by calling themselves "German" kings, instead presented themselves as rulers of all peoples north of the Alps and east of the Rhine. This "German kingdom" was later regarded as a subdivision of the Empire alongside Italy, Burgundy and Bohemia.[25]
Salians and Staufer
In the late eleventh century the term "Kingdom of the Germans" (Regnum Teutonicorum) had become utilised more favourably in Germany due to a growing sense of national identity;[26] by the twelfth century, German historian Otto of Freising had to explain that East Francia was "now called the Kingdom of the Germans".[20]
In 1028, after his coronation as Emperor in 1027, Conrad II had his son, Henry III, elected King by the prince electors. When, in 1035, Conrad attempted to depose Adalbero, Duke of Carinthia, Henry, acting on the advice of his tutor, Egilbert, Bishop of Freising, refused to allow it, as Adalbero was a vassal of the King, not the Emperor. The German magnates, having legally elected Henry, would not recognise the deposition unless their king did also. After many angry protests, Conrad finally knelt before his son and pleaded for his desired consent, which was finally given.[27]
However, Conrad II used the simple title "king" or on occasion "king of the Franks and Lombards" before Imperial coronation, while his son Henry III introduced the title "King of the Romans" before the Imperial coronation.[28] His grandson Henry IV used both "king of the Franks and Lombards"[29] and King of the Romans before Imperial coronation.
Beginning in the late eleventh century, during the
When Pope Gregory VII started using the term Regnum Teutonicorum, the concept of a "distinct territorial kingdom" separate from Kingdom of Italy was already widely recognised on both sides of the Alps, and this entity was at least externally perceived as "German" in nature. Contemporary writers representing various German vassal rulers also adopted this terminology under papal influence. In the Papal-Imperial Concordat of Worms of 1122, which put an end to the Investiture Controversy, the authority of the Emperor regarding Church offices in this "German kingdom" was legally distinguished from his authority in "other parts of the Empire". The Imperial chancery did adopt the "German" titles, albeit inconsistently.[32] Pope Gregory began using the term Regnum Teutonicorum even before his conflict with Henry IV. He was highly successful at encouraging his German supporters such as Berthold of Reichenau or Bernold of St Blasien to use the terms "Regnum Teutonicorum" or "Teutonicae partes".[33] Prior to the civil wars of Henry IV and the letters of Pope Gregory VII which address the German people as a whole, the loyalties of Germans were primarily focused on local regions such as Bavaria, Swabia, Franconia, Upper or Lower Lotharingia, East or West Saxony. Only from the mid-1070s was there a common political awareness of a "German Kingdom" as a single unit of political loyalty.[34]
In the 13th century the term Regnum Teutonicorum started being replaced in Germany by the similar Regnum Alemanniae, possibly due to French or Papal influence, or alternatively due to the Staufer emperors' base of power in the Duchy of Swabia, also known as Alamannia. Emperor Frederick II even proclaimed his son Henry VII as Rex Alemannie (King of Germany), to rule Germany under him while he ruled the rest of the empire. The Kaiserchronik explicitly describes Henry as having rule of a separate German kingdom (siniu Tiuschen riche) under the empire. Henry's successor Konrad IV was also called king-designate of Germany (rex Theutonie designatus) by a contemporary writer.[32]
The
Post-Staufer period
German writers after the Staufen period used variants of the term "Regnum Alemanniae" to indicate the weakened reach of the emperors who now confined themselves mainly to German matters. Anti-king Henry Raspe also described himself as "king of Germany and prince of the Romans". There were also scattered references to a political community of "Germans" excluding the rest of the empire. For instance, in 1349, Charles IV met the nobles and burghers of "regnum Alamannie", in 1355 he summoned the electors and burghers "in regno Alemannie". However, this tendency to refer to a "German" polity after the collapse of the Staufen empire did not develop further in the following period.[8][32]
The term "regnum" was sometimes used to refer a distinct political entity within the "imperium", but sometimes they were used interchangeably, and sometimes they were combined in phrases like "Regnum Romanorum". In the German language it was most common to simply use the term "German lands" rather than "kingdom".[36] In 1349 Charles IV (King of the Romans) appointed the Duke of Brabant's son to govern on his behalf "in our kingdom of the Romans throughout Germania or Theutonia".[35]
There were persistent proposals, including one that
From 1250 onward, the association between "Germans" and the whole Empire became stronger. As post-Staufer German monarchs were too weak to secure coronation as emperor, German writers became concerned that Germany was losing the prestige of Imperial status. The lack of concentration of power in one ruler or region also made the monarchy more attractive to all Germans. These led to more interest in connecting German identity to being heirs of Imperial Rome (
In 1508,
After the
Nevertheless, there are relatively few references to a German kingdom distinct from the Holy Roman Empire.[8]
See also
- King of the Romans
- List of German monarchs
- List of Holy Roman Emperors
Notes
- ^ The Latin expression regnum Teutonicum corresponds to German-language deutsches Reich in literal translation; however, in German usage, the term deutsches Reich is reserved for the German national state of 1871–1945, see: Matthias Springer, "Italia docet: Bemerkungen zu den Wörtern francus, theodiscus und teutonicus" in: Dieter Hägermann, Wolfgang Haubrichs, Jörg Jarnut (eds.), Akkulturation: Probleme einer germanisch-romanischen Kultursynthese in Spätantike und frühem Mittelalter, Walter de Gruyter (2013), 68–98 (73f.).
- ISBN 978-0-521-57333-7. Retrieved 5 April 2020.
- ^ "a conglomerate, an assemblage of a number of once separate and independent... gentes [peoples] and regna [kingdoms]." Gillingham (1991), p. 124, who also calls it "a single, indivisible political unit throughout the middle ages." He uses "medieval Germany" to mean the tenth to fifteenth centuries for the purposes of his paper. Robinson, "Pope Gregory", p. 729.
- ^ Müller-Mertens 1999, p. 265.
- ^ Robinson, "Pope Gregory", p. 729.
- ^ Whaley, Germany and the Holy Roman Empire, pp. 20–22. The titles in Latin were sacri imperii per Italiam archicancellarius, sacri imperii per Germaniam archicancellarius and sacri imperii per Galliam et regnum Arelatense archicancellarius.
- ^ Cristopher Cope, Phoenix Frustrated: the lost kingdom of Burgundy, p. 287
- ^ ISBN 978-0-521-57333-7. Retrieved 3 April 2013.
- ^ Wilson, Peter, Heart of Europe (2016), p. 256
- ^ a b c d e Reynolds, Kingdoms and Communities, pp. 290–91.
- ^ a b glossed as "more recent tribal duchies" in Patrick J. Geary, Phantoms of Remembrance: Memory and Oblivion at the End of the First Millennium (Princeont, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1994), p. 44.
- ^ Herwig Wolfram, "The Shaping of the Early Medieval Principality as a Type of Non-royal Rulership", Viator, 2 (1971), p. 41.
- ^ "The stem duchy did not arise out of the will of the leaderless stem but rather out of the duke's determination to rule. The duke himself was the political organization of the hitherto unorganized and leaderless stem." Gerd Tellenbach, Königtum und Stämme in der Werdezeit des Deutschen Reiches, Quellen und Studien zur Verfassungsgeschichte des Deutschen Reiches in Mittelalter und Neuzeit, vol. 7, pt. 4 (Weimar, 1939), p. 92, quoted and translated in Freed, "Reflections on the Medieval German Nobility", p. 555.
- ^ This thesis was popularised for English scholars by Geoffrey Barraclough, The Origins of Modern Germany, 2nd ed. (New York: 1947).
- ^ That he claimed the whole, and not just Bavaria, has been doubted by Geary, Phantoms of Remembrance, p. 44.
- ^ James Westfall Thompson, "German Feudalism", The American Historical Review, 28, 3 (1923), p. 454.
- ^ See Gillingham, Kingdom of Germany, p. 8 & Reindal, "Herzog Arnulf".
- ^ Reynolds, Kingdoms and Communities, pp. 290–2; Beumann, "Die Bedeutung des Kaisertums", pp. 343–7.
- ^ Avercorn, "Process of Nationbuilding", p. 186; Gillingham, Kingdom of Germany, p, 8; Reynolds, Kingdoms and Communities, p. 291.
- ^ a b Len Scales (2012). The Shaping of German Identity: Authority and Crisis, 1245–1414. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 158–159.
- ^ Reynolds, Kingdoms and Communities, pp. 289–98.
- ^ Mierow, The Two Cities, pp. 376–7.
- ^ See Otto's list of emperors, Mierow, The Two Cities, p. 451.
- ISBN 978-0191065644.
- ^ Wilson, Peter, Heart of Europe: A History of the Holy Roman Empire (2016), p. 257
- ISBN 0199265976.
- ^ Wolfram, Herwig (2006). Conrad II, 990–1039: Emperor of Three Kingdoms. Translated by Kaiser, Denise A. Pennsylvania University Press. pp. 86–87.
- ISBN 0812235088.
- ISBN 0191584592.
- ^ Averkorn 2001, p. 187.
- ISBN 9780521414111.)
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link - ^ a b c d Len Scales (2012). The Shaping of German Identity: Authority and Crisis, 1245–1414. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 160–162, 165–169.
- ISBN 0191584592.
- ISBN 0191584592.
- ^ a b Len Scales (2012). The Shaping of German Identity: Authority and Crisis, 1245–1414. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 185–188.
- ^ Len Scales (2012). The Shaping of German Identity: Authority and Crisis, 1245–1414. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 180–182.
- ^ James Vc Bryce (1863). The Holy Roman Empire by James Bryce. T. & G. Shrimpton, 1864. pp. 92–93.
- ^ Len Scales (2012). The Shaping of German Identity: Authority and Crisis, 1245–1414. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 174–175.
- ^ Wilson, Peter, Heart of Europe: A History of the Holy Roman Empire (2016), p. 255-259
- ^ "the Holy Roman Empire". www.heraldica.org.
- ^ Bryce, p. 243
- ISBN 978-1846147258.
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