March 26, 1027: Coronation of Conrad II as Holy Roman Emperor

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coronation, Emperor Conrad II, Holy Roman Emperor, King of East Francia, King of Germany, Pope John XIX

Conrad II (c. 989/990 – June 4, 1039), also known as Conrad the Elder and Conrad the Salic, was the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire from 1027 until his death in 1039. The first of a succession of four Salian emperors, who reigned for one century until 1125, Conrad ruled the kingdoms of Germany (from 1024), Italy (from 1026) and Burgundy (from 1033).

The son of Franconian count Henry of Speyer (also Henry of Worms) and Adelaide of Metz of the Matfriding dynasty, that had ruled the Duchy of Lorraine from 959 until 972, Conrad inherited the titles of count of Speyer and Worms during childhood after his father had died around the year 990. He extended his influence beyond his inherited lands, as he came into favor of the princes of the kingdom.

In 1016 Conrad married the twice widowed duchess Gisela of Swabia, daughter of Duke Herman II of Swabia who, in 1002, had unsuccessfully claimed the German throne upon Emperor Otto III’s death, and had lost the election to Emperor Heinrich II. Gisela had first been married to Count Bruno I of Brunswick the same year.

Following Bruno’s death around 1010, Gisela had married Ernst I of the House of Babenberg. Through this marriage, Ernst I inherited the Duchy of Swabia upon the death of Gisela’s brother Duke Herman III of Swabia in 1012. The marriage produced two sons: Ernst II and Herman. After the death of Ernst I in 1015, Emperor Heinrich II named Ernst II as Duke of Swabia.

As Gisela’s new husband, Conrad hoped to serve as regent for his minor stepson in the administration of the duchy, seeing it as an opportunity to increase his own rank and subsequently make a claim for his own duchy. Emperor Heinrich II blocked this attempt by placing the guardianship of Ernst II, and regency over Swabia, in the hands of Archbishop Poppo of Trier in 1016. This action further strained the already rough relationship between the imperial House of Otto and the Salian family.

On September 4, 1024, the German princes gathered at Kamba, a historical name for an area on the east banks of the Rhine opposite the modern German town of Oppenheim. Now the location of Kamba is marked with a small equestrian statue of Conrad II. The chronicler and Conrad’s chaplain, Wipo of Burgundy, attended the meeting and documented the event. Archbishop Aribo presided over the assembly.

Conrad presented himself as a candidate for election, as did his younger cousin Conrad. Both were descendants of Emperor Otto I by their common grandfather Otto of Worms, son of Liutgarde, one of Otto’s daughters. Although further members of the Ottonian dynasty existed, none were seriously considered eligible.

The Duchy of Saxony adopted a neutral strategy while the Duchy of Lorraine favored the younger Conrad. A majority of the assembled princes favored the elder Conrad, as the father of a seven-year-old son implied a more stable dynastic future for the kingdom. As president of the assembly, Archbishop Aribo cast the first vote and supported the elder Conrad. He was joined by the other clerics in support of him. The secular dukes then cast their votes for the elder Conrad as well. Archbishop Pilgrim of Cologne, Duke Gothelo I of Lower Lorraine and Duke Friedrich II of Upper Lorraine did not support him.

Conrad was crowned King of Germany by Archbishop Aribo in Mainz Cathedral on September 8, 1024 at the age of 34. To mark his election, Conrad commissioned the construction of Speyer Cathedral, near his ancestral home of Worms. Construction began in 1030. Archbishop Aribo, as archbishop of Mainz, was already the chancellor of Germany. Conrad wanted to reward the archbishop for his electoral support, so he made Aribo chancellor of Italy as well, making Aribo the second most powerful man in the Holy Roman Empire as the imperial chancellor.

Aribo refused to crown Conrad’s wife Gisela as queen as their marriage violated canon law. Conrad refused to accept Archbishop Aribo’s position. Archbishop Pilgrim of Cologne saw the situation as an opportunity to restore his relationship with the king, after refusing to support Conrad’s election, and he crowned Gisela queen on September 21, 1024. The political reorientation of Pilgrim also weakened the opposition towards the new king.

On March 26, 1027, Pope John XIX crowned Conrad and his wife Gisela as Emperor and Empress, respectively, in Old Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome. The event lasted seven days and was attended by Conrad’s son and heir Heinrich; Canute the Great, King of the English, Denmark and Norway; Rudolph III of Burgundy and around 70 senior clerics, including the Archbishops of Cologne, Mainz, Trier, Magdeburg, Salzburg, Milan and Ravenna.

Rudolph III of Burgundy’s attendance suggested surprisingly good relations between Burgundy and the Holy Roman Empire. During the festivities a power struggle between the archbishops of Milan and Ravenna ensued and was settled in favor of Milan. Subsequently, Conrad left Rome and toured south to receive homage from the Southern Italian principalities of Capua and Salerno and the Duchy of Benevento.

March 24, 1720: Prince Frederick of Hesse-Cassel is Elected King of Sweden

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Battle of Blenheim, Battle of Speyerbach, Frederick of Hesse-Cassel, King Carl XII of Sweden, King Frederick I of Sweden, Queens Ulrika Eleonora of Sweden, Swedish Estates

Frederick I (April 28, 1676 – April 5, 1751) was Prince Consort of Sweden from 1718 to 1720, and King of Sweden from 1720 until his death and also Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel from 1730.

He was the son of Charles I, Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel, and Princess Maria Amalia of Courland. In 1692 the young prince made his Grand Tour to the Dutch Republic, in 1695 to the Italian Peninsula and later he studied in Geneva.

After this he had a military career, leading the Hessian troops as Lieutenant General in the War of the Spanish Succession on the side of the Dutch. He was defeated in 1703 in the Battle of Speyerbach, but participated the next year in the great victory in the Battle of Blenheim. In 1706 he was again defeated by the French in the Battle of Castiglione. In 1716 and 1718 he joined the campaign of King Carl XII of Sweden against Norway, and was appointed Swedish Generalissimus.

Queen Ulrika Eleonora of Sweden

On May 31, 1700 Frederick married Luise Dorothea of Prussia the daughter of Friedrich I, the first king in Prussia, by his first wife Elisabeth Henriette of Hesse-Cassel. They were married in Berlin in a grand ceremony which took place for several weeks at great costs. Conrad Mel wrote Font Legatio orientalis at the occasion. During her five years of marriage, Luise Dorothea suffered from poor health. She died in childbirth.

Prince Consort of Sweden

Frederick married his second wife, Princess Ulrika Eleonora of Sweden, in 1715. She was the youngest child of King Carl XI and Ulrika Eleonora of Denmark and named after her mother. Ulrika Eleonora of Denmark was the daughter of King Frederik III of Denmark-Norway and his spouse, Sophie Amalie of Brunswick-Lüneburg.

After the death of her brother King Carl XII in 1718, she claimed the throne. Her deceased older sister, Hedvig Sophia, had left a son, Charles Friedrich of Holstein-Gottorp, who had the better claim by primogeniture. Ulrika Eleonora asserted that she was the closest surviving relative of the late king (the idea of proximity of blood) and cited the precedent of Queen Christina. She was recognized as a successor by the Riksdag after she had agreed to renounce the powers of absolute monarchy established by her father.

Upon his marriage to Princess Ulrika Eleonora of Sweden, Frederick was then granted the title Prince of Sweden, with the style Royal Highness, by the estates, and was prince consort there during Ulrika Eleonora’s rule as queen regnant from 1718 until her abdication in 1720. He is the only Swedish prince consort there has been to date. Frederick I had much influence during the reign of his spouse.

King Frederick I of Sweden

Some historians have suggested that the bullet which killed his brother-in-law Carl XII of Sweden in 1718 was actually fired by Frederick’s aide André Sicre. Carl XII had been an authoritarian and demanding ruler.

Frederick succeeded Ulrika Eleonora on the throne upon her abdication in his favor on February 29, 1720, and was elected King of Sweden on March 24 by the Swedish Estates. One reason the Swedish Estates elected Frederick was because he was taken to be fairly weak, which indeed he turned out to be.

The defeats suffered by Carl XII in the Great Northern War ended Sweden’s position as a first-rank European power. Under Frederick, this had to be accepted. Sweden also had to cede Estonia, Ingria and Livonia to Russia in the Treaty of Nystad, in 1721.

Frederick I was a very active and dynamic king at the beginning of his 31-year reign. But after the aristocracy had regained power during the wars with Russia, he became uninterested in affairs of state. In 1723, he tried to strengthen royal authority, but after he failed, he never had much to do with politics. He did not even sign official documents; instead a stamp of his signature was used. He devoted most of his time to hunting and love affairs. His marriage to Queen Ulrika Eleonora was childless, but he had several children by his mistress, Hedvig Taube.

As a king, he was not very respected. When he was crowned, it was said of him: “King Carl XII we recently buried, King Frederick we crown – suddenly the clock has now passed from twelve to one”. It is said about him, that although a lot of great achievements in the country’s development happened during his reign, he never had anything to do with them himself.

His powerless reign and lack of legitimate heirs of his own saw his family’s elimination from the line of succession after the parliamentary government dominated by pro-revanchist Hat Party politicians ventured into a war with Russia, which ended in defeat and the Russian Empress Elizabeth getting Adolf Frederick of Holstein-Gottorp instated following the death of the king. Whilst being the only Swedish monarch to be named Frederick, he is known as Frederick I despite other Swedish monarchs with non-repeating names (such as Birger, Sigismund and his successor: Adolph Frederick) not being given numerals.

King Frederick I of Sweden

Frederick became Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel only in 1730, ten years after becoming King of Sweden. He immediately appointed his younger brother Wilhelm governor of Hesse.

As Landgrave, Frederick is generally not seen as a success. Indeed, he did concentrate more on Sweden, and due to his negotiated, compromise-like ascension to the throne there, he and his court had a very low income. The money for that very expensive court, then, since the 1730s came from wealthy Hesse, and this means that Frederick essentially behaved like an absentee landlord and drained Hessian resources to finance life in Sweden.

Upon his death Frederick was succeeded in Sweden by Adolph Frederick of Holstein-Gottorp; (1710 – 1771). He was the son of Christian August of Holstein-Gottorp, Prince of Eutin, and Albertina Frederica of Baden-Durlach. He was an uncle of Empress Catherine II the Great of Russia.

In Hesse-Cassel, he was succeeded by his younger brother as Landgrave Wilhelm VIII, a famous general.

Marriages of Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor

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Anne of Brittany, Archduke of Austria, Bianca Maria Sforza, Emperor Maximilian I, House of Habsburg, Mary of Burgundy, Philip I of Castile, Philip of Burgundy, Pope Alexander VI, Pope Julius II, Royal Marriage

Emperor Maximilian was married three times, but only the first marriage produced offspring.

Maximilian I (March 22, 1459 — January 12, 1519) was King of the Romans from 1486 and Holy Roman Emperor from 1508 until his death. He was never crowned by the Pope, as the journey to Rome was blocked by the Venetians. He proclaimed himself elected emperor in 1508 (Pope Julius II later recognized this) at Trent, thus breaking the long tradition of requiring a papal coronation for the adoption of the Imperial title. Maximilian was the only surviving son of Friedrich III, Holy Roman Emperor, and Infanta Eleanor of Portugal. Since his coronation as King of the Romans in 1486, he ran a double government, (with a separate court), with his father until Friedrich III’s death in 1493.

Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor

Maximilian’s first wife was Mary of Burgundy (1457–1482).

Mary (February 13, 1457 – March 27, 1482), nicknamed the Rich, was a member of the House of Valois-Burgundy who ruled a collection of states that included the duchies of Limburg, Brabant, Luxembourg, the counties of Namur, Holland, Hainaut and other territories, from 1477 until her death in 1482.

As the only child of Charles I the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, and his wife Isabella of Bourbon, a daughter of Charles I, Duke of Bourbon and Agnes of Burgundy, Mary inherited the Burgundian lands at the age of 19 upon the death of her father in the Battle of Nancy on January 5, 1477. In order to counter the appetite of the French king Louis XI for her lands, she married Archduke Maximilian of Austria.

They were married in Ghent on August 19, 1477, and the marriage was ended by Mary’s death in a riding accident in 1482. Mary was the love of his life. Even in old age, the mere mention of her name moved him to tears (although, his sexual life, contrary to his chivalric ideals, was unchaste).

Mary of Burgundy

The grand literary projects commissioned and composed in large part by Maximilian many years after her death were in part tributes to their love, especially Theuerdank, in which the hero saved the damsel in distress like he had saved her inheritance in real life.

Beyond her beauty, the inheritance and the glory she brought, Mary corresponded to Maximilian’s ideal of a woman: the spirited grand “Dame” who could stand next to him as sovereigns. To their daughter Margaret, he described Mary: from her eyes shone the power (Kraft) that surpassed any other woman.

The marriage produced three children:

1. Philipp of Burgundy (1478–1506) who inherited his mother’s domains following her death, but predeceased his father. He married Joanna of Castile, becoming king-consort of Castile upon her accession in 1504, ruled Castile via the concept Jure uxoris (a Latin phrase meaning “by right of (his) wife”) and is known as King Felipe I of Castile. He and was the father of the Holy Roman Emperors Charles V and Ferdinand I.

The meeting of Maximilian and Mary of Burgundy

2. Margaret of Austria (1480–1530), who was first engaged at the age of 2 to the French dauphin (who became Charles VIII of France a year later) to confirm peace between France and Burgundy. She was sent back to her father in 1492 after Charles repudiated their betrothal to marry Anne of Brittany. She was then married to the crown prince of Castile and Aragon Juan, Prince of Asturias, and after his death to Philibert II of Savoy, after which she undertook the guardianship of her deceased brother Philipp’s children, and governed Burgundy for the heir, Charles.

3. Francis of Austria, who died shortly after his birth in 1481.

Maximilian’s second wife was Anne of Brittany (1477–1514) the eldest child of Duke Francis II of Brittany and his second wife Margaret of Foix, Infanta of Navarre.

Anne of Brittany

They were married by proxy in Rennes on December 18, 1490, but the contract was dissolved by Pope Alexander VI in early 1492, by which time Anne had already been forced by the French king, Charles VIII (the fiancé of Maximilian’s daughter Margaret of Austria) to repudiate the contract and marry him instead.

The drive behind this marriage, to the great annoyance of Maximilian’s father, Emperor Friedrich III (who characterized it as “disgraceful”), was the desire of personal revenge against the French (Maximilian blamed France for the great tragedies of his life up to and including Mary of Burgundy’s death, political upheavals that followed, troubles in the relationship with his son and later, Philipp’s death ).

Maximilian, as the young King of the Romans, had in mind a pincer grip against the Kingdom of France, while Friedrich III wanted him to focus on expansion towards the East and maintenance of stability in newly reacquired Austria. But Brittany was so weak that it could not resist French advance by itself even briefly like the Burgundian State had done, while Maximilian could not even personally come to Brittany to consummate the marriage.

Maximilian’s third wife was Bianca Maria Sforza (1472–1510). She was the eldest legitimate daughter of Duke Galeazzo Maria Sforza of Milan by his second wife, Bona of Savoy, daughter of Louis, Duke of Savoy and Anne de Lusignan of Cyprus.

Bianca Maria Sforza

They were married in 1493, the marriage bringing Maximilian a rich dowry and allowing him to assert his rights as imperial overlord of Milan. The marriage was unhappy, and they had no children. In Maximilian’s view, while Bianca might surpass his first wife Mary in physical beauty, she was just a “child” with “a mediocre mind”, who could neither make decisions nor be presented as a respectable lady to the society.

Benecke opines that this seems unfair, as while Bianca was always concerned with trivial, private matters (Recent research though indicates that Bianca was an educated woman who was politically active), she was never given the chance to develop politically, unlike the other women in Maximilian’s family including Margaret of Austria or Catherine of Saxony.

Despite her unsuitability as an empress, Maximilian tends to be criticized for treating her with coldness and neglect, which after 1500 only became worse. Bianca, on the other hand, loved the emperor deeply and always tried to win his heart with heartfelt letters, expensive jewels and allusions to sickness, but did not even get back a letter, developed eating disorders and mental illness, and died a childless woman.

Joseph Grünpeck, the court historian and physician, criticized the emperor, who, in Grünpeck’s opinion, was responsible for Bianca’s death through neglect.

In addition, he had several illegitimate children, but the number and identities of those are a matter of great debate. Johann Jakob Fugger writes in Ehrenspiegel (Mirror of Honour) that the emperor began fathering illegitimate children after becoming a widower, and there were eight children in total, four boys and four girls.

March 22, 1459: Birth of Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor

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Archduke Albrecht VI of Austria, Battle of Guinegate, Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, Emperor Friedrich III, Emperor Maximilian I, Infanta Eleanor of Portugal, King Albert II of Germany, King Louis XI of France, King Matthias Corvinus of Hungary, Mary of Burgundy, Philip the Handsome, Pope Julius II

Maximilian I (March 22, 1459 – January 12, 1519) was King of the Romans from 1486 and Holy Roman Emperor from 1508 until his death.

Archduke Maximilian of Austria was born at Wiener Neustadt on March 22, 1459, the only surviving son of Friedrich III, Holy Roman Emperor, and Infanta Eleanor of Portugal, daughter of King Duarte of Portugal and his wife Infanta Eleanor of Aragon, daughter of King Fernando I of Aragon and Eleanor of Alburquerque.

Emperor Maximilian I

His father named him for an obscure saint, Maximilian of Tebessa, who Friedrich believed had once warned him of imminent peril in a dream.

Habsburg Rivalries

In his childhood Maximilian and his parents were besieged in Vienna by Archduke Albrecht VI of Austria, younger brother of Emperor Friedrich III. As a scion of the Leopoldian line, Archduke Albrecht VI ruled over the Inner Austrian duchies of Styria, Carinthia and Carniola from 1424, from 1457 also over the entire Archduchy of Austria until his death, rivalling with his elder brother Emperor Frederick III.

Friedrich III, Holy Roman Emperor, and Infanta Eleanor of Portugal

In 1439 both Duke Friedrich IV of Further Austria and King Albrecht II of Germany (King of the Romans) Duke of Austria died. As heir of Inner Austria and regent of Further Austria, Tyrol and the Austria proper, Albrecht VI then ruled over all the dynasty’s hereditary lands. At that stage, Albrecht began quarreling with his brother Emperor Friedrich III (then known as Duke Friedrich V) and in 1446 claimed the lands of Further Austria from him.

The conflict between the brothers escalated when Duke Ladislaus Posthumous of Austria died childless in 1457 and Emperor Friedrich III, came into his inheritance. Albrecht VI rose up and in 1458 occupied the western part of the Austrian archduchy “above the Enns” (later known as Upper Austria), which he ruled at Linz as a separate principality (Fürstentum Österreich ob der Enns) and, quite small, his portion of Habsburg patrimony.

After laying siege to Friedrich in the Vienna Hofburg, he also took over the reign of Austria below the Enns (now Lower Austria) in 1462. Albrecht VI however died childless the next year and all his lands fell back to his elder brother.

One source relates that, during the siege’s bleakest days, the young prince Maximilian wandered about the castle garrison, begging the servants and men-at-arms for bits of bread.

Father and Mother

Maximilian’s father was elected and crowned King of the Romans in 1440. In 1452, at the age of 37, King Friedrich III travelled to Italy to receive his bride and to be crowned Holy Roman Emperor. Friedrich III’s reign of 53 years is the longest in the history of the Holy Roman Empire or the German monarchy.

Maximilian was the favourite child of his mother, whose personality was a contrast to his father (although there seemed to be communication problems between mother and son, as she spoke Portuguese). Reportedly she told Maximilian that, “If I had known, my son, that you would become like your father, I would have regretted having born you for the throne.” Her early death pushed him even more towards a man’s world, where one grew up first as a warrior rather than a politician.

First Marriage

The meeting of Maximilian and Mary of Burgundy

The Duke of Burgundy, Charles the Bold, was the chief political opponent of Maximilian’s father. Emperor Friedrich III was concerned about Burgundy’s expansionist tendencies on the western border of his Holy Roman Empire, and, to forestall military conflict, he attempted to secure the marriage of Charles’ only daughter, Mary of Burgundy, to his son Maximilian. After the Siege of Neuss (1474–75), he was successful. The wedding between Maximilian and Mary took place on August 19, 1477.

Perhaps as preparation for his task in the Netherlands, in 1476, at the age of 17, in the name of his father, apparently Maximilian commanded a military campaign against Hungary – the first actual battlefield experience in his life (command responsibility was likely shared with more experienced generals though).

Maximilian was elected King of the Romans on February 16, 1486 in Frankfurt-am-Main at his father’s initiative and crowned on April 9, 1486 in Aachen. Much of the Austrian territories and Vienna were under the rule of King Matthias Corvinus of Hungary, as a result of the Austrian–Hungarian War (1477–1488). Since his coronation as King of the Romans he ran a double government, or Doppelregierung (with a separate court), with his father until Friedrich’s death in 1493.

Emperor Maximilian I

Maximilian was now a king without lands. Matthias Corvinus offered Emperor Friedrich and his son Archduke Maximilian, the return of Austrian provinces and Vienna, if they would renounce the treaty of 1463 and accept Matthias as Friedrich’s designated heir and favoured successor as Holy Roman Emperor. Before this was settled though, Matthias died in Vienna in 1490. However, after Matthias Corvinus died from a stroke on April 9, 1490, civil war broke out in Hungary between the supporters of John Corvinus and the supporters of king Vladislaus of Bohemia.

Emperor

Upon Emperor Friedrich III’s death in 1493 he was succeeded by his son Maximilian who was never crowned by the Pope, as the journey to Rome was blocked by the Venetians. He proclaimed himself Elected Emperor in 1508 (Pope Julius II later recognized this) at Trent, thus breaking the long tradition of requiring a papal coronation for the adoption of the Imperial title.

Maximilian expanded the influence of the House of Habsburg through war and his marriage in 1477 to Mary of Burgundy, the ruler of the Burgundian State, heir of Charles the Bold, though he also lost his family’s original lands in today’s Switzerland to the Swiss Confederacy.

Maximilian’s wife had inherited the large Burgundian domains in France and the Low Countries upon her father’s death in the Battle of Nancy on 5 January 1477.

The Duchy of Burgundy was also claimed by the French crown under Salic law, with King Louis XI of France vigorously asserting his claim through military force. Maximilian at once undertook the defence of his wife’s dominions. Without support from the Empire and with an empty treasury left by Charles the Bold’s campaigns (Mary had to pawn her jewels to obtain loans), he carried out a campaign against the French during 1478–1479 and reconquered Le Quesnoy, Conde and Antoing. He defeated the French forces at the Battle of Guinegate, in modern Enguinegatte, on August 7, 1479.

Philipp the Handsome, Duke of Burgundy, King of Castile

His son, Philipp the Handsome of Austria, was ruler of the Burgundian Netherlands and titular Duke of Burgundy from 1482 to 1506. Through Philipp’s marriage to eventual Queen Joanna of Castile in 1496, he was the first Habsburg King of Castile (as Felipe I) for a brief time in 1506.

This helped Maximilian to establish the Habsburg dynasty in Spain, which allowed his grandson Charles of Burgundy to hold the thrones of both Castile and Aragon as King Carlos I of a united Spain.

Assessment

The historian Thomas A. Brady Jr. describes Emperor Maximilian I as “the first Holy Roman Emperor in 250 years who ruled as well as reigned” and also, the “ablest royal warlord of his generation.”

According to historian Joachim Whaley, if Maximilian ever saw the Empire as a source of income and soldiers only, he failed miserably in extracting both. His hereditary lands and other sources always contributed much more. On the other hand, the attempts he demonstrated in building the imperial system alone shows that he did consider the German lands “a real sphere of government in which aspirations to royal rule were actively and purposefully pursued.”

Emperor Maximilian I

Whaley notes that, despite struggles, what emerged at the end of Maximilian’s rule was a strengthened monarchy and not an oligarchy of princes. If he was usually weak when trying to act as a monarch and using imperial instituations like the Reichstag, Maximilian’s position was often strong when acting as a neutral overlord and relying on regional leagues of weaker principalities such as the Swabian league, as shown in his ability to call on money and soldiers to mediate the Bavaria dispute in 1504, after which he gained significant territories in Alsace, Swabia and Tyrol. His fiscal reform in his hereditary lands provided a model for other German princes.

When Maximilian I died on January 12, 1519 he was succeeded by his grandson, Charles, who became one of Europe’s most powerful Emperors who had inherited a greatly expanded Habsburg empire.

Emperor Charles V

Charles V (February 24, 1500 – September 21, 1558) was Holy Roman Emperor and Archduke of Austria from 1519 to 1556, King of Spain (Castile and Aragon) from 1515 to 1555, as King Carlos I, and Lord of the Netherlands as titular Duke of Burgundy from 1506 to 1555. Charles V was head of the rising House of Habsburg during the first half of the 16th century. His dominions in Europe included the Holy Roman Empire, extending from Germany to northern Italy with direct rule over the Austrian hereditary lands and the Burgundian Low Countries, and Spain with its possessions of the southern Italian kingdoms of Naples and Sicily and Sardinia.

March 19, 1452: Papal Coronation of Emperor Friedrich III

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Cardinal Francesco Condulmer, Duke of Austria, German Emperor Friedrich III, Holy Roman Emperor Friedrich III, House of Habsburg, Iron Crown of Lombardy, King Duarte of Portugal, King of Prussia Infanta Eleanor of Portugal, Papal Coronation, Pope Nicholas V

Friedrich III (September 21, 1415 – August 19, 1493) was Holy Roman Emperor from 1452 until his death. He was the fourth king and first emperor of the House of Habsburg. The previous Habsburg rulers of the empire were Kings of the Romans while Friedrich III was the first Habsburg to be crowned Emperor. He was the penultimate emperor to be crowned by the pope, and the last to be crowned in Rome.

Early life

Born at the Tyrolean residence of Innsbruck in 1415, Friedrich was the eldest son of the Inner Austrian duke Ernest the Iron, a member of the Leopoldian line of the Habsburg dynasty, and his second wife Cymburgis of Masovia. According to the 1379 Treaty of Neuberg, the Leopoldinian branch ruled over the duchies of Styria, Carinthia and Carniola, or what was referred to as Inner Austria.

Emperor Friedrich III

Only three of Friedrich’s eight siblings survived childhood: his younger brother Albrecht (later to be Albrecht VI, Archduke of Austria), and his sisters Margaret (later the electress of Saxony) and Catherine. In 1424, nine-year-old Friedrich’s father died, making Friedrich the Duke of Inner Austria, as Friedrich V, with his uncle, Duke Friedrich IV of Tyrol, acting as regent.

From 1431, Friedrich tried to obtain majority (to be declared “of age”, and thus allowed to rule) but for several years was denied by his relatives. Finally, in 1435, Albrecht V, Duke of Austria (later Albrecht II, the King of the Romans), awarded him the rule over his Inner Austrian heritage.

Almost from the beginning, Friedrich’s younger brother Albrecht asserted his rights as a co-ruler, as the beginning of a long rivalry. Already in these years, Friedrich had begun to use the symbolic A.E.I.O.U. signature as a kind of motto with various meanings. In 1436 he made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, accompanied by numerous nobles knighted by the Order of the Holy Sepulchre, which earned him great reputation.

Upon the death of his uncle Duke Friedrich IV in 1439, Friedrich took over the regency of Tyrol and Further Austria for the duke’s heir Sigismund. Again he had to ward off the claims raised by his brother Albrecht VI; he prevailed by the support of the Tyrolean aristocracy.

Likewise he acted as regent for his nephew Ladislaus the Posthumous, son of late King Albrecht II and his consort Elizabeth of Luxembourg, in the duchy of Austria (Further Austria). (Ladislaus would die before coming of age). Friedrich was now the undisputed head of the Habsburg dynasty, though his regency in the lands of the Albertinian Line (Further Austria) was still viewed with suspicion.

Previous Habsburg ruler of the Empire, Albrecht II, King of the Romans

Prior to his imperial coronation, he was Duke of the Inner Austrian lands of Styria, Carinthia and Carniola from 1424, and also acted as regent over the Duchy of Austria from 1439.

As a cousin of late King Albert II, Friedrich became a candidate for the 1440 imperial election. On February 2, 1440, the Prince-Electors convened at Frankfurt and unanimously elected him King of the Romans as Friedrich III; his rule was still based on his hereditary lands of Styria, Carinthia and Carniola, or Inner Austria.

In 1442, Friedrich allied himself with Rudolf Stüssi, burgomaster of Zurich, against the Old Swiss Confederacy in the Old Zurich War (Alter Zürichkrieg) but lost. In 1448, he entered into the Concordat of Vienna with the Holy See, which remained in force until 1806 and regulated the relationship between the Habsburgs and the Holy See.

Marriage and Imperial Coronation

Infanta Eleanor of Portugal

In 1452, at the age of 37, Friedrich III travelled to Italy to receive his bride and to be crowned Holy Roman Emperor. His fiancée was the 18-year-old infanta Eleanor of Portugal, daughter of King Duarte of Portugal and his wife Eleanor of Aragon, daughter of King Fernando I of Aragon and Eleanor of Alburquerque.

Infanta Eleanor of Portugal landed at Livorno (Leghorn) after a 104-day trip. Her dowry would help Friedrich alleviate his debts and cement his power. The couple met at Siena on February 24, and proceeded together to Rome. As per tradition, they spent a night outside the walls of Rome before entering the city on March 9, where Friedrich and Pope Nicholas V exchanged friendly greetings.

Because Friedrich had been unable to retrieve the Iron Crown of Lombardy from the cathedral of Monza where it was kept, nor be crowned King of Italy by the archbishop of Milan (on account of Friedrich’s dispute with Francesco Sforza, lord of Milan), he convinced the pope to crown him as such with the German Crown, which had been brought for the purpose.

This coronation took place on the morning of March 16, in spite of the protests of the Milanese ambassadors, and in the afternoon Friedrich and Eleanor were married by Pope Nicholas V.

Picture of Crowns: Imperial Crown of Friedrich III, second row, third from left.

Finally, on March 19, Friedrich and Eleanor were anointed in St Peter’s Basilica by the Vice-Chancellor of the Holy Roman Church, Cardinal Francesco Condulmer, and Friedrich was then crowned with the Imperial Crown by the Pope . Friedrich III was the last Holy Roman Emperor to be crowned in Rome. His great-grandson Emperor Charles V was the last emperor to be crowned, but this was done in Bologna.

During his reign, Emperor Friedrich III concentrated on re-uniting the Habsburg “hereditary lands” of Austria and took a lesser interest in Imperial affairs. Nevertheless, by his dynastic entitlement to Hungary as well as by the Burgundian inheritance, he laid the foundations for the later Habsburg Empire. Despite being mocked as “Arch-Sleepyhead of the Holy Roman Empire” during his lifetime, he is today increasingly seen as an effective ruler.

Imperial Crown of Friedrich III

Historian Thomas A. Brady Jr. credited Friedrich III with leaving a credible claim on the imperial title and a secure grip on the Austrian lands, now organized as a single state, for his son. This imperial revival (as well as the rise of the territorial state) began under the reign of Frederick.

His reign of 53 years is the longest in the history of the Holy Roman Empire or the German monarchy. Upon his death in 1493 he was succeeded by his son Maximilian.

A little trivia about the name Friedrich.

German Emperor Friedrich III, King of Prussia

When German Emperor Wilhelm I died in March of 1888 there was some confusion on what the regnal name of his successor should be.

Logically, the new Emperor Friedrich should have taken as his regnal name either Friedrich I (if the Bismarckian Empire was considered a new entity) or Friedrich IV (if the German Empire was considered a continuation of the old Holy Roman Empire, which had had three emperors named Friedrich); technically this was a new Empire, though Friedrich himself preferred the latter.

However, on the advice of Bismarck that this would create legal problems, he opted to simply keep the same regnal name he had as King of Prussia. There had been two previous Kings of Prussia named Friedrich (Friedrich II the Great being the most recent) so the new German Emperor became Friedrich III.

March 18, 1438: Duke Albrecht V of Austria is Elected As Albrecht II, King of the Romans

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Albert II of Germany, Albert V of Austria, Elisabeth of Luxemburg, Emperor Sigismund, Expulsion of the Jews, jure uxoris, King of Bohemia, King of Croatia, King of Hungary, King Sigismund of Hungary, Pope Martin IV

Albrecht V-II the Magnanimous, Duke of Austria and elected King of the Romans as Albrecht II (August 10, 1397 – October 27, 1439) was king of the Holy Roman Empire and a member of the House of Habsburg. By inheritance he became Albrecht V, Duke of Austria. Through his wife (jure uxoris) he also became King of Hungary, Croatia, Bohemia, and inherited a claim to the Duchy of Luxembourg.

Albert was born in Vienna as the son of Albert IV, Duke of Austria, and Joanna Sophia of Bavaria, daughter of Albrecht I, Duke of Bavaria and his first wife Margaret of Brieg.

Albrecht V, Duke of Austria

He succeeded to the Duchy of Austria at the age of seven on his father’s death in 1404. His uncle Duke Wilhelm of Inner Austria, then head of the rivaling Leopoldinian line, served as regent for his nephew, followed by his brothers Leopold IV and Ernst the Iron in 1406.

The quarrels between the brothers and their continued attempts to gain control over the Albertinian territories led to civil war-like conditions. Nevertheless, Albrecht having received a good education, undertook the government of Austria proper on the occasion of Leopold’s death in 1411 and succeeded, with the aid of his advisers, in ridding the duchy of the evils which had arisen during his minority.

Expulsion of the Jews

Though the Jews in the Austrian duchy had been subject to local persecutions during the 13th and 14th century, their position remained relatively safe. Jewish communities prospered in several towns like Krems or the area around the Judenplatz at Vienna. During the confusion after the death of Duke Albrecht IV in 1404 their situation worsened sharply, culminating in the blaze of the Vienna synagogue on November 5, 1406, followed by riots and lootings.

When Albrecht V came of age in 1411 and interfered in the Hussite Wars, he repeatedly established new taxes imposed on the Jewish community to finance his campaigns. On the other hand, after the Hussites had devastated the duchy, the Austrian Jews were accused of collaboration and arms trade in favour of the enemies. The accusations of a host desecration at Enns in 1420 gave Albert pretext for the destruction of the Jewish community.

According to the 1463 Chronica Austriae by chronicler Thomas Ebendorfer, the duke on May 23, 1420, at the behest of the Church, ordered the imprisonment and forcible conversion of the Jews. Those that had not converted or escaped were sent off in boats down the Danube, while wealthy Jews remained under arrest, several of them tortured and stripped of their property.

Coronation of Albrecht of Austria as King of the Romans

The forced baptism of Jewish children was stopped on intervention by Pope Martin V. On March 12, 1421 Albert sentenced the remaining Jews to death. Ninety-two men and 120 women were burned at the stake south of the Vienna city walls on March 12, 1421. The Jews were placed under an “eternal ban” and their synagogue was demolished. The persecutions in several Austrian towns are explicitly described in a 16th-century script called Vienna Gesera.

In 1422 Albert married Elisabeth of Luxemburg, the daughter and heiress of the King Sigismund of Hungary (later also Holy Roman Emperor and King of Bohemia), and his second wife, the Slovenian noblewoman Barbara of Celje. Besides Hungary, Albrecht’s marriage brought him claims to several Slavic kingdoms and principalities as well.

Albrecht assisted his father-in-law Sigismund in his campaigns against the Hussites, involving the Austrian duchy in the Hussite Wars. In return Sigismund designated him as his successor and granted him the title of a Margrave of Moravia in 1423. The Austrian lands were devastated several times and Albert also participated in the 1431 Battle of Domažlice where the Imperial troops suffered an embarrassing defeat.

Albrecht II, King of the Romans

When Sigismund died in 1437, Albrecht was crowned King of Hungary on January 1, 1438, and just as his predecessor did, he moved his court to the Hungarian Kingdom from where he later oversaw his other domains. Although crowned king of Bohemia six months after ascending to the Hungarian throne, he was unable to obtain possession of the country. He was engaged in warfare with the Bohemians and their Polish allies, when on March 18, 1438, he was elected “King of the Romans” at Frankfurt, an honour which he does not appear to have sought. He was never crowned as Holy Roman Emperor.

After being engaged in defending Hungary against the attacks of the Turks, he died on October 27, 1439 at Neszmély and was buried at Székesfehérvár. Albrecht was an energetic and warlike prince, whose short reign as a triple king gave great promise of usefulness for the Holy Roman Empire.

The Golden Bull of 1356

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Count Palatine of the Rhine, Duke Friedrich the Fair of Austria, Duke of Bavaria, Emperor Charles IV, Emperor Ludwig IV, Holy Roman Empire, House of Habsburg, House of Wittelsbach, Prince-Elector, The Golden Bull of 1356

The Golden Bull of 1356 was a decree issued by the Imperial Diet of the Holy Roman Empire at Nuremberg and Metz (Diet of Metz, 1356/57) headed by Emperor Charles IV which fixed, for a period of more than four hundred years, important aspects of the constitutional structure of the Holy Roman Empire. It was named the Golden Bull for the golden seal it carried.

Though the election of the King of the Romans by the chief ecclesiastical and secular princes of the Holy Roman Empire was well established, disagreements about the process and papal involvement had repeatedly resulted in controversies, most recently in 1314 when Ludwig IV of Bavaria and Friedrich of Austria had been elected by opposing sets of electors.

Ludwig, who had eventually subdued his rival’s claim on the battlefield, made a first attempt to clarify the process in the Declaration of Rhense of 1338, which renounced any papal involvement and had restricted the right to choose a new king to the Prince-Electors. The Golden Bull, promulgated by Ludwig’s s successor and rival, Charles IV, was more precise in several ways.

Prince-Electors

Firstly, the Bull explicitly named the seven Prince-Electors who were to choose the King and also defined the Reichserzämter, their (largely ceremonial) offices at court:

Secondly, the principle of majority voting was explicitly stated for the first time in the Empire. The Bull prescribed that four (out of seven) votes would always suffice to elect a new King; as a result, three Electors could no longer block the election. Thirdly, the Electoral principalities were declared indivisible, and succession to them was regulated to ensure that the votes would never be divided.

Finally, the Bull cemented a number of privileges for the Electors, confirming their elevated role in the Empire. It is therefore also a milestone in the establishment of largely independent states in the Empire, a process to be concluded only centuries later, notably with the Peace of Westphalia of 1648.

Codification of Prince-Electors, though largely based on precedence, was not uncontroversial, especially in regard to the two chief rivals of the ruling House of Luxembourg:

The House of Wittelsbach ruled the Duchy of Bavaria as well as the County Palatinate. Dynastic divisions had caused the two territories to devolve upon distinct branches of the house. The Treaty of Pavia, which in 1329 restored the Palatinate branch, stipulated that Bavaria and the Palatinate would alternate in future elections, but the Golden Bull fixed the electoral vote upon the Palatinate and not upon Bavaria, partly because Charles’s predecessor and rival Ludwig IV was of that branch.

Ludwig IV’s sons, Ludwig V and Stephan II of Bavaria, protested this omission, feeling that Bavaria, one of the original duchies of the realm and their family’s chief territory for over 170 years, deserved primacy over the Palatinate. The omission of Bavaria from the list of Prince-Electors also allowed Bavaria, which had only recently been reunited, to fall into dynastic fragmentation again.

Brandenburg was in the hands of the Bavarian Wittelsbachs (though held by a junior member of the house) in 1356; they eventually lost the territory to the Luxemburgs in 1373, leaving the Bavarian branch without representation in the electoral college until 1623.

The House of Habsburg, long-time rivals of the Luxembourgs, were completely omitted from the list of Prince-Electors, leading to decreased political influence and dynastic fragmentation. In retaliation, Duke Rudolph IV, one of the dukes of fragmented Austria, had the Privilegium Maius forged, a document supposedly issued by Emperor Friedrich I Barbarossa.

The document gave Austria – elevated to the position of an Archduchy – special privileges, including primogeniture. While ignored by the Emperor and other princes at the time, the document was eventually ratified when Friedrich of Austria himself became Emperor in the 15th century. Still, the Habsburgs remained without an electoral vote until they succeeded to the Kingdom of Bohemia in 1526.

Procedures

The bull regulated the whole election process in great detail, listing explicitly where, when, and under which circumstances what should be done by whom, not only for the prince-electors but also (for example) for the population of Frankfurt, where the elections were to be held, and also for the counts of the regions the prince-electors had to travel through to get there.

The decision to hold the elections in Frankfurt reflected a traditional feeling dating from days of the Kingdom of East Francia that both election and coronation ought to take place on Frankish soil. However, the election location was not the only specified location; the bull specified that the coronation would take place in Aachen, and Nuremberg would be the place where the first diet of a reign should be held. The elections were to be concluded within thirty days; failing that, the bull prescribed that the Prince-Electors were to receive only bread and water until they had decided.

Besides regulating the election process, the chapters of the Golden Bull contained many minor decrees. For instance, it also defined the order of marching when the Emperor was present, both with and without his insignia.

A relatively major decision was made in chapter 15, where Charles IV outlawed any conjurationes, confederationes, and conspirationes, meaning in particular the city alliances (Städtebünde), but also other communal leagues that had sprung up through the communal movement in mediaeval Europe. Most Städtebünde were subsequently dissolved, sometimes forcibly, and were re-founded, their political influence was much reduced. Thus the Golden Bull also strengthened the nobility in general to the detriment of the cities.

The pope’s involvement with the Golden Bull of 1356 was basically nonexistent, which was significant in the history of relations between the popes and the emperors. When Charles IV laid down procedure for electing a King of the Romans, he mentioned nothing about receiving papal confirmation of the election. However, Pope Innocent VI did not protest this because he needed Charles’s support against the Visconti. Pope Innocent continued to have good relations with Charles IV after the Golden Bull of 1356 until the former’s death in 1362.

History of the Kingdom of East Francia: Conclusion

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Bavaria, Emperor Friedrich I Barbarossa, Emperor Maximilian I, Franconia, Hohenstaufen Dynasty, Holy Roman Emperor, Holy Roman Empire, House of Habsburg, House of Hohenstaufen, House of Wittelsbach, King of the Romans, Kingdom of East Francia, Kingdom of Germany, Lotharingia (Lorraine), Saxony, Stem Duchy, Swabia (Alemannia).

I would like to briefly summarize not only the History of the Kingdom of East Francia but also it’s relevant and associated titles.

In 800 Charlemagne, King of the Franks, was crowned “Emperor of the Romans” by Pope Leo III on Christmas Day. This Empire, which was to be a restart of the old Roman Empire, is known as the Carolingian Empire. When Emperor Charlemagne died in 814 he left this Empire fully intact to his son Louis the Pious.

However, upon Louis’s death in 840 he divided the empire amongst his three surviving sons. After a brief Civil War between the royal brothers, it lead to the signing of the Treaty of Verdun in 843 which effectively divided the Empire. The third son of Louis the Pious, known as Louis the German, inherited the eastern portion of the Empire, logically known as the Kingdom of East Francia.

After the Carolingian Dynasty died out in the Kingdom of East Francia, the elective monarchy became the possession of the Dukes of Saxony with Heinrich the Fowler as the first German elected King of East Francia.

When his son, King Otto I of East Francia, was crowned Emperor of the Romans by Pope John XII in 962 we see a transition from a Frankish Kingdom into a Germanic Kingdom, and from there the title of the monarch transitioned from King of East Francia to the King of Germany. Although as noted elsewhere in the series the title King of East Francia was still in usage for many many more years.

In other words, during the time of the Ottonian Dynasty there seems to be overlap with the titles “King of East Francia”, “King of Germany” and “King of the Romans” with these titles being used interchangeably, at least by modern historians.

Therefore, from the reign of King/Emperor Heinrich II the title King of the Romans was used by the German King following his election by the princes within the Empire, until he was crowned Emperor by the Pope.

In 1508, Emperor Maximilian I, adopted the title “Emperor Elect”, with papal approval, and dispensed with the Papal Coronation. Subsequent rulers adopted that title after their elections as kings. Using the title ” King of the Romans” became unnecessary due to the fact that the elected monarch did not need that title prior to a Papal Coronation that no longer existed.

Emperor Maximilian I

At the same time, the custom of having the heir-apparent elected as “King of the Romans” in the emperor’s lifetime resumed. For this reason, the title “King of the Romans” (Rex Romanorum) came to mean heir-apparent, the successor elected while the emperor was still alive.

Thus far I have been mostly talking about titles. However, the Kingdom of East Francia was not just a title. The kingdom had borders and land associated with the titles. But with the transformation from a Frankish Kingdom to a Germanic Kingdom and later the Holy Roman Empire, what became of the land known as the kingdom of East Francia?

The Kingdom of East Francia consisted of a series of tribal regions known as the Stem Duchies.

A stem duchy meaning “tribe”, in reference to the Franks, Saxons, Bavarians and Swabians was a constituent duchy of the Kingdom of East Francia at the time of the extinction of the Carolingian dynasty (death of Louis the Child in 911) and through the transitional period leading to the formation of the Ottonian Empire or, the Holy Roman Empire.

The Carolingians had dissolved the original tribal duchies of the Empire in the 8th century. As the Carolingian Empire declined, the old tribal areas assumed new identities. The five stem duchies (sometimes also called “younger stem duchies” in contrast to the pre-Carolingian tribal duchies) were: Bavaria, Franconia, Lotharingia (Lorraine), Saxony and Swabia (Alemannia).

Emperor Friedrich I Barbarossa

The Salian Emperors (reigned 1027–1125) retained the stem duchies as the major regions of the lands that compromised the Kingdom Germany or corresponding to the Kingdom of East Francia. The rest of the regions of the Holy Roman Empire lay outside the German territories which mainly consisted of Italian lands such as the Kingdom of the Lombards, also known as the medieval Kingdom of Italy.

As the stem duchies became increasingly obsolete during the early high-medieval period, under the Hohenstaufen Dynasty, specifically Emperor Friedrich I Barbarossa, who finally abolished the Stem Duchies in 1180 in favour of more numerous territorial duchies.

An example of the fate of one Stem Duchy, Swabia, mirrors the fate of many of the Stem Duchies. In the 13th century the Duchy of Swabia was in complete disarray, with its territories falling to the Wittelsbach, Württemberg, and Habsburg families. The main core territory of Swabia continued its existence as the County of Württemberg, which was raised to the status of a Duchy in 1495, which in turn became the Kingdom of Württemberg within 19th-century Germany.

With new territories rising from the ashes of the abolished Stem Duchies, these new territories became increasingly autonomous; and with that occurrence the Kingdom of East Francia can be considered to have drifted into the shadows of history by this time.

Nevertheless, there are relatively few references to a German kingdom distinct from the Holy Roman Empire.

The Life of Princess Victoria of Baden, Queen of Sweden. Part I.

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German Emperor Wilhelm I, Grand Duke Friedrich I of Baden, House of Bernadotte, Jean Baptiste Bernadotte, King Carl XIV of Sweden and Norway, King Gustaf IV Adolph of Sweden, King Gustaf V of Sweden, Princess Royal, Princess Victoria of the United Kingdom., Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, Victoria of Baden

Victoria of Baden (August 7, 1862 – April 4, 1930) was Queen of Sweden from December 8, 1907 until her death in 1930 as the wife of King Gustaf V. She was politically active in a conservative fashion during the development of democracy and known to be pro-German during the First World War.

Princess Victoria was born at Karlsruhe Palace, Baden. Her parents were Grand Duke Friedrich I of Baden, and Princess Louise of Prussia, the second child and only daughter of German Emperor Wilhelm I and Augusta of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach. She was the younger sister of German Emperor Friedrich III, and aunt of German Emperor Wilhelm II.

Princess Victoria of Baden

Victoria was named after her aunt by marriage, Victoria, the Princess Royal, daughter of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and her husband Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.

Victoria was tutored privately in the Karlsruhe Palace, by governesses and private teachers, in an informal “Palace School” with carefully selected girls from the aristocracy. She was given a conventional education for her gender and class with focus on art, music and languages, and could play the piano, paint and speak French and English.

Victoria was given a strict and Spartan upbringing with a focus on duty. Among other things, her mother ordered her to sleep on hard mattresses by an open window. Such spartan methods were recommended at the time as beneficiary and something that would harden the child’s future health; but it is believed, that this had bad consequences for Victoria’s health later in life.

Photograph of Crown Prince Gustav, c. 1897

Victoria was given her confirmation in 1878. After this, she made her debut in adult social life and marriage prospects were discussed.

On September 20, 1881 in Karlsruhe Princess Victoria married Crown Prince Gustaf of Sweden and Norway, the son of King Oscar II of Sweden and Norway and Sofia of Nassau.

Her grandparents parents German Emperor Wilhelm I and Empress Augusta were present at the wedding, and the marriage was arranged as a sign that Sweden belonged to the German sphere in Europe.

Princess Victoria of Baden and Crown Prince Gustaf of Sweden

The marriage was popular in Sweden where she was called “The Vasa Princess”, because of her descent from the old Vasa dynasty, and she received a very elaborate welcome on the official cortege into Stockholm October 1, 1881.

Victoria of Baden’s father, Grand Duke Friedrich I of Baden, was the son of Princess Louise of Sweden who in turn was the daughter of King Gustaf IV Adolph of Sweden and his wife Frederica of Baden.

This means Princess Victoria brought in the blood of the old Swedish Royal Family. Victoria’s husband, King Gustaf V of Sweden, was the great-grandson of King Carl XIV Johan of Sweden and Norway of the House of Bernadotte. In 1810, Jean Baptiste Bernadotte was unexpectedly elected the heir-presumptive (Crown Prince) to the childless King Carl XIII of Sweden, (uncle of the deposed King Gustaf IV Adolph. Jean Baptiste assumed the name Carl Johan.Upon Carl XIII’s death on February 5,1818, Crown Prince Carl Johan ascended the Swedish throne as King Carl XIV Johan. In Norway he was known as King Carl III. He was initially popular in both countries.

Princess Victoria of Baden and Crown Prince Gustaf of Sweden

With the election of Jean Baptiste Bernadotte to the Swedish throne this created a new Swedish Dynasty that had no relationship by blood to any previous Swedish Dynasty. With the marriage of Princess Victoria of Baden to the future King Gustaf V of Sweden she brought into the Swedish Royal Family the blood of the previous Swedish Dynasties making her descendants and the current King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden a descendant of the older Swedish Royal Dynasties.

Sadly, Victoria and Gustaf were brought together by their families and their marriage was reported not to have been a happy one. Their marriage produced three children. In 1890–1891, Victoria and Gustaf travelled to Egypt to repair their relationship, but it did not succeed, allegedly due to Victoria’s interest in one of the courtiers, and she repeated the trip to Egypt in 1891–1892.

After 1889, the personal relationship between Victoria and Gustaf is considered to have been finished, in part, as estimated by Lars Elgklou, due to the bisexuality of Gustaf.

History of The Kingdom of East Francia: Emperor Elect and King of the Romans

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Emperor Charles V, Emperor Friedrich III, Emperor Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor, King of the Romans, Kingdom of East Francia, Pope Clement VII, Pope Julius II

Although this series was to track the history of the Kingdom of East Francia and we’ve been recently focusing on how the Carolingian Kingdom of East Francia transitioned into a Germanic Kingdom. With that change the title of the King, prior to being crowned Emperor once the Ottonian Dynasty were granted the imperial title, was known as King of Germany or King of the Romans.

Although it is beyond my original intent of this series to continue to discuss the later usage of the title “King of the Romans” I will mention how the usage of that title evolved.

The title Romanorum Rex King of the Romans ceased to be used for ruling kings after 1508, when the Pope Julius II 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. This ended the centuries-old custom that the Holy Roman Emperor had to be crowned by the Pope.

Emperor Maximilian I

Maximilian’s predecessor Friedrich III was the last to be crowned Emperor by the Pope in Rome.

At this time Maximilian also took the new title “King in Germania” (Germaniae rex), but the latter was never used as a primary title.

Maximilian’s titles at this time were: by God’s grace Elected Roman Emperor, always Augustus, in Germany, of Hungary, Dalamatia, Croatia etc King […]”

After the death of Maximilian I his paternal grandson, Charles of Burgundy in 1519, inherited the Habsburg monarchy. Charles also became King Carlos I of Spain in 1516. Charles was also the natural candidate of the electors to succeed his grandfather as Holy Roman Emperor.

Pope Clement VII

He defeated the candidacies of Elector Friedrich III of Saxony, King François I of France, and King Henry VIII of England. According to some, Charles became emperor due to the fact that by paying huge bribes to the electors, he was the highest bidder.

Charles won the crown on June 28, 1519. On October 23, 1520, he was crowned in Germany and some ten years later, on 24 February 24, 1530, he was crowned Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Clement VII in Bologna, the last emperor to receive a papal coronation.

Beginning with his brother and successor, Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor, the rulers of the Empire no longer sought the Imperial coronation by the Pope and styled themselves “Emperors” without Papal approval, taking the title as soon as they were crowned in Germany or, if crowned in their predecessor’s lifetime, upon the death of a sitting Emperor.

Emperor Charles V

Heirs designate

As I mentioned previously the Holy Roman Empire was an elective monarchy. No person had an automatic legal right to the succession simply because he was related to the current Emperor. However, the Emperor could, and often did, have a relative (usually a son) elected to succeed him after his death.

With the Emperor no longer needing the title “King of the Romans” now that a Papal Coronation had become obsolete, the Emperor’s newly elected heir apparent henceforth bore the title “King of the Romans”.

During the Middle Ages, a junior King of the Romans was normally chosen only when the senior ruler bore the title of Emperor, so as to avoid having two, theoretically equal kings.

Only on one occasion (1147-1150) was there both a ruling King of the Romans (King Conrad III) and a King of the Romans as heir (Heinrch Berengar).

The election was in the same form as that of the senior ruler. In practice, however, the actual administration of the Empire was always managed by the Emperor (or Emperor elect), with at most certain duties delegated to the heir.