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over the centuries. For one, the duke of Bavaria would sometimes conspire with the
Count Palatine to exclude Bohemia on the grounds that he wasn't German—but
only when the duke and the Count Palatine weren't squabbling about some family
issue (both were Wittelsbachs). During the Thirty Years' War, the Bavarian
Wittelsbachs got ahold of the Palatinate vote because the Bavarian line were
Catholics and their Palatinate cousins were not; the Palatinate branch got a shiny
new Electorate when the war concluded to maintain balance between Protestants
and Catholics among the electors. However, this new electorate passed to a third,
Catholic branch of the Wittelsbachs, leading to the appointment of a new
Protestant elector, in Brunswick-Lüneburg (known as the Electorate of Hannover
from its capital city; members of this line would find greater success elsewhere),
although as the Catholic Palatinate Wittelsbachs inherited Bavaria, as well, it
turned out to be a moot point. Finally, Regensburg, Salzburg, Würzburg,
Württemberg, Baden, and Hesse-Kassel were all given electorates in the final years
of the Holy Roman Empire to add to their stature (and in part to replace the four
electorates that had been conquered by the French - Mainz, Trier, Cologne, and the
Palatinate) however, this proved to be a moot point, as the Empire was dissolved a
few years later.
At times, the empire consisted of over 300 sovereign kingdoms, duchies, free cities,
and other entities. In the late 18th century, there were nearly 1800, ranging from
the kingdom of Bohemia to the nominally autonomous territories of Reichsritter
(Imperial knights, i. e. knights subject only to the emperor) and even a handful of
Reichsdörfer (Imperial villages). Unsurprisingly, it often was a total chaos.
Thus throughout most of its history it is rather difficult to define the very borders of
the Holy Roman Empire. Many of the princes owned large territories outside the
Empire or would successfully bid for foreign crowns, such as the rulers of Austria
(also kings of Hungary), Hanover (who became kings of the United Kingdom),
Saxony (two of whom became kings of Poland), and Brandenburg (kings in or of
Prussia since 1701). On the other hand foreign sovereigns came to inherit
territories belonging to the Holy Roman Empire, such as the king of Denmark in
the duchy of Holstein, or conquered them (the kings of Sweden in the Thirty Years
War). Territories that had become de facto independent powers would still
technically considered part of the Empire (as e. g. the Swiss
Confederation and the Republic of the United Netherlands
were until the end of the Thirty Years War).
(Picture: "To God I speak Spanish, to women Italian, to men French, and to
my horse - German."
- Emperor Charles V (1500-1558) Charles was King of Spain from 1516-
1556 and became Holy Roman Emperor from 1519 to 1558).
The Hohenstaufen Dynasty - Page 21 of 200