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Holy Roman Empire Electoral System

Type Object Region Central Europe Time c. 1200–1806

The Holy Roman Empire's electoral system was a constitutional-feudal hybrid mechanism by which the empire's highest elite elected the emperor, origin…

Timeline

  1. c. 1200–1245German states · GermanyUnder the Hohenstaufen emperors, Germany's great princes had gradually gained a voice in choosing the emperor, and election rather than pure heredity became an important mode of imperial succession.
  2. c. 1256–1273Aachen and Frankfurt · RhinelandAfter Frederick II's death the empire fell into the Great Interregnum; around the 1260s the princes put forward Richard of Cornwall and Alfonso X as rival emperors, and the electoral mechanism emerged as central amid the disputes.
  3. 1356Nuremberg · BavariaCharles IV issued the Golden Bull, formally establishing the seven electors' legal electoral rights and election procedures, making the electoral system a cornerstone of imperial constitutionalism.
  4. 1806Vienna · AustriaUnder Napoleonic pressure Francis II declared the Holy Roman Empire dissolved, and the electoral system ended with the empire, as the German political landscape entered a modern transformation.

Sources