BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. BOOCKMANN, Hartmut,  STAUFERZEIT UND SPÄTES MITTELALTER. DEUTSCHLAND 1125-1517.  Reihe:  Das Reich und die Deutschen.. Berlin, 1987.
2. KRIEGER, Karl-Friedrich,  KÖNIG, REICH UND REICHSREFORM IM SPÄTMITTELALTER.  Reihe: Enzyklopädie der deutschen Geschichte. Band 14. München, 1929.
3. PREVITÉ, C.W.,  THE SHORTER CAMBRIDGE MEDIEVAL HISTORY. Cambridge, 1952.

THE INTERREGNUM
The period of German history between 1250 and 1273 is called the Interregnum, because the German Empire did not have a general ruler then. It was the heyday of German particularism,  the complete triumph of the feudal princes, who no longer had a liege lord.

GERMAN KINGS
Although there was no German emperor, there were German kings. The first was William II, count of Holland, king 1247-1256. The second was Richard of Cornwall, elected in 1257, whose rule did not reach farther than the Rhineland. He left Germany in 1261.The third was Alfonso X the Learned, King of Castile and León, elected in 1259, but who did not even take the trouble to come to Germany.

KINGS AND EMPERORS
The Interregnum ended in 1273, when the electors choose a king. However, for a long time there would be, like in the past, not one ruling House. The rulers came from different Houses.

1273-1291		Rudolf I, House of Habsburg (not crowned as emperor)
1292-1298		Adolf I, House of Nassau (not crowned as emperor)
1298-1308		Albrecht I, House of Habsburg (not crowned as emperor)
1308-1313		Henry VII, House of Luxemburg (crowned as emperor 1312)
1314-1330		Frederick the Handsome, House of Habsburg (not crowned as emperor)
1314-1346		Lewis IV the Bavarian, House of Wittelsbach (crowned as emperor 1328)
1346-1378		Charles IV, House of Luxemburg (crowned as emperor 1355)
1378-1400		Wenceslaus IV, House of Luxemburg (not crowned as emperor)
1400-1410		Ruprecht, House of Wittelsbach (not crowned as emperor)
1410-1437		Sigismund, House of Luxemburg (crowned as emperor 1433)
1438-1439		Albrecht II, House of Habsburg (not crowned as emperor)
1440-1493		Frederick III, House of Habsburg (crowned as emperor 1452)
1493-1519		Maximilian I, House of Habsburg (not crowned as emperor)

Secondary literature:

1. KOCH, Hugo,  RICHARD OF CORNWALL. Strassburg, 1887.
2. SCHNEIDER, Friedrich,  KAISER HEINRICH VII: DANTES KAISER. Stuttgart, 1943² (1940).
3. SCHNEIDER, Friedrich,  KAISER HEINRICH VII. 3 Vols. Greiz, 1924-1928.
4. BENKER, Gertrud,  LUDWIG DER BAYER:  EIN WITTELSBACHER AUF DEM KAISERTHRON, 1282-1347. München, 1980.
5. SPEVàCEK, Jiri,  KARL IV.:  SEIN LEBEN UND SEINE STAATSMÄNNISCHE LEISTUNG. Wien, 1978.
6. SEIBT, Ferdinand,  KARL IV.:  EIN KAISER IN EUROPA, 1346-1378. München, 1978.
7. STOOB, Heinz,  KAISER KARL IV. UND SEINE ZEIT. Graz, 1990.
8. HOENSCH, Jörg Konrad,  KAISER KARL IV.: HERRSCHER AN DER SCHWELLE DER NEUZEIT, 1368-1437. München, 1996.
9. BUCHOVER, Rudolf,   MAXIMILIAN I.: KAISER AND DER ZEITENWENDE. Göttingen, 1959.
10. WIESFLECKER, Hermann,   MAXIMILIAN I.: DIE FUNDATION DES HABSBURGISCHEN WELTREICHES. Wien, 1991.

IMPERIAL CORONATIONS
When  Henry VII was crowned as emperor I 1312, this was the first imperial coronation since 1220. This was a clear sign that the imperial dignity was in abeyance. Another sign of this was that of the thirteen German rulers after 1250 only five received the imperial crown. Moreover, Henry VII was not crowned by the Pope, but by two cardinals. Lewis IV was crowned in 1328 also not by a Pope, but by a layman, Sciarra Colonna, who posed as the representative of the populus romanus. Charles IV was also not crowned by  a Pope (1355).  Sigismund  was regularly crowned in 1433 by Pope Eugene IV, just as Frederick III, crowned by Pope Nicholas V in 1452. Thus of all the thirteen emperors of this period only two were regularly crowned.

CIVIL WAR
The successions to the throne of Germany did not always go smoothly. Adolf I’s  election was contested by Albrecht I of Habsburg; he fell fighting his rival in the Battle of Göllheim on July 2, 1298. In 1314 two German kings were elected, Frederick and Lewis IV; a civil  war of eight years (1314-1322) was the result. In 1325 Frederick ceded the title of `King of the Romans’ (= King of Germany) to his rival. He himself also remained king, so that from 1325 to Frederick’s death in 1330 Germany had two kings. However, Frederick did not really rule. Lewis IV of the House of Wittelsbach was constantly at loggerheads with the House of Luxemburg. In 1346 the electors deposed him and gave the crown to Charles IV of the House of Luxemburg. Wenceslaus IV of the House of Luxemburg had the nickname of `the Lazy’; because of his inactivity the electors deposed him in 1400 and gave the crown to the Wittelsbacher Ruprecht.

HEREDITARY KINGSHIP
German kings were elected by the college of the seven electors; this rule remained in force until the end the Holy Roman Empire deutscher Nation in 1806. However, after Albrecht II of Habsburg was elected in 1438, the electors invariably chose a Habsburg as successor. This made the position of the Habsburgs hereditary, although it was constitutionally not so. From 1438 to 1806 Habsburgs would rule Germany, and then Austria-Hungary until 1918.

HAUSMACHT
The Germans kings and emperors could no longer base their authority on their imperial power and title. Instead, they build up a so-called Hausmacht, a complex o feudal possessions. In consequence, they were feudal princes like all other German princes. The greater the Hausmacht the better.

The Nassau Hausmacht was the smallest of all Hausmächte. It consisted mainly of territories along the rivers Lahn and Main. The Nassaus were originally counts of Laurenburg, first mentioned in 1117. The ruins of their ancestral castle can still be seen on a hilltop not far from the town of Diez near the river Lahn. The first count of Nassau was Walram I (c.1146-1198).His son Henry the Rich (1190-1247/1251) had two sons, Walram II (c. 1226-c.1276) and Otto I (+ 1298). These divided about 1253 the Nassau possessions into two parts, with the river Lahn as the dividing line. Thus they became the name-givers of the two main lines of the House of Nassau, the Walramian and Ottonian lines. Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands and her son crown prince Willem Alexander are descendants in the Otttonian line; John of Nassau, Grand Duke of Luxemburg, is a descendant of Walram II.

Four members of the House of Luxemburg were German emperors: Henry VII, Charles IV, Wenceslaus and Sigismund. Luxemburg was originally a county, but became a duchy in 1354.  The founder of the Luxemburg Hausmacht was Henry VII; he married his son John the Blind to Elizabeth, the heiress of the House of Przemysl, so that John became King of Bohemia in 1310. Many other territories became part of the Luxemburg Hausmacht for a longer or shorter time: Silesia (1348), Lombardy (1355), Jauer-Schweidnitz (1360), Lausitz (1367), Brandenburg and Pomerania (1373). The centre of gravity of the Luxemburg Hausmacht lay in East Germany. The last descendant of the House of Luxemburg died in 1451.

The House of Wittelsbach is Bavarian; its origin is the castle of Wittelsbach, sixteen miles to the north-east of Augsburg. The following territories were possessions of the House of Wittelsbach for a longer or shorter period: the Palatinate (1317), Lombardy (1327), Brandenburg (1324), Holland, Zealand and Hainault (all three in 1346). The Wittelsbachs ruled Bavaria, first as dukes, later as kings, until the last King of Bavaria, Lewis III (1913-1918),  was deposed during the  German revolution of 1918.  There are still descendants of the House of Wittelsbach alive.

The House of Habsburg acquired the most extensive and powerful of all Hausmächte. It derives its name from the castle of Habsburg, in the Aargau in Switzerland. Between 1200 and 1250 the Habsburgs acquired many possessions in south-west Germany, stretching from the Vosges to the Bodensee. King Rudolf I became in 1278 duke of Austria and Styria; Austria always remained the power base of the House of Habsburg. The strength of the House of Habsburg was not conquest, but marriage policy: Bella gerant alii; tu, felix Austria, nube! Nam quae Mars aliis, dat tibi regna Venus = Let others wage war; you, happy Austria, marry! For the realms Mars gives others, gives Venus to you.

In the fifteenth century a new Hausmacht appeared on the historical scene, that of the House of Burgundy. In 1364 the French King Jean le Bon made his second son Philip II the Bold Duke of Burgundy (1364-1404). He married Margaret, the heiress of the county Flanders, in 1369. At the death of his father-in-law in 1384 Philip the Bold became Count of Flanders. The Duchies of Brabant and Limburg were fiefs of the House of Luxemburg. The last duchess of this House was childless. She designated Margaret of Flanders, Philip the Bold’s wife as her successor. This would mean that her husband would become Duke of Brabant of Limburg, but the Estates of both duchies would not have him; they feared his ambitious policy. They were, however, ready to accept Philip’s second son Antoine as their duke (1406). He married Elizabeth of Görlitz, Duchess of Luxemburg, who, as the only child, was the heiress. At the death of her father in 1411 Antoine succeeded him as Duke of Luxemburg. Thus there were two Burgundian complexes: 1. Burgundy-Franche Comté-Flanders-Artois-Rethel-Nevers; 2. Brabant-Limburg-Luxemburg. The second Burgundian line died out in 1430; this complex then devolved to Duke Philip the Good (1419-1467). This duke bought the county of  Namur from the last count (1430). This meant that most of  the southern Netherlands were now in the possession of the House of Burgundy – this, however, with the exception of Liège which remained a semi-independent princedom under its prince-bishop until 1795. Another exception was the Duchy of Hainault, which was a part of the Wittelsbach Hausmacht

Philip the Good became Duke of Hainault and Count of Holland and Zealand, fiefs of the House of Wittelsbach, by exerting heavy pressure on the Wittelsbach heiress, Jacoba of Bavaria; she was forced to cede her lands to Philip in 1433. Thus he acquired a foothold also in the northern Netherlands.

The last male Duke of Burgundy, Charles the Bold (1467-1477) had only one daughter Mary of Burgundy (1477-1482), the richest heiress of Europe. She married Maximilian of Habsburg, archduke of Austria.  Their son, Philip the Fair, a Habsburg prince, inherited the Burgundian lands, with the exception of the Duchy of Burgundy itself and of Rethel, Artois and Nevers, which devolved to the French Crown in 1477. The history of the Netherlands in this way became closely connected with the House of Habsburg; this connection lasted until 1795 for the Southern Netherlands (Belgium and Luxemburg) and until 1581  for the northern Netherlands (the Republic of the United Netherlands).

Philip the Fair married the Spanish princess Johanna of Castile in 1496. A  number of unexpected deaths made her the heiress of the Spanish crown, so that her husband Philip the Fair became King of Spain in 1504, a considerable extension of the Habsburg Hausmacht. It was not only Spain (with Portugal) that Habsburg inherited, but also the Kingdom of Naples with Sicily and Sardinia (a Habsburg possession since 1504);. the Duchy of Milan became a Habsburg possession in 1540. With Spain Habsburg also acquired the Philippines and the Spanish colonies in South and Middle America. Johanna’s and Philip’s son Charles V (1515-1555) in this way became the ruler `in whose realm the sun never sets’.

Philip the Fair died in 1506 (after a tournament on a hot day “he took a cool drink and died”); his grandfather Maximilian I acted a regent until 1515, in which year Charles V inherited the Habsburg possessions in the Netherlands. The death of his mother Johanna in 1516 made him King of Spain; in 1519 he was elected Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. At the same time he inherited the Austrian Hausmacht of Habsburg. Charles V considerably extended the Habsburg Hausmacht in the Netherlands. In 1515 he bought Frisia from its last ruler; he had, however, to conquer it, in which he succeeded in 1524. The bishop of Utrecht sold his secular rights to Charles V in 1528, which made him the ruler of Utrecht, Overijssel, Drente and Goningen. I 1543 he conquered the Duchy of Gelre.

The Habsburg Hausmacht was the largest  ever; it consisted of 1. the Austrian lands (Austria, Bohemia, Hungary and Milan); 2. the Netherlands (with the exception of Liège); 3. the Spanish possessions (Spain, Portugal, the Spanish colonies, the King of Naples and Sicily).

Yet another Hausmacht has to be mentioned, that of the Hohenzollerns. This family was destined to play and enormous role in German history, as Kings of Prussia, and later s Emperors of Germany. At first. however. their rise was slow and not spectacular. The Hohenzollerns are a Swabian family; their name is derived from the castle of Zollern in Swabia. They are first mentioned in 1061. Their ascent began, when the Emperor Henry VI made Frederick III of Hohenzollern viscount of Nuremberg in 1191. In 1363 viscount Frederick V of Hohenzollern was made a Reichsfürst. They had only a modest Hausmacht. But in 1411 Frederick VI of Hohenzollern became lieutenant (Verweser) of Brandenburg in 1415 Duke of Brandenburg; in 1417 he became an elector.

THE RUIN OF THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE
Towards the end of the Middle Ages the Holy Roman Empire led only a token existence. The emperor derived his power not from his being the sovereign ruler, but because he possessed an important Hausmacht. The Hausmächte did not form together a stable political system; they were always shifting, some becoming larger, others smaller and less important. Moreover, they were often in conflict with each other. The feudal princes of Germany increasingly acted as though there was no empire and no emperor.