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The Thirty Years War, 1618–48

David Parrott

in The Practice of Strategy: From Alexander the Great to the Present

The Thirty Years War, one of the most destructive episodes in European history, devastated central Europe in general and Germany in particular. Waged between 1618 and 1648, it was a series of ... More

The Thirty Years War, one of the most destructive episodes in European history, devastated central Europe in general and Germany in particular. Waged between 1618 and 1648, it was a series of conflicts that merged together rather than a single war. David Parrott argues that the Thirty Years War reflected different, albeit interconnected, sets of aims and security concerns: the struggle over the political form of the Holy Roman Empire, focused upon the reach and influence of the Austrian Habsburg monarchy; the conflict between the Spanish Habsburg monarchy and the breakaway United Provinces; and the hostility between the French monarchy and the Habsburg Imperial system. Other concerns, especially mounting religious tensions, gravitated around these political issues, leading to the successive involvement of additional states. While some warring parties periodically sought compromise within the framework of the Holy Roman Empire, military victories led to political opportunism that prolonged the war.Less

Juridical Equality

David Sorkin

in Jewish Emancipation: A History Across Five Centuries

This chapter details how the Jews of the Holy Roman Empire constituted the central European region of emancipation. Some historians would contend that the Holy Roman Empire's “archaic, traditionalist ... More

This chapter details how the Jews of the Holy Roman Empire constituted the central European region of emancipation. Some historians would contend that the Holy Roman Empire's “archaic, traditionalist constitution created a society that tolerated religious and ethnic differences to a far greater degree than the more centralized states of Western Europe”; in other words, “early modern central Europe was a pluralistic, complex society more tolerant of differences than England, France or Spain.” Whether this observation is accurate or not, it concerns toleration, not parity. Jews in the Holy Roman Empire fell behind Jews to the east and west in their political status. They gained neither collective corporate privileges nor the civic rights of emerging civil societies. To be sure, their juridical equality in the courts of the Holy Roman Empire marked a significant elevation in status. The Court Jews' extensive individual privileges were also an elevation in status, yet only for a miniscule elite. In sum, Jews in the Holy Roman Empire did not keep pace with their brethren east and west, thus making the transition to emancipation, when it came, a painful rupture.Less

The Holy Roman Empire and the Habsburg Monarchy

T. C. W. BLANNING

in The Culture of Power and the Power of Culture: Old Regime Europe 1660–1789

This chapter begins by giving an introduction to the influence of French culture in Germany. It then discusses the rise of the Habsburg monarchy and its culture in the Holy Roman Empire. Next, it ... More

This chapter begins by giving an introduction to the influence of French culture in Germany. It then discusses the rise of the Habsburg monarchy and its culture in the Holy Roman Empire. Next, it notes that the monarchy’s rise was determined in large measure by politics. The nobles of the Württemberg cultural complex acknowledged only the Holy Roman Emperor as their sovereign, were not subject to the Duke of Württemberg, and were not represented in the duchy’s Estates. This chapter notes that for the great majority in Germany, the main currency of imperial competition was cultural achievement. So the representational display expressed in palaces, academies, opera houses, hunting establishments, and the like was not pure self-indulgence, nor was it deception; it was a constitutive element of power itself. The chapter also examines the lives of other well-known figures in Germany and how they influenced their country.Less

The Reassertion of Empire

Stuart Elden

in The Birth of Territory

This chapter looks at the establishment of the Carolingian Empire. It begins with a discussion of the Donation of Constantine: which claimed to be a text from the fourth century, was forged in the ... More

This chapter looks at the establishment of the Carolingian Empire. It begins with a discussion of the Donation of Constantine: which claimed to be a text from the fourth century, was forged in the late eighth century, and finally exposed as such in the fifteenth century by Nicholas of Cusa and Lorenzo Valla. The chapter then moves to a discussion of the crowning of Charlemagne, and the practices of political ritual and naming that accompanied it. A range of works are analysed to show what precisely was being established: a new Roman Empire, a political form of Christendom, or more simply a Frankish kingdom. The position of Europe, particularly in relation to the rise of Islam, is discussed. The chapter moves to a discussion of cartography from Rome to the Medieval period. Cartography is a key political practice that both represents and produces political space. Jerusalem is often centrally located on maps of this time, providing a context in which to understand the crusades undertaken to recapture it. The chapter ends with a discussion of feudalism, stressing the political-economic importance of property in land and practices that went alongside it.Less

Liberal internationalism and the uses of history

Casper Sylvest

in British Liberal Internationalism, 1880-1930: Making Progress?

This chapter investigates the historical language of internationalist ideology as it was displayed in the writings of three prominent liberal historians who informed and augmented liberal ... More

This chapter investigates the historical language of internationalist ideology as it was displayed in the writings of three prominent liberal historians who informed and augmented liberal internationalism: James Bryce, John Morley and Lord Acton. Their different approaches to the emerging discipline and the practice of history reflect the broad appeal of historical representations and its relationship to political debates. The Holy Roman Empire covered the ideas which bolstered that empire, and one of the most fascinating episodes of the story – what Bryce termed the ‘theory of the Medieval Empire’ – now appeared outrageously anachronistic. Morley's Cobden represented the pinnacle of an honest and simple liberalism. The Life of Gladstone is above all the story of the young conservative High Church disciple who became the grand old man of liberalism. Acton's spirit was truly the spirit of a combative internationalism that would have an army of historians on its side.Less

The Ordering of Movement

Luca Scholz

in Borders and Freedom of Movement in the Holy Roman Empire

Early modern authorities attempted to promote, restrict, and channel the movement of goods and people for reasons that ranged from economic considerations to political motives and public health. In ... More

Early modern authorities attempted to promote, restrict, and channel the movement of goods and people for reasons that ranged from economic considerations to political motives and public health. In practice, however, these interferences only had mixed success. In the Holy Roman Empire’s dense landscape of ill-defined, overlapping political entities, the control over moving goods and people was a permanent point of contention. While the Empire’s history has often been written in distinctly diachronic terms, this study approaches the Empire in a spatial perspective and stresses its interest beyond the bounds of German history. Conflicts around the ordering of movement were often framed as matters of safe conduct, a quasi-sovereign right to authorize and protect the movement of various goods and people. While safe conduct always maintained a protective function, at the hands of the Empire’s territorial authorities it became a powerful instrument of political, fiscal, and symbolic power as well as a vehicle for gaining control over important thoroughfares.Less

3. Humanism at Court

David H. Price

in Johannes Reuchlin and the Campaign to Destroy Jewish Books

This chapter argues that Johannes Reuchlin's political and scholarly careers are intrinsically connected. It discusses his tenure as minister in Württemberg and the Palatinate, as well as his ... More

This chapter argues that Johannes Reuchlin's political and scholarly careers are intrinsically connected. It discusses his tenure as minister in Württemberg and the Palatinate, as well as his associations with the universities of Tübingen and Heidelberg, and his term on the court of the Swabian League. While it is easy to see the direct advantages of humanist rhetoric, moral philosophy, and history as preparatory courses for careers in government, it is even more important to observe the indirect impact of humanism as it came to inform the culture of European governments in the broadest terms. The chapter depicts the evolution of political life in the Holy Roman Empire (and the Hapsburg dynasty) under the influence of the early Renaissance and describes Reuchlin's career as governmental minister and judge, including his high-level work in arbitration of territorial disputes. Moreover, Reuchlin's literary achievements, especially his creation of humanist drama, grew out of humanist culture at universities and courts.Less

The Rediscovery of Roman Law

Stuart Elden

in The Birth of Territory

This chapter discusses the importance of Roman law, and in particular its codification under the Byzantine Emperor Justinian, to the question of territory. The main focus is on the two most important ... More

This chapter discusses the importance of Roman law, and in particular its codification under the Byzantine Emperor Justinian, to the question of territory. The main focus is on the two most important post-glossators or commentators: Bartolus of Sassoferrato and Baldus de Ubaldis. They put the law to work in fourteenth century Italian cities, and crucially made the argument that territorium and jurisdiction went together. Crucially territorium becomes not simply a property of a ruler, but the object of rule itself. These are practical arguments - Bartolus’s work on river boundary law, for instance, is a combination of legal argument and practical techniques. The final part of the chapter looks at how this work provided a missing basis for assertions of temporal power: in distinction to the universal aspirations of the papacy, temporal power was geographically determined. Within his kingdom, the king had the same power as the Emperor in the Empire. The legacy of this work is found in the reform of church law of Nicholas of Cusa and in secular legal theorists such as Francisco de Vitoria’s writing on colonisation and Hugo Grotius’s work on the law of the sea and the rights of war and peace.Less

Associations and the Discourses of Peace, Common Weal, and Empire

Duncan Hardy

in Associative Political Culture in the Holy Roman Empire: Upper Germany, 1346-1521

Associations such as alliances and leagues were not merely functional tools. The rhetoric found in treaties and correspondence suggests that some members of associations perceived their participation ... More

Associations such as alliances and leagues were not merely functional tools. The rhetoric found in treaties and correspondence suggests that some members of associations perceived their participation as an activity freighted with political and moral significance. Almost all alliance and league foundation treaties and renewals contain appeals to clusters of ideas, centred on the concepts of divinely ordained peace, the common good of the community, and the Holy Roman Empire (conceptually linked, from the late fifteenth century, to the ‘German nation’). These discourses can only be found in this precise form in one other setting: the imperial diets and Empire-wide correspondence and legislation that they produced. This indicates that members of associations claimed to be involving themselves in the most significant and legitimate spheres of political activity in the Empire, even when their immediate objectives were modest and localized, or the legality of their alliances was challenged by other authorities.Less

James Bryce and the Future1: CENTENARY ESSAY

William Ranulf Brock

in Proceedings of the British Academy, Volume 115 Biographical Memoirs of Fellows, I

James Bryce (Viscount Bryce), who was elected President of the British Academy in 1913 and delivered his last presidential address in July 1917, had a distinguished career in letters and public life. ... More

James Bryce (Viscount Bryce), who was elected President of the British Academy in 1913 and delivered his last presidential address in July 1917, had a distinguished career in letters and public life. His essay, ‘Holy Roman Empire’, established his reputation as a historian, and he also qualified as a barrister. In his address to the British Academy, ‘The Next Thirty Years’ (1917), Bryce outlined a strategy for higher education. Article by William Brock FBA.Less

Introduction

Duncan Hardy

in Associative Political Culture in the Holy Roman Empire: Upper Germany, 1346-1521

Interpretations of the Holy Roman Empire have always been fraught and contested, particularly regarding the late medieval and early modern period. German historians have offered two main ... More

Interpretations of the Holy Roman Empire have always been fraught and contested, particularly regarding the late medieval and early modern period. German historians have offered two main interpretations of the Empire in recent decades. The first sees it as a patchwork of territorial states, and the second as a Reichsverfassung: a constitutional system characterized by disjunctive or oppositional forces. This Introduction sets out how this book will re-conceptualize the Empire as a more coherent political entity, using Upper Germany as a wide-ranging case study. Viewed comparatively, the evidence from the period between 1346 and 1521 suggests that all kinds of political actors shared in the same structures, dynamics, and assumptions—the same ‘political culture’. In particular, elites constantly interacted within the framework of associations such as alliances and leagues, which are the main focus of this book, and force us to view the Empire as a more interconnected political landscape.Less

Popular Sovereignty, Civil Association, and the Respublica: Johannes Althusius and the German Publicists

Daniel Lee

in Popular Sovereignty in Early Modern Constitutional Thought

This chapter considers the critical reception of Bodin’s theory of sovereignty in early modern German political thought, with special focus on the most important German reply to Bodin’s République, ... More

This chapter considers the critical reception of Bodin’s theory of sovereignty in early modern German political thought, with special focus on the most important German reply to Bodin’s République, the Politica Methodice Digesta of Johannes Althusius. In investigating the Politica, I show that the grounds of Althusius’ principal disagreement with Bodin concerned the latter’s indifferentism on the question of form. For Althusius, sovereignty could only be popular sovereignty, a thesis which he defended with an analysis of the associational, ‘symbiotic’ nature of sovereignty as a collective right activated by a shared communal life. I also stress how much Althusius, despite his populist orientation, nevertheless retained the fundamentals of Bodin’s concept of sovereignty as indivisible. I contrast Althusius’ analysis with later theoretical developments, including the doctrine of double sovereignty, introduced by German Publicist writers such as Arumäeus, Limnaeus, and Besold, as a corrective to Bodin’s analysis of the Empire.Less

Historical, Cultural, and Literary Background

Howard Jones and Martin H. Jones

in The Oxford Guide to Middle High German

This chapter describes the context in which the texts chosen for study originated and in which the use of German as a written language developed during the Middle High German period. No prior ... More

This chapter describes the context in which the texts chosen for study originated and in which the use of German as a written language developed during the Middle High German period. No prior knowledge of the period is presupposed; key concepts are explained as they arise. The chapter is divided into three sections. The first explains the formation of the kingdom of Germany and of the Holy Roman Empire and examines the relationship between them. The second section describes the structure and working of German society under the following headings: the church; kingship and the secular nobility (including discussion of knighthood and chivalry); peasants and the rural economy; towns and townspeople. The third section surveys the principal types of texts that provide the basis for the study of Middle High German. The survey covers religious literature, courtly literature, chronicles, legal and administrative texts, and medical and other specialist literature.Less

Conclusion the Problem of Authority

in Alchemy and Authority in the Holy Roman Empire

This chapter discusses the problem of authority in entrepreneurial alchemy in the Holy Roman Empire. It explains that the battle for alchemical authority was waged on many fronts and with many ... More

This chapter discusses the problem of authority in entrepreneurial alchemy in the Holy Roman Empire. It explains that the battle for alchemical authority was waged on many fronts and with many agendas and results, and that at the center of the battle were always the Betrugers themselves. The chapter also argues that the fraud trials around 1600 were the direct product of the entrepreneurial arrangements which set up structures for alchemy that encouraged some alchemists to take on too much risk and to promise too much for their art and their abilities.Less

Violence and the Politics of Imitation in Du Bellay’s La Deffence et illustration de la langue françoyse and L’Olive

Cynthia N. Nazarian

in Love's Wounds: Violence and the Politics of Poetry in Early Modern Europe

This chapter offers a reading of Joachim du Bellay's L'Olive alongside his prose manifesto, La Deffence et illustration de la langue françoyse. L'Olive's martial and technological imagery and its ... More

This chapter offers a reading of Joachim du Bellay's L'Olive alongside his prose manifesto, La Deffence et illustration de la langue françoyse. L'Olive's martial and technological imagery and its references to empire and conquest are highly suggestive of the conflicts between France and the Holy Roman Empire that played out on battlefields in Italy over the first half of the sixteenth century. However, the amplified violence of the period in which Du Bellay's sonnet sequence appeared cannot fully account for its rampant imagery of violence and vulnerability, nor fully express its complex political engagements. This chapter examines how Du Bellay's sonnet sequence utilized abjection to counter figured subjection, thus accomplishing what his manifesto only advocated: through imitation, the countersovereign conquest and appropriation of Italian cultural preeminence and the translation of empire from Rome to France.Less