The Holy Roman Empire 1495 1806

Bol Partner

The Holy Roman Empire lasted for over a millennium, yet its development and institutions are still commonly dismissed as largely irrelevant to broader historical issues. Recent scholarship challenges this view but until now has failed to provide a convincing interpretation of the political structure which provided the framework within which such major events as the Reformation and the Thirty Years War developed. Drawing on a wealth of specialist studies, Peter Wilson offers an alternative way of looking at the Empire, seeing it not as a failed monarchy or flawed forerunner of a later German nation-state, but on its own terms as a multi-layered structure combining monarchical, hierarchical and federal elements. Key stages in the Empire's development are explained within the context of wider European history.

Bol

Peter Wilson provides a concise yet comprehensive account of the Holy Roman Empire and its profound impact during its last three centuries of existence. Drawing on a wealth of research, the expanded new edition has been fully revised and updated throughout and now features a new chapter on 'Nation and Identity'. The Holy Roman Empire has always caused tremendous confusion for students of European history, and this book sets out to provide a clear account of this remarkable organisation - comparable in many ways only to the modern European Union - and its profound impact during its three centuries of existence.