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Holy Roman Empire
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This page is about the Germanic empire. For the ancient empire centred on Rome, see Roman Empire.
The Holy Roman Empire, known from the 16th century also as The Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation was a political conglomeration of lands in Central Europe in the Middle Ages and the early modern period. Emerging from the eastern part of the Frankish Empire after its division in the Treaty of Verdun of 843, it lasted almost a millennium until its dissolution at Napoleon's initiative in 1806. By the 18th century, it still consisted of most of modern Germany, Czech Republic, Austria, Liechtenstein, Slovenia, Belgium, and Luxembourg, as well as large parts of modern Poland and small parts of the Netherlands and Croatia. Previously, it had included all of the Netherlands and Switzerland, and parts of modern France and Italy (see: Maps below). In the 18th century, when the Empire was already in decline, Voltaire famously ridiculed its nomenclature by saying that the Holy Roman Empire was neither Holy, nor Roman, nor an Empire.
Character of the empire

The prince-electors of the Holy Roman Empire. Pen-and-ink miniature from the picture chronicle of Henry VII (Balduineum).
The constituent principles of the Reich (Empire) as a political entity derived from medieval Christian thought rather than modern conceptions of the nation state. Furthermore, both the territory and internal cohesion of the Reich varied over the course of its existence. One way in which the Reich can be described is as a cross between a state and a religious confederation.
Most of the Empire's rulers and subjects were Germans. All of the Emperors were staunch Catholics. However, many of its most important noble families and appointed officials came from outside the German-speaking communities. At the height of the empire it contained most of the territory of today's Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Czech Republic and Slovenia, as well as eastern France, northern and part of central Italy, western Poland and western Croatia. Its languages thus comprised not only German and its many dialects and derivatives, but many Slavic languages and the languages which became modern French, Dutch and Italian. The Emperor's Catholicism did not preclude large numbers of other religious groups - Jews and Eastern Orthodox - from living within its borders at various times. The Empire was also the birthplace of the Protestant Reformation.
Its division into territories ruled by numerous secular and ecclesiastical princes, prelates, counts, imperial knights, and free cities made it, in the early modern period at least, far less cohesive than the emerging modern states around it.
For most of its existence, the Holy Roman Empire was more akin to a confederation of sovereign states than a state in and of itself. The concept of the Reich not only included the government of a specific territory, but had strong Christian religious connotations (hence the holy prefix). Until 1508, German Kings were not considered Emperors of the Reich until the Pope had formally crowned them as such. The Emperors upheld themselves as continuing the function of the Roman Emperors in defending, governing and supporting the Church. This viewpoint led to much strife between Emperors and the Papacy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Roman_Empire