The Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, the First Reich, was the
central political entity of the western world for a great many centuries
and, as we have talked about before, has been in the mind of many
people, most often Catholics, in particular in terms of comparing and
contrasting it with the European Union. As I have stated before, the EU
is nothing at all even close to what the First Reich had been, however,
for those who claim that the European Union should be embraced as a
modern-day version of the Holy Roman Empire, my response is simple; why
not just restore the Holy Roman Empire itself? Such a thing is hardly
likely in this day and age and yet, it is no more unlikely than the
restoration of any other monarchy which I will not relent in pressing
for. Additionally, it is not as though it would be fundamentally
impossible to restore the First Reich in terms of the modern European
political map as the First Reich was itself a rather malleable thing,
which is probably why it was able to endure for so long.
The body that eventually became known as the Holy Roman Empire existed
long before the actual term itself came into common usage and originated
in a sort of effort by Pope St Leo III and the Frankish king
Charlemagne to revive the Western Roman Empire but in a very different
form, with a different basis and a largely different population,
certainly a different ruling class, than the original Roman Empire. It
was always a somewhat amorphous thing, during the reigns of particularly
powerful emperors it was a definite empire but in the intervals between
such monarchs was often more like a confederation of loosely aligned
minor states. As the name suggests, certainly from the time of Emperor
Otto the Great, it was a German-dominated entity and the core of it, the
heartland of it, was what is today Germany. However, it was also seen
as a unifying force for all of Western Europe or all of Christendom. The
Emperor did not directly rule over all the countries of Christendom,
indeed he did not directly rule all of the Empire itself exactly but he
was supposed to be the senior monarch of Christendom, higher in status
than the kings of France or England. He could not command them, but the
idea was that he should be treated with all due respect as their senior.
Now, should all of this sound too frightfully Roman Catholic for
Protestant monarchists, remember that at the end of the Holy Roman
Empire the Protestants were a well established and accepted force within
the empire and several of the Prince-Electors were Protestants, though
in a rather odd turn of events one of those Protestant electors was a
Catholic. There was even a Protestant caucus within the Reichstag. In
the last shuffling of the deck before the First Reich was dissolved, the
Prince-Electors were: The Prince-Archbishop of Regensburg, the King of
Bohemia, the King of Bavaria, the King of Saxony, the King of Prussia
(Elector of Brandenburg), the King of Great Britain (Elector of
Hanover), the King of Wurttemberg, the Grand Duke of Baden, the Elector
of Hesse-Kassel and the Grand Duchy of Wurzburg (who later became the
Grand Duke of Tuscany, long after the Empire was gone). Obviously,
things had changed a great deal from the, not original but early and
long lasting official organization of the empire as the Kingdom of
Germany, the Kingdom of Italy, the Kingdom of Burgundy (Arles) which
didn’t actually exist most of the time and the Kingdom of Bohemia. All
of these were kingships held by the Emperor and, originally, there were
supposed to be no other kings within the empire besides the emperor
himself. That, of course, changed when the Elector of Brandenburg became
the “King in Prussia” and later the “King of Prussia”.
The point is that the Holy Roman Empire was changeable and it is not
beyond the realm of possibility that it could be reconstituted today
with the restoration of monarchies across Europe. In other words, one
would not have to dethrone some monarchs, restore others and reset
everything in order to accomplish a restoration. This is one of the
differences between the actual Roman Empire and the Holy Roman Empire of
the German People. The original Roman Empire had a long history of its
own going back through the Roman Republic to the ancient Roman kings.
There was a specific political system in place with a specific procedure
for becoming Emperor of the Romans who ruled “SPQR” which was in the
name of the, “Senate and the People of Rome”. What was or what became
the Holy Roman Empire began with the coronation of Charlemagne as
“Emperor of the Romans” by Pope St Leo III on Christmas Day 800 AD. This
meant that the Pope had claimed for himself the authority to choose the
emperor, unlike the old system in which the Pope was simply called upon
to bless the Emperor of Rome who had come to power in the usual way.
More significantly to how history unfolded of course, he also reserved
the right to remove the Emperor. What the Pope gives, the Pope can also
take away which was no doubt one reason why most emperors ultimately
found they could get along just fine without being crowned by the Pope.
In a modern restoration of the Holy Roman Empire, one could have
electors such as Prince Georg Friedrich of Prussia, Prince Donatus of
Hesse, Archduke Karl of Austria, Prince Ernst August of Hanover, Duke
Franz of Bavaria, Prince Alexander or Prince Rudiger of Saxony (I’m not
going to get into that dispute here), Margrave Maximilian of Baden, Duke
Carl of Wurttemberg and others. The others are where there could be
some trouble. The clerical electors could prove problematic, one reason
being that the Catholic Church in modern times has not exactly been
zealously pro-monarchy and, assuming old attitudes prevail though they
probably don’t, the lay electors might object to having churchmen
involved in the election of the emperor given that the Church, under St
Pius X, abolished any imperial involvement in the election of the pope
after Emperor Franz Joseph last used his veto power. However, it is
nothing that could not be worked out.
There is also the issue that the Grand Duke of Wurzburg, as mentioned,
later became the Grand Duke of Tuscany which, as we know, was abolished
with the incorporation of Tuscany into the Kingdom of Italy and we are
not supposed to be robbing anyone of their throne or re-drawing the map
of Europe to do this remember. Personally, I’d be fine with the Grand
Duchy of Tuscany being restored, along with others, within the Kingdom
of Italy. However, if old customs are to be kept to, the Grand Duke of
Tuscany would have to finally declare his nationality once and for all.
You see, when the Italians began to get really forceful about not
wanting to be ruled by foreigners, supporters of the Grand Duke (and
those like him) were quick to say that these cadet branches
self-identified as Italians or more precisely Tuscans or Florentines or
whatever you wish to call them (either sounds odd in English) but, when
it came to the Holy Roman Empire, again, despite what some have claimed
about the mentality of people prior to the French Revolution,
nationality was important and the leaders of the empire would be
expected to object to an elector who is not a German. In the old days
the King of Bohemia (before they were Habsburg) was sometimes challenged
as an elector on the grounds that he was not German and thus had no
business taking part in who would be Emperor over the German nation.
Depending on how the clerical electors are reconstituted, it might also
be possible to simply replace the Grand Duke with a clerical elector as
the Bishopric of Wurzburg is still around today.
There might also be some objections to the Grand Duke of Baden and King
of Wurttemberg both being electors given that these are, in modern
Germany, part of the same state and we are not supposed to be re-drawing
the map here. However, as these things have been done in the past, the
Grand Duchy of Baden could be restored within the Kingdom of Wurttemberg
and his vote could be given to some other prince of the German states.
One could go back to an earlier, smaller roster of electors, none of
this was ever set in stone. The “Golden Bull” of Emperor Charles VI was
supposed to do something of the sort but, obviously, changes were made
right up to the very end of the existence of the Holy Roman Empire.
Indeed, the Hessians insisted on keeping their electoral title even
after the empire was no more, simply because it was more prestigious
than what they had otherwise. All of that could be worked out as some
electors were lost and others were raised to the status. There were
rules for all of this but all those rules could be changed and were. It
was not even set in stone that the electors had to choose a candidate
from among their own number, hence King Francis I of France and King
Henry VIII of England once threw their proverbial hats in the ring. At
one point it was not even considered beyond the realm of possibility
that there might be a Protestant emperor. He would not be crowned by the
Pope and thus would remain “Emperor-Elect” officially but then, that
came to be standard procedure as well.
None of this is absolutely impossible. However, the biggest problem with
restoring the Holy Roman Empire is, to my mind, undoubtedly the current
mindset of modern Europe. Restoring the empire would be a comparatively
small matter, indeed some maintain that Emperor Franz II had no power
to dissolve the empire and so it still exists but is simply dormant,
awaiting the election of a new emperor. The issue that should give
traditional monarchists some pause about this is who would be elected,
what would this revived empire really look like considering the values
that prevail in Europe, the modern Catholic Church and the Protestant
churches that the electors belong to. The motivations that those in
power had in the past are not the motivations that those in power have
today and my biggest concern with a revived Holy Roman Empire of the
German Nation would be what torrent of changes it would immediately be
subjected to and I can think of nothing more frightening the possibility
that the electors might choose to “make a statement” with their vote.
Even if they stuck to tradition and elected Archduke Karl of Austria, I
would still fear what the threat of being unpopular might prompt him to
do. However, at the end of the day, whatever they came up with would
almost have to be a considerable improvement over what exists at the
moment.
This points to the reason why I tend to get rather frustrated with
people who tend to blame all problems on modern monarchs and who
complain that if only they would act like the monarchs of old,
everything would be better. I am afraid not, that is not how it works. A
modern Holy Roman Empire would not be the same as the historic Holy
Roman Empire. People create societies, cultures and so on and as people
change, the societies they create change. The First Reich was
essentially the Catholic German empire. The Second Reich was a
Protestant-run German empire in which religious differences were not of
paramount importance. The Third Reich, well, that is a rather long story
but it was a reflection of its time and I think it is significant that
while the current political masters want Germans to forget the First
Reich, want Germans to forget the Second Reich, they *never* want
Germans to forget the Third Reich, it is too important for them and
their hold on power.
Personally, I tend to look back with more longing on the Roman Empire of
Constantine and Theodosius than I do the Roman Empire of Otto and
Frederick. However, the core, the spirit if you like, the “idea” of this
Roman Empire is something the modern masters of the planet do not want
us to remember or work to revive. The Holy Roman Empire hardly, if ever,
worked the way the ideal was supposed to. However, that very ideal,
that very vision, of western, European, Christian monarchies all in
harmony, all pulling in the same direction with varying degrees of local
autonomy terrifies the sort of rulers the world has today. Yes, powers
such as France, Spain, Britain even largely Italy and so on were outside
of it but the ideal was that they would all see themselves as being on
the same team, this “team” known as Christendom, synonymous with
“western civilization”. That is something worth considering, worth
trying to work out, worth trying to strive for.
