Editing Holy Roman Empire (section)

== Name and general perception ==
{{Further|Reich|Translatio imperii|Problem of two emperors|Historiography of Germany}}

Since [[Charlemagne]], the realm was merely referred to as the "Roman Empire".{{Sfn|Wilson|1999|p=2}} The term {{lang|la|sacrum}} ("holy", in the sense of "consecrated") in connection with the medieval Roman Empire was used beginning in 1157 under [[Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor|Frederick I Barbarossa]] ("Holy Empire"): the term was added to reflect Frederick's ambition to dominate Italy and the [[Papacy]].{{Sfn|Whaley|2011|p=17}} The form "Holy Roman Empire" is attested from 1254 onward.{{Sfn|Moraw|1999|loc=col. 2025–2028}}

The exact term "Holy Roman Empire" was not used until the 13th century, before which the empire was referred to variously as {{lang|la|universum regnum}} ("the whole kingdom", as opposed to the regional kingdoms), {{lang|la|imperium christianum}} ("Christian empire"), or {{lang|la|Romanum imperium}} ("Roman empire"),{{Sfn|Garipzanov|2008}} but the Emperor's legitimacy always rested on the concept of {{lang|la|[[translatio imperii]]}},{{Efn|"transfer of rule"}} that he held supreme power inherited from the [[List of Roman emperors|ancient emperors of Rome]].{{Sfn|Whaley|2012a|pp=17–21}}

In a decree following the [[Imperial Diet (Holy Roman Empire)#Locations of Imperial Diets|Diet of Cologne]] in 1512, the name was changed to the "Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation" ({{Langx|de|Heiliges Römisches Reich Deutscher Nation}}, {{Langx|la|Sacrum Imperium Romanum Nationis Germanicae}}),{{Sfn|Wilson|1999|p=2}} a form first used in a document in 1474.{{Sfn|Whaley|2011|p=17}} The adoption of this new name coincided with the loss of imperial territories in Italy and Burgundy to the south and west by the late 15th century,{{Sfn|Whaley|2011|pp=19–20}} but also to emphasize the new importance of the German [[Imperial Estate]]s in ruling the Empire due to the [[Imperial Reform]].{{Sfn|Schulze|1998|pp=52–55}} The Hungarian denomination "'''German Roman Empire'''" ({{Langx|hu|Német-római Birodalom}}) is the shortening of this.<ref>{{Cite web|title=német-római birodalom – Magyar Katolikus Lexikon|url=http://lexikon.katolikus.hu/N/n%C3%A9met-r%C3%B3mai%20birodalom.html|access-date=2022-08-03|website=lexikon.katolikus.hu}}</ref>

By the end of the 18th century, the term "Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation" fell out of official use. Contradicting the traditional view concerning that designation, Hermann Weisert has argued in a study on imperial titulature that, despite the claims of many textbooks, the name "Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation" never had an official status and points out that documents were thirty times as likely to omit the national suffix as include it.{{Sfn|Wilson|2006|p=719}} Similarly, Peter Wilson states that "of the German Nation" was "appended more frequently after 1512 without becoming the Empire’s official title – despite numerous later claims to the contrary", and that "German historians are far more likely to refer to [the Empire] as ‘of the German nation’ than were its actual inhabitants."<ref>Wilson 2016, p. 255, 680.</ref>

In a famous assessment of the name, the political philosopher [[Voltaire]] remarked sardonically: "This body which was called and which still calls itself the Holy Roman Empire was in no way holy, nor Roman, nor an empire."{{Sfn|Voltaire|1773|p=338}}

In the modern period, the Empire was often informally called the "'''German Empire'''" ({{Lang|de|Deutsches Reich|italics=yes}}) or "'''Roman-German Empire'''" ({{Lang|de|Römisch-Deutsches Reich|italic=yes}}).{{Sfn|Jorio|Braun|2016}} After its dissolution through the end of the [[German Empire]], it was often called "the old Empire" ({{Lang|de|das alte Reich|italics=yes}}). Beginning in 1923, early twentieth-century German nationalists and [[Nazi Party]] propaganda would identify the Holy Roman Empire as the "First" Reich ({{lang|de|Erstes Reich}}, {{lang|de|Reich}} meaning empire), with the German Empire as the "Second" Reich and what would eventually become [[Nazi Germany]] as the "Third" Reich.{{Sfn|Lauryssens|1999|p=102}}

David S. Bachrach opines that the Ottonian kings actually built their empire on the back of military and bureaucratic apparatuses as well as the cultural legacy they inherited from the Carolingians, who ultimately inherited these from the Late Roman Empire. He argues that the Ottonian empire was hardly an archaic kingdom of primitive Germans, maintained by personal relationships only and driven by the desire of the magnates to plunder and divide the rewards among themselves but instead, notable for their abilities to amass sophisticated economic, administrative, educational and cultural resources that they used to serve their enormous war machine.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Bachrach|first=David S.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dBIABQAAQBAJ|title=Warfare in Tenth-Century Germany|date=2014|publisher=Boydell & Brewer Ltd|isbn=978-1-8438-3927-9|pages=3, 5, 12, 60, 73, 103, 180, 254|language=en|access-date=31 July 2022}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Brown|first=Warren|date=February 2015|title=Warfare in Tenth-Century Germany [Book Review]|url=https://authors.library.caltech.edu/55575|url-status=dead|journal=Early Medieval Europe|volume=23|issue=1|pages=117–120|doi=10.1111/emed.12090|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220731151238/https://authors.library.caltech.edu/55575|archive-date=31 July 2022|access-date=31 July 2022| issn = 0963-9462}}</ref>

Until the end of the 15th century, the empire was in theory composed of three major blocs – [[Kingdom of Italy (Holy Roman Empire)|Italy]], [[Kingdom of Germany|Germany]] and [[Kingdom of Arles|Burgundy]]. Later territorially only the Kingdom of Germany and Bohemia remained, with the Burgundian territories lost to [[France in the Middle Ages|France]]. Although the Italian territories were formally part of the empire, the territories were ignored in the [[Imperial Reform]] and splintered into numerous [[de facto]] independent territorial entities.{{Sfn|Bryce|1890|p=183}}{{Sfn|Whaley|2012a|pp=17–21}}{{Sfn|Johnson|1996|p=23}} The status of Italy in particular varied throughout the 16th to 18th centuries. Some territories like [[Savoyard state|Piedmont-Savoy]] became increasingly independent, while others became more dependent due to the extinction of their ruling noble houses causing these territories to often fall under the dominions of the [[House of Habsburg|Habsburgs]] and their [[cadet branch]]es. Barring [[Treaties of Nijmegen|the loss of Franche-Comté in 1678]], the external borders of the Empire did not change noticeably from the [[Peace of Westphalia]] – which acknowledged the exclusion of Switzerland and the Northern Netherlands, and the French protectorate over Alsace – to the dissolution of the Empire. At the conclusion of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815, most of the Holy Roman Empire was included in the [[German Confederation]], with the main exceptions being the Italian states.