Heart of Europe

Heart of Europe

Author: Peter H. Wilson

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 2016-04-04

Total Pages: 1025

ISBN-13: 0674058097

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An Economist and Sunday Times Best Book of the Year “Deserves to be hailed as a magnum opus.” —Tom Holland, The Telegraph “Ambitious...seeks to rehabilitate the Holy Roman Empire’s reputation by re-examining its place within the larger sweep of European history...Succeeds splendidly in rescuing the empire from its critics.” —Wall Street Journal Massive, ancient, and powerful, the Holy Roman Empire formed the heart of Europe from its founding by Charlemagne to its destruction by Napoleon a millennium later. An engine for inventions and ideas, with no fixed capital and no common language or culture, it derived its legitimacy from the ideal of a unified Christian civilization—though this did not prevent emperors from clashing with the pope for supremacy. In this strikingly ambitious book, Peter H. Wilson explains how the Holy Roman Empire worked, why it was so important, and how it changed over the course of its existence. The result is a tour de force that raises countless questions about the nature of political and military power and the legacy of its offspring, from Nazi Germany to the European Union. “Engrossing...Wilson is to be congratulated on writing the only English-language work that deals with the empire from start to finish...A book that is relevant to our own times.” —Brendan Simms, The Times “The culmination of a lifetime of research and thought...an astonishing scholarly achievement.” —The Spectator “Remarkable...Wilson has set himself a staggering task, but it is one at which he succeeds heroically.” —Times Literary Supplement


The Rise and Fall of the Holy Roman Empire

The Rise and Fall of the Holy Roman Empire

Author: David Criswell

Publisher: Publishamerica Incorporated

Published: 2005

Total Pages: 653

ISBN-13: 9781413754735

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The Rise and Fall of the Holy Roman Empire is the only complete history of the Holy Roman Empure currently in print. The vain attempt of the Holy Roman Empire to restore the legacy of ancient Rome is recounted in full. Unlike other histories, Dr. Criswell covers both emperors and popes, who were by charter co-rulers of the empire, and discusses the whole empire as it extended at various times far beoynd Germany and Italy to Spain, England, France, and even to Constantiniople, Jerusalem, and the Americas. Preferring facts to interpretation, Dr. Criswell has presented this history as a chronoligcal narrative, discussing each and every emperor and pope, as well as the dominant kings of Europe, from the time of Charlemagne to the empire's fall under Napoleon. The result is a history that combines Church history with secular history and is the first comprehensive, yet conscise, history of the Holy Roman Empire.


The Holy Roman Empire

The Holy Roman Empire

Author: Barbara Stollberg-Rilinger

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2021-05-11

Total Pages: 180

ISBN-13: 0691217319

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A new interpretation of the Holy Roman Empire that reveals why it was not a failed state as many historians believe The Holy Roman Empire emerged in the Middle Ages as a loosely integrated union of German states and city-states under the supreme rule of an emperor. Around 1500, it took on a more formal structure with the establishment of powerful institutions--such as the Reichstag and Imperial Chamber Court--that would endure more or less intact until the empire's dissolution by Napoleon in 1806. Barbara Stollberg-Rilinger provides a concise history of the Holy Roman Empire, presenting an entirely new interpretation of the empire's political culture and remarkably durable institutions. Rather than comparing the empire to modern states or associations like the European Union, Stollberg-Rilinger shows how it was a political body unlike any other--it had no standing army, no clear boundaries, no general taxation or bureaucracy. She describes a heterogeneous association based on tradition and shared purpose, bound together by personal loyalty and reciprocity, and constantly reenacted by solemn rituals. In a narrative spanning three turbulent centuries, she takes readers from the reform era at the dawn of the sixteenth century to the crisis of the Reformation, from the consolidation of the Peace of Augsburg to the destructive fury of the Thirty Years' War, from the conflict between Austria and Prussia to the empire's downfall in the age of the French Revolution. Authoritative and accessible, The Holy Roman Empire is an incomparable introduction to this momentous period in the history of Europe.


King and Emperor

King and Emperor

Author: Janet L. Nelson

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 2021-06-08

Total Pages: 704

ISBN-13: 0520383214

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Charles I, often known as Charlemagne, is one of the most extraordinary figures ever to rule an empire. Driven by unremitting physical energy and intellectual curiosity, he was a man of many parts, a warlord and conqueror, a judge who promised 'for each their law and justice', a defender of the Latin Church, a man of flesh-and-blood. In the twelve centuries since his death, warfare, accident, vermin, and the elements have destroyed much of the writing on his rule, but a remarkable amount has survived. Janet Nelson's wonderful new book brings together everything we know about Charles, sifting through the available evidence, literary and material, to paint a vivid portrait of the man and his motives. Charles's legacy lies in his deeds and their continuing resonance, as he shaped counties, countries, and continents, founded and rebuilt towns and monasteries, and consciously set himself up not just as King of the Franks, but as the head of the renewed Roman Empire. His successors--in some ways even up to the present day--have struggled to interpret, misinterpret, copy, or subvert his legacy.


The Song of Roland

The Song of Roland

Author: Anonymous

Publisher: Good Press

Published: 2019-11-19

Total Pages: 149

ISBN-13:

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The Song of Roland is a book of poems by an anonymous author. It depicts a gory French tale of war, where General Charlemagne was ambushed in a remote Pyrenean pass, showcasing a symbolic struggle between Christianity and Islam.


Charlemagne

Charlemagne

Author: Matthias Becher

Publisher: Yale University Press

Published: 2003-01-01

Total Pages: 184

ISBN-13: 9780300107586

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Charlemagne was the first emperor of medieval Europe and almost immediately after his death in 814 legends spread about his military and political prowess and the cultural glories of his court at Aix-la-Chapelle.


The Emperor Charlemagne

The Emperor Charlemagne

Author: E. R. Chamberlin

Publisher:

Published: 2020-08-17

Total Pages: 340

ISBN-13: 9781913518813

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An authoritative biography of the greatest ruler of the medieval period. The Emperor Charlemagne is an ideal book for readers of Tom Holland, Dan Jones and Helen Castor. On Christmas Day, 800, Charlemagne was crowned 'Emperor of the Romans' by Pope Leo III. Originally inheriting one half of his father's Frankish kingdom, by the time of his death in 814 he had put down rebellions in his own provinces, conquered the Lombards, fought against Saxons, Avars and Slavs in the east, clashed with Muslims in Spain, negotiated with the papacy and the Byzantine Empire, and united much of western and central Europe for the first time since the classical era of the Roman Empire. Under his guidance the Carolingian Renaissance flourished, with his capital of Aachen becoming a centre of learning and artistic genius. The legacy of Charlemagne on European history and culture is monumental. Yet, within thirty years of his death, his empire had fragmented. Who was this legendary ruler? How had he managed to rule these vast domains? And why has his legacy continued to influence Europeans to this day? E. R. Chamberlin's masterful biography of Charlemagne demonstrates the sheer force of will that this charismatic leader was able to command as he created a realm to rival the Byzantines in the east. Through the course of the book Chamberlin brings to life how Charlemagne forged his empire, and uncovers the people, the religious and political controversies, the social and agricultural conditions, and the changes in warfare that took place over one thousand years ago. The Emperor Charlemagne is an engrossing biography of one of the most legendary figures in history, and first embodiment of the ideal of European unity.


A Short History of Europe

A Short History of Europe

Author: Gordon Kerr

Publisher: Oldcastle Books

Published: 2011-12-19

Total Pages: 132

ISBN-13: 184243666X

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What is Europe? Firstly, of course, it is a continent made up of countless disparate peoples, races and nations, and governed by different ideas, philosophies, religions and attitudes. Nonetheless, it has a common thread of history running through it, stitching the lands and peoples of its past and present together into one fabric and held together by the continent's great institutions, such as the Church of Rome, the Holy Roman Empire, the European Union, individual monarchies, trade organisations and social movements. Europe, however, is also an idea. From almost the beginning of time, men have harboured aspirations to make this vast territory one. The Romans came close and a few centuries later, the foundations for a great European state were laid with the creation of the Holy Roman Empire - an empire different to any other in that it enjoyed the approval of God, through the Church in Rome. Napoleon overreached himself in attempting to create a European-wide Empire - as did Adolf Hitler. Now, however, Europe is as close as it ever has been to being one entity, yet we Europeans still cling to our national independence. In A Short History of Europe Gordon Kerr provides a coherent map of the jumbled history of Europe and the European idea that has brought us to this point.