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Author Wilson, Peter H. (Peter Hamish), author.

Title Heart of Europe : a history of the Holy Roman Empire / Peter H. Wilson.

Publication Info. Cambridge, Massachusetts : Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2016.

Copies

Location Call No. Status
 Bloomfield, Prosser Library - Adult Department  943 WIL    Storage
 Southington Library - Adult  943.02 WIL    Check Shelf
Edition First Harvard University Press edition, 2016.
Description xii, 941 pages, 40 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (chiefly color), genealogical tables, maps ; 25 cm
Note "First published in the United Kingdom as The Holy Roman Empire: A Thousand Years of Europe's History by Penguin Books Ltd. 2016"--Title page verso.
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index.
Contents Part I. Ideal -- Two Swords -- Christendom -- Sovereignty -- Part II. Belonging -- Lands -- Identities -- Nation -- Part III. Governance -- Kingship -- Territory -- Dynasty -- Part IV. Society -- Authority -- Association -- Justice -- Afterlife.
Summary "The Holy Roman Empire lasted a thousand years, far longer than ancient Rome. Yet this formidable dominion never inspired the awe of its predecessor. Voltaire distilled the disdain of generations when he quipped it was neither holy, Roman, nor an empire. Yet as Peter Wilson shows, the Holy Roman Empire tells a millennial story of Europe better than the histories of individual nation-states. And its legacy can be seen today in debates over the nature of the European Union. Heart of Europe traces the Empire from its origins within Charlemagne's kingdom in 800 to its demise in 1806. By the mid-tenth century its core rested in the German kingdom, and ultimately its territory stretched from France and Denmark to Italy and Poland. Yet the Empire remained stubbornly abstract, with no fixed capital and no common language or culture. The source of its continuity and legitimacy was the ideal of a unified Christian civilization, but this did not prevent emperors from clashing with the pope over supremacy--the nadir being the sack of Rome in 1527 that killed 147 Vatican soldiers. Though the title of Holy Roman Emperor retained prestige, rising states such as Austria and Prussia wielded power in a way the Empire could not. While it gradually lost the flexibility to cope with political, economic, and social changes, the Empire was far from being in crisis until the onslaught of the French revolutionary wars, when a crushing defeat by Napoleon at Austerlitz compelled Francis II to dissolve his realm."--Provided by publisher.
Subject Holy Roman Empire -- History.
Holy Roman Empire -- Politics and government.
Politics and government. (OCoLC)fst01919741
Europe -- Holy Roman Empire. (OCoLC)fst01205344
Genre/Form History. (OCoLC)fst01411628
Added Title Holy Roman Empire.
ISBN 9780674058095 (cloth ; alk. paper)
0674058097 (cloth ; alk. paper)
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