Holy Roman Emperors Family Tree | Otto the Great to Francis II

hi this is Matt Baker today I'm going to show you the family tree of Holy Roman emperors I'll be using the latest version of my European Royal Family Tree West chart which can be purchased as a poster from our website usefulcharts.com a few months ago I did a two-part series on the family tree of Roman emperors starting with Augustus and going all the way to the crowning of Irene of Athens in the East and Charlemagne in the west today's video will therefore start where that one left off I'll show you how one part of Charlemagne's empire eventually became the Holy Roman Empire and then how the Holy Roman Empire eventually became the Austrian and German Empires thank you [Music] Charlemagne started out as king of the Franks and king of Italy however in the year 800 he was crowned Emperor as well becoming the first person in Western Europe to hold that title in over 300 years some people see his crowning as the beginning of the Holy Roman Empire whereas others like myself prefer to call this early stage of the Empire The Empire of the Franks this is because the original Empire contained both France and Germany and therefore I think it's better to wait to use the term Holy Roman Empire until after they split that split occurred after the death of Charlemagne son Louis the Pius at this point West frankia started to evolve into France and East frankia started to evolve into Germany with middle frankia quickly fizzling out note that the first ruler of East Francia was called Louis the German this is because even then it was understood that East Francia basically course responded to what the Romans had called Germania Louis the German originally split his kingdom into three parts Bavaria Saxony and swabia but eventually his youngest son ended up inheriting all three he was known as Charles the fat and he was also the first person from east frankia to obtain the title of Emperor originally it had gone to his uncle lothar the first and then to lothar's son Louis the younger but when the middle frankian branch of the family ran out of male heirs it was first taken by Charles the Bold of West frankia and then by Charles the fat of East frankia but by this point the empire was really starting to crumble so for the next few decades the title of Emperor bounced around between a bunch of different people including ghee of spoletto and his son Lambert Charles the Fat's illegitimate nephew Arnold Louis the Blind and Behringer of freely during this time Arnold and then his son Louis III third held the title king of East frankia however after the death of Louis III the only remaining male-line descendant of Charlemagne was Charles III the king of West frankia in order to avoid having to merge once again with the West the German Nobles decided to elect a new King instead they chose a Frankish Duke named Conrad and then after he died they chose a Saxon Duke named Henry the Fowler this marked the first time that Germany was United under a non-frankish ruler Henry even planned to travel to Rome and claim the title of Emperor but he died before this could happen and thus this task was left to his son Otto who would eventually become known as Otto the great so Otto started out initially as just king of East frankia however in the year 961 he captured Italy and was crowned Emperor thus the year 961 marks the true beginning of the Holy Roman Empire because from this point forward the title of Emperor would be reserved only for those who were also king of Germany during Otto's rule the Empire experienced a mini Renaissance the likes of which hadn't been seen since the days of Charlemagne so note that on this chart German kings are always in Yellow Boxes but only those with the crown symbol achieved the title of Emperor Otto the great was followed by his son Otto II and then by his son Otto III But Otto III died young without any children so at this point the throne passed to his second cousin Henry II now remember the title of German King and thus Holy Roman Emperor was technically an elected position by this point however the Nobles did usually try to keep an existing Dynasty going if they could this became more difficult after Henry II died again without any children so at this point the German Nobles elected Conrad II who was a great great grandson of Otto the great via a female line during his Reign Conrad II conquered the kingdom of burgundy so now the Holy Roman Empire consisted of three main kingdoms Germany Italy and burgundy Conrad II's line continued for three more Generations before it too ran out of Errors at this point the leading candidate for King was Frederick II Duke of swabia he was both a grandson of Emperor Henry IV via a female line as well as a member of the powerful hohenstaffin Dynasty from swabia however the Nobles wanted a less powerful Emperor so they elected a count instead who became lothar III lother had only one daughter and no Sons so when he died his son-in-law Henry VII the Duke of Bavaria expected to be elected the next king but instead the Nobles went for Frederick II's younger brother Conrad III this set up a rivalry between the houses of velph and hohen sulfin also known as the guelphs versus the ghiblings that would last for the next 100 years generally speaking the guelphs were aligned with the papacy whereas the gibblins were aligned with the hauchens dolphin Emperors and thus the Rivalry also represented a struggle between church and state Conrad III participated in the Second Crusade alongside Louis VII of France but he was never actually crowned Emperor and although he had a son the Nobles elected his nephew Frederick Barbarossa instead Barbarossa being a nickname meaning Red Beard Frederick Barbarossa was crowned Emperor and during his Reign the Empire experienced yet another mini Renaissance he participated in the Third Crusade alongside Philip II of France and Richard the lionheart of England Frederick Barbarossa was followed by his son Henry VI but when he died unexpectedly at age 31 a civil war ensued some of the Nobles elected Henry's younger brother Philip of swabia but others elected Otto IV from the house of valve out of the fourth mother was an English Princess and the sister of Richard the lionheart so he received the backing of England as well for the next 10 years neither King was crowned Emperor but then in 1208 Philip of swabia became the first and only German King to be assassinated Otto IV was of course suspected of being involved but he denied it helping to prosecute the perpetrator this did leave him as Soul King though and later that year he was crowned as Emperor becoming the only person from the house of wealth to ever hold the position although note that his distant male line relatives through his brother William ended up becoming the kings of Great Britain under the name the house of Hanover that's the house that Queen Victoria belonged to but back to Otto IV he quickly fell out of favor with the Pope and was eventually deposed leading Henry VI young son Frederick II to be crowned King and then Emperor he had previously inherited the crown of Sicily from his mother and he also became the king of Jerusalem through his wife so during his Reign the territory under the control of the hohen staffens reached its peak he had a nice long Reign but then after he died things started to quickly fall apart when his son Conrad IV died after just four years his death marked the beginning of the great interregnum in which there was no German King for 19 years and no Emperor for 62 years in the next phase in the history of the Holy Roman Empire is known as the period of the count Kings this is because most of the kings that were elected during this period had previously been counts a relatively low rank in the grand scheme of things basically the crown passed back and forth between four different houses before finally settling on one of them so initially there was Rudolph from the house of Habsburg then Adolf from the house of Nassau that's the same family that eventually came to rule in the Netherlands and then we get another Habsburg Albert the first note however that none of these three German kings were ever elected Emperor however the next count king to be elected was Henry VII from the house of Luxembourg and he was elected Emperor thus ending the great interregnum he was followed by Louis IV from the house of wittelsbach and then by Henry VII's grandson Charles IV Charles IV's Father John the blind had inherited the kingdom of bohemia through his wife so Charles IV ended up becoming the first king of bohemia to also hold the title of Holy Roman Emperor he was followed by his son went to slaus who was not crowned Emperor and was eventually deposed and replaced with Rupert from the house of wittelsbach he too was never crowned Emperor and when he died wenceslaus's brother sigismund was elected sigismund became the last of the three Luxembourg Emperors and through his wife he became king of Hungary as well however because he had no Sons his various crowns ended up going to his son-in-law Albert who was from the house of Habsburg and it's from here onwards that the habsburgs really start to dominate although when Albert II died after his very short Reign it was actually a different branch of the family that Rose to prominence while the crowns of bohemia and Hungary went to Albert's Offspring the crown of Germany actually went to his second cousin Frederick III who was then crowned Emperor and who ended up having a nice long reign of 53 years he was followed by his son Maximilian the first who married one of the richest women in Europe at the time Mary the reigning Duchess of burgundy which by that point included the low countries aka the Netherlands their son Philip then married Joanna daughter of Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella the first of Castile setting up Philip and Joanna's son Charles to receive the best inheritance that anyone has ever received not only did he become the Holy Roman Emperor but he also inherited the low countries as well as the crown of Spain which by then included all of South Italy so yeah he basically ruled more of Europe than anyone had ruled since the time of Charlemagne however before he died he made a wise decision he decided to split his dominions between his son Philip II who inherited Spain and the low countries and his brother Ferdinand the first who ended up getting the title of Holy Roman Emperor through his wife Anne Ferdinand had also inherited both Bohemia and Hungary so once again the crowns of Germany Bohemia and Hungary were United under a single ruler from this point forward the habsburgs split into two branches ferdinand's descendants became known as the Austrian habsburgs Austria being their main territory within the Holy Roman Empire while Charles's descendants became known as the Spanish habsburgs although these Spanish habsburgs were the more senior branch in this video we're concerned with the Holy Roman Empire so we're going to continue by following the Austrian branch Ferdinand the first became the first Holy Roman Emperor to receive the title automatically as soon as he was crowned king of Germany so basically the separate Imperial crowning by the pope was done away with at this point his brother Charles V being the last person to be crowned in this manner Ferdinand was followed by his son Maximilian II and then my maximilian's sons Rudolph II and Matthias but neither Rudolph or Matthias had any legitimate Sons so after Matthias the throne passed to their cousin Ferdinand II by this point the 30 Years War had begun which According to some estimates would go on to become the deadliest war ever fought in Europe up to that point it was basically about three things Catholicism versus protestantism Imperial Authority versus local autonomy and the habsburgs versus the Bourbons the War lasted through Ferdinand II's Reign into that of his son Ferdinand III in the end the Austrian habsburgs were still Emperors but their overall power had been weakened Ferdinand III was followed by his son Leopold the first and during his Reign two important things happened one is that the line of Spanish habsburgs became extinct leading to the war of the Spanish succession in which Leopold tried to get his second son the future Charles VI to be crowned king of Spain but that didn't work and the house of bourbon ended up getting the Throne of Spain instead the second thing is that the Duke of Prussia from the house of hohenzalern who also happened to be the elector of Brandenburg a major state within the Holy Roman Empire was elevated to the rank of King initially as the king in Prussia and then later as the King of Prussia this set up a situation in which there would soon be two major German powers in Europe instead of just one Leopold the first was followed first by his son Joseph the first and then by his son Charles VI but neither ended up having any sons and therefore this led to the war of the Austrian succession Charles wanted his daughter Maria Theresa to inherit everything but because German law did not allow females to become king she was only able to inherit the kingdoms of bohemia and Hungary as well as the archduchy of Austria the title of Emperor was eventually given to Charles VII from the house of wittelsbach the son-in-law of the previous Emperor Joseph the first but when he died it was then given to Maria Theresa's husband Francis the first from the house of Lorraine however the more important thing that happened as a result of the war of the Austrian succession was that Prussia under the leadership of Frederick the great became firmly established as a second major German power these two Powers Prussia and Austria would go to war again during the Reigns of Frederick the great and and Maria Theresa this time during What's called the Seven Years War which in a sense was the first real world war because not only was it fought in Europe but also in the Americas and Asia another notable thing about the Seven Years War is that Prussia and Austria ended up trading allies previously Prussia had been allied with France and Austria had been allied with Great Britain but this time it was the opposite Prussia was now aligned with Great Britain and Austria was aligned with France the anglo-pression alliance won the war meaning that the King of Prussia continued to get stronger and the Holy Roman Emperor continued to get weaker Maria Theresa and Francis the first were followed by their sons Joseph II and Leopold II however note that at this point the ruling house was now the house of Habsburg Lorraine since the original House of Habsburg was now extinct in the mail line also note that Joseph second and Leopold II were the brothers of Marie Antoinette who famously lost her head during the French Revolution Leopold II's son Francis II would end up being the final Holy Roman Emperor because during his Reign the Holy Roman Empire ceased to exist primarily due to the conquests of Napoleon however before he gave up the title of Holy Roman Emperor he also made himself emperor of Austria so once the Holy Roman Empire was gone he and his successors actually continued to hold the title of Emperor it's just that they were the Emperors of Austria instead once Napoleon Was Defeated what had previously been the Holy Roman Empire was reorganized as the German Confederation and Francis the first of Austria was appointed as its president but this resulted in a rather strange range situation because half of francis's empire was now part of the German Confederation but the other half was not of course Prussia was still a major player at this point and eventually tension between Prussia and Austria built up again resulting in the austro-prussian war of 1866. by this point Francis II's grandson Franz Joseph was now the Austrian Emperor he went to war against Wilhelm the first who at this point was simply the King of Prussia Wilhelm the first won that war leading to Austria being kicked out of the German Confederation and the whole thing being reconfigured as the northern German Confederation instead but the northern German Confederation didn't last long because it was soon reconfigured as the German Empire with Wilhelm the first being given the title of German emperor or Kaiser a throwback to the Roman term Caesar meanwhile Otto von Bismarck the man who had done the most to help create the German Empire was appointed as its first Chancellor so now there was both a German Emperor and an Austrian Emperor a situation that would continue up until the end of World War II in a few weeks time I plan to remake my video on who would be Kings of Germany today so at that point I'll continue following the trees from Wilhelm the first and Franz Joseph down to their current heirs today but for now let me remind you that if you want to get a copy of this chart as a poster you can do so now by heading over to usefulcharts.com thanks for watching [Music] [Music]

Channel: UsefulCharts

Views: 149,490

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Id: WAsOMYp9k6c

Length: 20min 31sec (1231 seconds)

Published: Fri May 05 2023