document_title: 2018 NFL season

question_text: when do they release the nfl schedule 2018

text: 2018 NFL season

text: Player movements[edit]

text: The 2018 NFL League year began on March 14. On March 12, clubs were allowed to contact and enter into contract negotiations with the agents of players who were to become unrestricted free agents upon the expiration of their contracts two days later. On March 9, clubs were allowed to exercise options for 2018 on players who have option clauses in their contracts, submit qualifying offers to their pending restricted free agents, and submit a Minimum Salary Tender to retain exclusive negotiating rights to their players with expiring 2017 contracts and who have fewer than three accrued seasons of free agent credit. Teams were required to be under the salary cap using the "Top-51" definition (in which the 51 highest paid-players on the team's payroll must have a collected salary cap hit below the actual cap). The 2018 trading period also began March 14.

text: Free agency[edit]

text: Over 550 players were eligible for some form of free agency during the free agency period.[1] Notable players to change teams include:

text:
Quarterbacks Sam Bradford (Minnesota to Arizona), Teddy Bridgewater (Minnesota to New York Jets) Kirk Cousins (Washington to Minnesota), Case Keenum (Minnesota to Denver), and A.J. McCarron (Cincinnati to Buffalo).
Running backs Isaiah Crowell (Cleveland to New York Jets), Carlos Hyde (San Francisco to Cleveland), Dion Lewis (New England to Tennessee), and Jerick McKinnon (Minnesota to San Francisco)
Wide receivers Danny Amendola (New England to Miami), Allen Hurns (Jacksonville to Dallas), Jordy Nelson (Green Bay to Oakland), Allen Robinson (Jacksonville to Chicago), and Sammy Watkins (Los Angeles Rams to Kansas City)
Tight ends Trey Burton (Philadelphia to Chicago), Jimmy Graham (Seattle to Green Bay), and Austin Seferian-Jenkins (New York Jets to Jacksonville)
Offensive linemen Cameron Fleming (New England to Dallas), Andrew Norwell (Carolina to Jacksonville), Mike Pouncey (Miami to Los Angeles Chargers), Justin Pugh (New York Giants to Arizona), Weston Richburg (New York Giants to San Francisco), Nate Solder (New England to New York Giants), Josh Sitton (Chicago to Miami), and Travis Swanson (Detroit to New York Jets)
Defensive linemen Adrian Clayborn (Atlanta to New England), Vinny Curry (Philadelphia to Tampa Bay), Sheldon Richardson (Seattle to Minnesota), Ndamukong Suh (Miami to Los Angeles Rams), and Muhammad Wilkerson (New York Jets to Green Bay)
Linebackers Demario Davis (New York Jets to New Orleans), Trent Murphy (Washington to Buffalo), Tahir Whitehead (Detroit to Oakland) and Avery Williamson (Tennessee to New York Jets)
Defensive backs Malcolm Butler (New England to Tennessee), Morgan Burnett (Green Bay to Pittsburgh), T. J. Carrie (Oakland to Cleveland), Ross Cockrell (New York Giants to Carolina), E. J. Gaines (Buffalo to Cleveland), Marcus Gilchrist (Houston to Oakland), Trumaine Johnson (cornerback) (Los Angeles Rams to New York Jets), Tyrann Mathieu (Arizona to Houston), Rashaan Melvin (Indianapolis to Oakland), Patrick Robinson (Philadelphia Eagles to New Orleans), and Richard Sherman (Seattle to San Francisco)
Punter Marquette King (Oakland to Denver)

text: Trades[edit]

text:
March 14: Miami traded WR Jarvis Landry to Cleveland for a 2018 4th round selection (123rd overall) and a 2019 7th round selection.[2]
March 14: Buffalo traded QB Tyrod Taylor to Cleveland for a 2018 3rd round selection (65th overall).[3]
March 14: Buffalo traded T Cordy Glenn, a 2018 1st round selection (21st overall), and a 2018 5th round selection (158th overall) to Cincinnati for a 2018 1st round selection (12th overall) and a 2018 6th round selection (187th overall).[3]
March 14: Green Bay traded CB Damarious Randall, a 2018 4th round selection (114th overall), and a 2018 5th round selection (150th overall) to Cleveland for QB DeShone Kizer, a 2018 4th round selection (101st overall), and a 2018 5th round selection (138th overall)[2]
March 14: Cleveland traded DT Danny Shelton and a 2018 5th round selection (159th overall) to New England for a 2019 3rd round selection.[4]
March 14: Kansas City traded QB Alex Smith to Washington in exchange for CB Kendall Fuller and a 2018 3rd round selection (78th overall).[5]
March 14: Kansas City traded CB Marcus Peters and a 2018 6th round draft selection (196th overall) to the Los Angeles Rams in exchange for a 2018 4th round selection (124th overall) and a 2019 2nd round selection.[6]
March 14: Denver traded CB Aqib Talib to the Los Angeles Rams in exchange for a 2018 5th round selection (160th overall).[7]
March 14: Denver traded QB Trevor Siemian and a 2018 7th round selection (225th overall) to Minnesota for a 2019 5th round selection.[8]
March 14: The Los Angeles Rams traded LB Alec Ogletree and a 2019 7th round draft selection to the New York Giants in exchange for a 2018 4th round selection (135th overall) and a 2018 6th round selection (176th overall).[9]
March 14: The Los Angeles Rams traded DE Robert Quinn and a 2018 6th round selection to Miami in exchange for a 2018 4th round selection and a 2018 6th round selection.[10]
March 14: Seattle traded DE Michael Bennett and a 2018 7th round selection to Philadelphia for WR Marcus Johnson and a 2018 5th round selection.[11]
March 14: Philadelphia traded WR Torrey Smith to Carolina for CB Daryl Worley.[12]
March 15: San Francisco traded C Daniel Kilgore and a 2018 7th round selection (227th overall) to Miami in exchange for a 2018 7th round selection (223rd overall).[13]
March 15: Cleveland traded CB Jason McCourty and a 2018 7th round selection (219th overall) to New England for a 2018 sixth round selection (205th overall).[14]
March 18: Oakland traded WR Cordarrelle Patterson and a 2018 6th round selection (210th overall) to New England for a 2018 5th round selection (159th overall) .[15][16]
March 20: Oakland traded FB Jamize Olawale and a 2018 sixth round selection (192nd overall) to Dallas for a 2018 fifth round selection (173rd overall).[17]
March 22: The New York Giants traded DE Jason Pierre-Paul and their 2018 4th round selection (102nd overall) to Tampa Bay in exchange for a 2018 3rd round selection (69th overall) and a 2018 4th round selection (108th overall).[18]
March 23: Arizona traded T Jared Veldheer to Denver for a 2018 sixth round selection (182nd overall).[19]
March 28: Cleveland traded QB Cody Kessler to Jacksonville for a conditional 2019 7th round selection.[20]
March 29: Washington traded S Su'a Cravens, a 2018 4th round selection (113th overall), and a 2018 5th round selection (149th overall) to Denver in exchange for a 2018 4th round selection (109th overall), two 2018 5th round selections (142nd and 163rd overall), and a conditional 2020 selection.[21]
April 3: New England traded WR Brandin Cooks and a 2018 fourth round selection (136th overall) to the Los Angeles Rams for a 2018 first round selection (23rd overall) and a 2018 sixth round selection (198th overall).[22]
April 6: Cleveland traded QB Kevin Hogan and a 2018 6th round selection (205th overall) to Washington in exchange for a 2018 6th round selection (188th overall).[23]
April 26: Pittsburgh traded WR Martavis Bryant to Oakland for a 2018 3rd round selection (79th overall).[24][25]

text: Retirements[edit]

text:
Antonio Cromartie: The four-time Pro Bowler and one-time All-Pro cornerback, who shares the league record for most yards gained on a play (109 on a missed field goal return) and led the league in interceptions 2008, announced his retirement after an 11-year career. Cromartie played for the then-San Diego Chargers, New York Jets, Arizona Cardinals, and Indianapolis Colts over the course of his career, before spending the entire 2017 season as an unsigned free agent.[26]
Matt Forte: The 32 year old running back retired after 10 years, 8 with the Chicago Bears and 2 with the New York Jets. He was elected to 2 pro bowls.[27]
Dwight Freeney: The 16-year veteran defensive end, who spent most of his career with the Indianapolis Colts, retired April 19. He appeared in seven Pro Bowls, was a four-time All-Pro and led the NFL in sacks during the 2004 season.[28]
James Harrison: The 15-year NFL veteran linebacker, four-time All-Pro and five-time Pro Bowler who spent the peak of his career with the Pittsburgh Steelers announced his retirement, at the age of 39, on April 16.[29]
Devin Hester: The four-time Pro Bowler and three-time All-Pro return specialist holds the NFL record for most all-time return touchdowns (punt and kickoff combined) and most all-time punt return touchdowns.[30] He is widely regarded as one of the best return specialists in NFL history, and was the first person ever to return the opening kick of the Super Bowl back for a touchdown. Hester, who had spent 2017 out of football, played 11 seasons in the NFL, the majority of them with the Chicago Bears.[31][32][33]
Richie Incognito announced his retirement April 10. The retirement was part of a string of erratic behavior and inconsistent statements on Incognito's part, the only consistent thread being an ongoing contract dispute with his current team, the Buffalo Bills, who have listed him as retired on their roster. Incognito has appeared in four Pro Bowls over the course of a 12-season career with the Bills, Miami Dolphins and then-St. Louis Rams, with most of his success coming in Buffalo. He was released from his contract on May 21 and is free to sign with any team.
Nick Mangold: The seven-time Pro Bowler and three-time All-Pro retired after 11 seasons, all with the New York Jets. He had spent the 2017 season out of football after the Jets released him in a salary cap maneuver.[34]
Carson Palmer: The 38 year old quarterback for the Arizona Cardinals, who had previously played on the Cincinnati Bengals (who drafted Palmer first overall in 2003) and Oakland Raiders, retired after the 2017 season. The 2002 Heisman Trophy winner appeared in three Pro Bowls, was a second team All-Pro in 2015, and led the NFL in passing yards in 2005.[35][36]
Joe Thomas: The ten-time Pro Bowler and seven-time All-Pro offensive tackle retired after an 11-year career with the Cleveland Browns, a career in which he spent much of that time as the Browns' franchise player in an era where the team otherwise performed poorly on the field.[37] A deteriorating left knee contributed to Thomas's retirement.[38]
Jason Witten: The eleven time Pro Bowler and two time First-team All-Pro Tight end played 15 seasons, all with the Dallas Cowboys. He ranks second all time among tight ends in career receptions and receiving yards. He will be working for ESPN as their Monday Night Football color commentator.[39]

text: Other players

text:
Rodney Adams
Martellus Bennett[40]
Joe Berger[41]*
Emmett Cleary
C.J. Fiedorowicz
James Hanna
David Harris[42]
Gabe Ikard[43]
Fred Jackson[44]
Vincent Jackson[45]
Donnie Jones
Thad Lewis[46]
Luke McCown[47]
Kellen Moore[48]
Paul Posluszny[49]
Connor Shaw[50]
Zach Strief
Aaron Williams[51]
Eric Wood[52]
Danny Woodhead[53]

text: Draft[edit]

text: The 2018 NFL Draft was held from April 26 to 28. It was held at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. This was the first draft to take place in an NFL stadium, and the first to be held in Texas.[54] The Cleveland Browns selected Baker Mayfield with the first overall pick.

text: Officiating changes[edit]

text:
Ed Hochuli: At the time of his retirement, Hochuli was the league's longest-tenured referee, having served with the league for 28 seasons, 26 as a head referee. He will be succeeded by his son, Shawn Hochuli.[55]
Jeff Triplette: Triplette had spent 22 years as an official with the NFL, 19 as a head referee, and was pushed into retirement after experiencing confusion in several games late in the 2017 season. Alex Kemp will replace Triplette.[55]

text: Rule changes[edit]

text: The following playing rule changes have been approved by the Competition Committee for the 2018 season:[56]

text:
Make permanent the current rule that changes the spot of the ball after a touchback on a kickoff to the 25 yard line. Prior to 2017, the ball was placed at the 20 yard line.
Update the standards for a "catch" to have:

Two feet down or any body part other than the hands
Control of the ball
Make a "football move" such as making a 3rd step, reaching/extending to the line to gain, tucking the ball away, warding off defensive players, or have the ability to perform such an act.

The rule for receivers who were going to the ground during the catch process has been deleted. This is in response to several issues regarding the "going to the ground" rule, especially catches by Dallas Cowboys WR Dez Bryant in the 2014 NFL playoffs and one by Pittsburgh Steelers TE Jesse James in 2017 that were overturned due to this rule.

Allow a designated member of the officiating department (For 2018, NFL Senior VP of Officiating Al Riveron) to instruct game officials to eject any player who commits a flagrant non-football act on the field for a foul called on the field. This is in response to a situation where New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski intentionally inflicted a late hit on Buffalo Bills defensive back Tre'Davious White causing a concussion to White. Gronkowski was not ejected for the foul on the field, but did receive a one-game suspension after the NFL's review of the play.
Illegally batting a ball on a scrimmage down will incur a loss of down in addition to the previous 10 yard penalty.
In overtime, when a team is ahead by 3 points, a down will run to its conclusion and all applicable points will score, even if there is a loss of possession. Previously, the offense of the trailing team could not legally score if they lost and regained possession and reached the opponent's end zone all on the same play. The rule remains that if there is a double change of possession on a play with one team in the lead, it is the last play of the game.
If a team scores a touchdown on the final play of regulation which gives them the victory, no extra-point conversion try will be needed.[57]

text: The following bylaws and resolutions were passed:[58]

text:
Make permanent the liberalization of workout rules for draft prospects.
For a one-year trial period, liberalize the rules for re-signing a player on waivers.
Players on injured reserve can be traded.
Players with injuries deemed major can be placed directly on injured reserve without clearing waivers.
The 10-day postseason waiver claiming period has been reduced to 1 day.
Players can be activated from injured reserve after eight games instead of eight weeks.
Teams have seven business days to complete an injury settlement instead of five.
Players in certain reserve list categories cannot be reinstated after a team's week 13 game. This restriction was previously applied to the last 30 days of the regular season.
Clarify roster procedures for players with military obligations.
For a one-year trial period, teams may contact a player who has been publicly announced to be released before the NFL lists the transaction on a Player Personnel Notice.

text: The following changes to the kickoff rules were approved at the NFL Spring Owners' Meeting on May 23, 2018:[59]

text:
Players are required to line up for the kickoff as follows:

Five players on the kicking team must be on either side of the kicker
Two players on each side must be lined up outside of the numbers and two additional players on each side must be lined up between the numbers and the hashmarks
Players on the kicking team (excluding the kicker) may only line up within one yard of the kickoff spot (currently this is limited to five yards)
The receiving team must have eight players in a fifteen-yard "set-up zone" (from the restraining line ten yards from the kickoff spot, fifteen yards back)

Wedge blocks are outlawed. Players would only be able to do a double-team block within the "set-up zone".
No blocking is permitted inside the restraining zone (10 yards from the kickoff spot) until the ball touches the ground or is touched in the field of play.
Once a kickoff lands in the end zone, it would become an automatic touchback. Players will no longer have to "kneel" in the end zone to stop the play.
All ejections of players are now subject to replay review.
It is now a foul (15 yards) for players to lower their helmet to initiate and make contact with an opposing player. The fouling player is subject to ejection if:

Player lowers his helmet to establish a linear body posture prior to initiating or making contact with the helmet
Player delivering the blow had an unobstructed path to his opponent
Contact was clearly avoidable (player delivering the blow had other options)

In response to the recent National Anthem protests in the league the past two seasons, any player or staff member who is on the field during the performance of "The Star-Spangled Banner" must stand for the duration of the performance. Such players and staff members are not required to be on the field at that time and may wait in the locker room as an alternative. The NFL will not directly fine offending players or staff members for defying the rule, instead fining the teams, who will in turn have power to fine the players or staff members at their own discretion.

text: 2018 deaths[edit]

text: The following people associated with the NFL (or AFL) have passed away in 2018.

text:
Grady Alderman
Tom Benson
Billy Cannon
Bennie Cunningham
Jim Garrett
Chris Gedney
Wayne Huizenga
David Humm
Edwin Jackson
Chuck Knox
Jeremy Nunley
Kona Schwenke
Clyde Scott
Frank Varrichione

text: Preseason[edit]

text: This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (January 2018) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

text: Training Camps for the 2018 season will be held in late July through August. Teams start training camp no earlier than 15 days before the team's first scheduled preseason game.

text: The Pro Football Hall of Fame Game, which will feature the Baltimore Ravens and the Chicago Bears, will be played on Thursday, August 2;[60] it will be televised nationally by NBC. The Ravens, who will be making their first ever Hall of Fame Game appearance, are represented in the 2018 Hall of Fame class by former linebacker Ray Lewis, while the Bears are represented by former linebacker Brian Urlacher.

text: Regular season[edit]

text: The 2018 regular season's 256 games will be played over a 17-week schedule which will begin on September 6. Each of the league's 32 teams plays a 16-game schedule, with one bye week for each team. The slate also features games on Monday Nights. There are games played on Thursdays, including the National Football League Kickoff game in prime time on September 6 and games on Thanksgiving Day. The regular season will conclude with a full slate games of 16 games on December 30, all of which will be intra-division matchups, as it has been since 2010.

text: Under the NFL's current scheduling formula, each team plays the other three teams in its own division twice. In addition a team plays against all four teams in one other division from each conference. The final two games on a team's schedule are against the two team's in the team's own conference in the divisions the team was not set to play which finished the previous season in the same rank in their division (e.g. the team which finished first in its division the previous season would play each other team in its conference that also finished first in its respective division). The preset division pairings for 2018 will be as follows.

text:
Intra-conference
AFC East vs AFC South
AFC West vs AFC North
NFC East vs NFC South
NFC West vs NFC North

   Inter-conference
AFC East vs NFC North
AFC North vs NFC South
AFC South vs NFC East
AFC West vs NFC West

text: The entire season schedule was released on April 19, 2018. Highlights of the 2018 season include:

text:
NFL Kickoff Game: The 2018 season will begin with the Kickoff Game on September 6 at 8:20 p.m. EDT. The game will feature the Super Bowl LII champion Philadelphia Eagles hosting the Atlanta Falcons and will be televised on NBC.[61]
NFL International Series:

NFL London Games: Three games will be played in London in 2018. This will be the first season of a 10-year agreement to play at least one game per season at the new Tottenham Stadium, where the Oakland Raiders will host the Seattle Seahawks on October 14 at 1:00 p.m. EDT (6:00 p.m. BST) on Fox. Two more games will be played at Wembley Stadium, with the Los Angeles Chargers hosting the Tennessee Titans on October 21 at 9:30 a.m. EDT (2:30 p.m. BST) on CBS and the Jacksonville Jaguars hosting the Philadelphia Eagles on October 28 at 9:30 a.m. EDT (1:30 p.m. GMT) on NFLN. This will be the first time the London games will be played on three consecutive weeks, a move the league has taken to try to streamline their London operations.[62][63][64]
NFL Mexico Game: The NFL will play one game at Estadio Azteca in Mexico City in 2018, in accordance with an agreement the league announced in November 2017 to play one game at that venue each year through 2021. The game will feature the Los Angeles Rams hosting the Kansas City Chiefs. The game will be held on Monday, November 19, and will be televised on ESPN.[64]

Thanksgiving Day: As has been the case since 2006, three games will be played on November 22. The 12:30 pm EST game will feature Detroit Lions hosting the Chicago Bears on CBS. The 4:30 pm EST game will feature the Dallas Cowboys hosting the Washington Redskins on Fox. A third game, Atlanta Falcons at New Orleans Saints starting at 8:30 pm EST, will be aired on NBC.
Christmas games: Christmas Day, December 25, falls on a Tuesday in 2018. Instead of moving the Monday Night from Christmas Eve, the game will be played at its normal time, marking only the second Monday Night game ever played on Christmas Eve. As is usually the case when a night game is played on Christmas Eve, the host team (the Oakland Raiders) is in the western United States, and thus the game will take place in the late afternoon local time.

text: Saturday flexible scheduling[edit]

text: When the entire season schedule was released on April 19, 2018, the league announced flexible scheduling for Saturday games in weeks 15 and 16. The final kickoff times for these games will be announced no later than week 8:[65]

text:
In week 15, either the Houston-New York Jets or the Cleveland-Denver game will kickoff at 4:30 pm EST, and the other will start at 8:20 pm EST.
In week 16, two of the following four games will be moved to Saturday, December 22 on the NFL Network, with start times of 4:30 pm and 8:20 pm EST. The other two will remain on Sunday: Baltimore-Los Angeles Chargers, Jacksonville-Miami, New York Giants-Indianapolis, and Washington-Tennessee. This is the first time that games will be rescheduled to a different day (excluding games rescheduled due to weather).

text: Postseason[edit]

text: The 2018 playoffs will begin on the weekend of January 5–6, 2019 with the Wild Card Playoff round the four winners of these playoff games will visit the top two seeds in each conference of the Divisional round games the weekend of January 12-13, 2019. The winners of those games will advance to the Conference championship games on January 20, 2019. The 2019 Pro Bowl will be held at Camping World Stadium in Orlando, Florida on January 27, 2019. Super Bowl LIII will be held on February 3, 2019 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia, on CBS.

text: Notable Events[edit]

text: Anthem protests[edit]

text: On 23 May 2018 the NFL owners agreed a new policy in relation to U.S. national anthem protests.[66] Under the new policy teams (but not players) would be fined for failing to stand and respect the national anthem. Players who do not wish to stand for the national anthem may remain in the locker room.

text: Head coaching and front office personnel changes[edit]

text: Head coaches[edit]

text: Offseason[edit]

text:
Team
2017 head coach
2018 replacement
Reason for leaving
Story/accomplishments

Arizona Cardinals
Bruce Arians
Steve Wilks
Retired
Arians retired from coaching following the 2017 season, finishing the season with a record of 8–8 (.500) and a cumulative record of 49–30–1 (.619) with two playoff appearances.[67] Wilks was hired on January 22, after serving as a defensive coach for the Chicago Bears, San Diego Chargers, and Carolina Panthers since 2006. Wilks' only previous head coaching experience was at Savannah State in 1999.[68]

Chicago Bears
John Fox
Matt Nagy
Fired
Fox was fired after the final game of the 2017 season, finishing the season with a record of 5–11 (.313) and a cumulative record of 14–34 (.292) with no playoff appearances.[69] Nagy spent the past five seasons as an offensive assistant with the Kansas City Chiefs, the last two as offensive coordinator; the Bears hired Nagy on January 8 and this will be his first NFL head coaching job.[70]

Detroit Lions
Jim Caldwell
Matt Patricia
Caldwell was fired after the final game of the 2017 season, finishing the season with a record of 9–7 (.563) and a cumulative record of 36–28 (.563) with two playoff appearances, but having never won a playoff game as head coach of the Lions.[71] Patricia was hired on February 5, the day after losing Super Bowl LII as the New England Patriots defensive coordinator. He had spent his entire NFL career with the Patriots, starting in 2004 as an offensive assistant before working his way up to defensive coordinator in 2012, winning 3 Super Bowls. This will be his first head coaching job.[72]

Indianapolis Colts
Chuck Pagano
Frank Reich
Pagano was fired after the final game of the 2017 season, finishing the season with a record of 4–12 (.250), his first losing season as Colts' head coach, and a cumulative record of 53–43 (.552) with three playoff appearances.[73] The Colts signed Philadelphia Eagles offensive coordinator Frank Reich, who was previously a Colts' assistant from 2008–2011. This will be Reich's first head coaching job.[74]

New York Giants
Ben McAdoo
Pat Shurmur
McAdoo became the Giants' head coach in 2016, leading the Giants to a 13–15 (.464) record over parts of two seasons with one playoff appearance. After accruing a 2–10 (.167) record and benching starter Eli Manning during the season, he was fired on December 4, 2017, and replaced in the interim by defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo, who was previously the St. Louis Rams' head coach from 2009 to 2011.[75] Shurmur was announced as the Giants' new head coach on January 22. He had previously served as the head coach of the Cleveland Browns from 2011 to 2012, compiling a record of 9–23 (.281), and an offensive coach for the Philadelphia Eagles and Minnesota Vikings since 2013.[76]

Oakland Raiders
Jack Del Rio
Jon Gruden
Del Rio was fired after the final game of the 2017 season, finishing the season with a record of 6–10 (.375) and a cumulative record of 25–23 (.521) with one playoff appearance.[77] Gruden, who previously coached the Raiders from 1998 to 2001, confirmed on-air on January 6, that he would be returning to the team as coach. He had spent the previous nine seasons as an on-air analyst for Monday Night Football.[78]

Tennessee Titans
Mike Mularkey
Mike Vrabel
Mutual decision
Mularkey and the Titans agreed to part ways after they "couldn't come to an agreement over the future," two days after the Titans' playoff loss to the Patriots. Mularkey had a cumulative record of 20–21 (.488) with one playoff appearance in parts of three seasons with the Titans and guided Tennessee to back-to-back 9–7 records in his two years as the team's full-time head coach.[79] Vrabel spent the past three seasons as a defensive assistant with the Houston Texans, the last as defensive coordinator; the Titans hired Vrabel on January 20 and this will be his first NFL head coaching job.[80]

text: Front office personnel[edit]

text: Offseason[edit]

text:
Team
Position
2017 office holder
2017 interim
2018 replacement
Reason for leaving
Notes

Cleveland Browns
VP/GM
Sashi Brown
John Dorsey
Fired
Brown was fired on December 7, 2017. He had been the team's attorney since 2013 and de facto general manager since 2016.[81] Dorsey was named the new general manager hours later.[82]

Green Bay Packers
GM
Ted Thompson
Brian Gutekunst
Reassigned
Thompson, who had been the team's general manager since 2005, became the team's senior advisor to football operations.[83] Brian Gutekunst, who had been the team's director of player personnel since 2016, was promoted to become the team's new general manager on January 7.[84]

Houston Texans
GM
Rick Smith
Brian Gaine
Medical leave
Smith announced that he would take a leave of absence to care for his wife, who is battling breast cancer. He will remain Executive Vice President of Football Operations.[85] Former Buffalo Bills' vice president of player personnel, Brian Gaine, was named the new general manager on January 13, 2018. Previously, Gaine was Texans' director of pro personnel and then director of player personnel from 2014 to 2016.[86]

New York Giants
GM
Jerry Reese
Kevin Abrams
Dave Gettleman
Fired
Having been in the organization since 1994, Reese was the Giants' general manager since 2007, leading them to two Super Bowl championships and several years of success. He was fired on December 4 along with head coach Ben McAdoo. He was replaced in the interim by former Detroit Lions cornerback Kevin Abrams, who has no previous front office experience.[87] Dave Gettleman, previously general manager of the Carolina Panthers and a 14-year veteran of the Giants' front office (from 1999 to 2012), was hired on December 28, 2017.[88]

Buffalo Bills
President
Russ Brandon
Kim Pegula
Resigned
Brandon resigned his position on May 1, 2018. A newspaper report claimed that Brandon was the subject of an internal investigation regarding his personal conduct and workplace behavior, which neither the Bills nor Brandon mentioned in separate statements regarding his departure; Brandon stated he is seeking other opportunities after spending 20 years with the Bills franchise. He was immediately succeeded by co-owner Kim Pegula.[89]

text: Stadiums[edit]

text: Two teams, the Carolina Panthers and Oakland Raiders, are entering the final year of their lease agreements with their current stadium.

text: Carolina Panthers[edit]

text: On December 17, 2017, Jerry Richardson, the Panthers' founding owner, announced he was putting the team up for sale.[90][91] Richardson had previously indicated the team would be put up for sale after his death,[92] but Richardson was accused of paying hush money to cover up questionable conduct, including racial slurs and sexually suggestive requests of employees, hastening Richardson's decision.[93] The Panthers' lease on Bank of America Stadium expires after the 2018 season,[94] which would allow any incoming owner to relocate the team out of Charlotte, North Carolina, to another market if they so desired, only being liable for the remaining debt from stadium renovation. At an estimated $35 million, the debt payment would be a small expense compared to the relocation fee the NFL charged for the two teams that relocated in 2016 and 2017.[95] The two most likely candidates to buy the team as of May 2018 were David Tepper, a hedge fund manager with a higher net worth and a minority stake in the Pittsburgh Steelers but fewer ties to Charlotte; and Ben Navarro, a financial services CEO based in Charlotte who had the backing of Richardson's only living son.[96] Tepper was announced as the new owner on May 16, with the announcement coming in time for the league to vote on his bid at the owners meeting on May 19.[97]

text: Oakland Raiders[edit]

text: The Raiders, prior to the 2017 season, committed to relocating to Las Vegas, Nevada, once a new stadium is constructed for them in 2020. In 2016, the Raiders signed a three-year extension with the Oakland Coliseum.[98] The Raiders could choose to stay in the Oakland Coliseum for 2019 with another year-to-year extension or move to Sam Boyd Stadium in Las Vegas, which is undersized but (because of the Los Angeles Chargers' use of the even smaller StubHub Center) would not be the smallest stadium in the NFL. Management at the Oakland Coliseum has indicated they are unwilling to extend their agreement with the Raiders after 2018, which could force the team to move to Sam Boyd Stadium in 2019.[99] In order to secure another season in Oakland, California, Coliseum management indicated in September 2017 that the Raiders would need to offer major concessions to compensate for the financial losses the Coliseum incurs by hosting Raiders games.[100]

text: Naming rights agreements[edit]

text: Denver Broncos[edit]

text: The Broncos hope to resolve the two-season long naming rights situation for the field at Mile High Stadium II by the start of the 2018 pre-season; in the meantime, all exterior and interior signage for the defunct sporting goods chain Sports Authority has been or is in the process of being removed from the stadium, though ticketed events will continue to print the name "Sports Authority Field at Mile High."[101][102]

text: Jacksonville Jaguars[edit]

text: On February 16, EverBank Field, the home field of the Jacksonville Jaguars, was renamed TIAA Bank Field, after TIAA's 2017 acquisition of EverBank. The naming rights agreement was for 10 years and $43 million.[103]

text: Uniforms[edit]

text: The Color Rush program has been discontinued, and teams will no longer be required to wear the special uniforms for Thursday Night Football. Initial plans, which will be finalized at the league's owners meeting in May, are for teams to be able to continue using the existing designs that were designed by Nike for the program as standard third jerseys. [104] [105]

text: The Tennessee Titans introduced new uniforms on April 4. Most prominent among the changes is the helmet, which is changing from the white color the team had used since the 1970s (as the Houston Oilers) to navy blue. The color patterns are also simplified, with a new number typeface inspired both by Greek lettering and the shape of the state of Tennessee.[106]

text: On April 9, the Green Bay Packers unveiled a patch to commemorate their 100th season[107]

text: On April 19, the Miami Dolphins and Jacksonville Jaguars both unveiled new uniforms. The Dolphins altered their jerseys to more take after their classic aqua-and-orange look, while Jacksonville simplified their uniforms to resemble their original teal blue jerseys used in their early years.[108][109]

text: Media[edit]

text: Broadcast rights[edit]

text: Television[edit]

text: This will be the fifth year under the current broadcast contracts with ESPN, CBS, Fox, and NBC. This includes "cross-flexing" (switching) Sunday afternoon games between CBS and Fox before or during the season (regardless of the conference of the visiting team). NBC will continue to air Sunday Night Football, the annual Kickoff game, and the primetime Thanksgiving game. ESPN will continue to air Monday Night Football and the Pro Bowl. CBS will broadcast Super Bowl LIII.

text: On January 31, the NFL announced that Fox had acquired the broadcast television rights to the Thursday Night Football package under a five-year deal (aligned with the remainder of the NFL's current broadcast contracts). Fox will air 11 games, along with the 2018 NFL Draft (the first time the event has ever aired on over-the-air television),[110] in simulcast with NFL Network,[111][112] with the remaining games in the package airing exclusively on NFL Network to satisfy its carriage contracts.[113] CBS and NBC had made bids to renew their previous contracts (CBS had held the rights since 2014, joined by NBC since 2016), but were reluctant to pay a higher rights fee due to the league's ratings downturn.[114]

text: Digital[edit]

text: After several years in which Verizon held exclusive rights to carry NFL Internet broadcasts on mobile devices 7 inches (18 cm) or less in size (opting to only make them available to its own wireless subscribers), the 2018 season will be the first in which any device will be allowed to access those broadcasts. Verizon will still hold rights to stream all nationally televised games, as well as in-market Sunday afternoon games; instead of only distributing them to its own subscribers, its numerous Internet brands (such as Yahoo!, which exclusively carried two International Series games in 2015 and 2017, along with AOL, go90, complex.com) will carry the games to all devices.[115]

text: On April 26, 2018, the league announced an extension with Amazon Video that will simulcast the eleven Thursday Night Football games that are simulcast on Fox to its Amazon Prime subscribers. The agreement, which increases Amazon's rights fee by 15%, is for the 2018 and 2019 seasons. To fulfill a request that the Internet broadcast be made available freely, the games will also be made available on twitch.tv, an Amazon subsidiary.[116]

text: Radio[edit]

text: Both of the NFL's national radio contracts, Westwood One for English language[117] and Entravision for Spanish language,[118] expired after the 2017 season. Westwood One's parent company Cumulus Media filed for bankruptcy in November 2017[119] and began terminating national broadcast contracts in January 2018,[120][121] decreasing the likelihood that they will renew their contract.

text: With the release of the 2018 schedule, NFL.com listed ESPN Deportes Radio (which had shared NFL rights with Entravision in 2017 and had carried Super Bowl LII[122]) as the league's national Spanish-language broadcaster. The national English-language broadcaster was still identified as Westwood One, although no press release has been issued in regard to a contract extension with that network.

text: Personnel changes[edit]

text: ESPN will introduce a fully new broadcast team for the series. Joe Tessitore will replace Sean McDonough as lead play-by-play man; McDonough will remain with ESPN as a college football announcer.[123][124] With previous color analyst Jon Gruden returning to coaching, Monday Night Football will return to its traditional three-person booth, with Jason Witten and Booger McFarland joining the broadcast team as analysts, while Lisa Salters, the sideline reporter, carries over from the previous broadcast team.[125]

text: Fox initially had planned to hire a new broadcast team for its Thursday Night Football, making an overture to Peyton Manning to serve as color commentator. Since Manning declined the offer, the network announced that it will be placing its existing lead broadcast team of Joe Buck and Troy Aikman on the package, while reducing the number of games the duo will call on Sundays.[126] A version of Fox NFL Sunday will serve as the lead-in to Thursday Night Football, albeit without Curt Menefee or Jimmy Johnson; the show will instead be hosted by panelist Michael Strahan from New York City, displacing Rich Eisen, the studio host for Thursday night pregame since the package's inception in 2006.[127] Strahan will be joined by fellow Fox colleagues Terry Bradshaw and Howie Long.

text: Start time changes[edit]

text: The start times for Thursday, Sunday, and Monday Night Football broadcasts will be moved up 5-15 minutes. Thursday and Sunday Night games will now kickoff at 8:20 p.m. ET, while Monday Night games will now kickoff at 8:15 p.m. ET.[65]


document_title: Venom (2018 film)

question_text: who plays the voice of venom in the movie

root

text: Venom (2018 film)

text: Cast

text:
Tom Hardy as Eddie Brock / Venom:
An investigative journalist and the host of an alien symbiote that gives him "incredible powers".[4][5] Director Ruben Fleischer took inspiration for the character's portrayal from a quote in the comics: "You're Eddie Brock. I'm the symbiote. Together we are Venom."[6] Hardy also did performance capture for the role.[7]
Michelle Williams as Anne Weying: A district attorney and Eddie’s girlfriend.[8][9]
Riz Ahmed as Carlton Drake: The leader of Life Foundation who is experimenting on the symbiote.[5]
Scott Haze[10]
Reid Scott[11]

tag: ul

text: Jenny Slate, Woody Harrelson, Sope Aluko, and Scott Deckert have also been cast in undisclosed roles.[10][12][13]

tag: p

text: Production

text: Development

text: The Marvel Comics character Eddie Brock, a notable antagonist of Spider-Man, was first introduced in movies in the 2007 film Spider-Man 3, with Topher Grace in the role.[14] The character initially played a minor role that did not explore his alter-ego Venom,[15] but this was eventually changed to a major villain role for the latter because producer Avi Arad felt the series had relied too much on director Sam Raimi's personal favorite Spider-Man villains and not characters that modern fans were more interested in.[16] Raimi had been hesitant to explore the character due to his "lack of humanity".[14] Arad revealed plans for a spin-off film focused on Venom in July 2007.[17]

text: By July 2008, Sony Pictures was actively developing Venom alongside direct sequels to Spider-Man 3, hoping the character could "add longevity" to the franchise in a similar fashion to Wolverine in 20th Century Fox's X-Men films. Jacob Estes had written a script for the film, but the studio was considering taking it in a different direction from that draft and was seeking new writers. Sony was also "not yet convinced" that Grace could "carry" the film.[18] That September, Sony hired Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese to write a new script, while industry insiders suggested that Grace should return for the spin-off "because the likeable actor could be a sympathetic evildoer", in response to Venom co-creator Todd McFarlane suggesting that a Venom film could not do well with a villain as the central character.[19][20] Wernick and Reese had pitched an original story idea for the film to Sony, which Reese described as "realistic, grounded, a little more dark take on the character".[21] The pair then worked on an outline with Sony and Marvel, who "had specific rules about the villain and the backstory and stuff like that". They had completed a draft by April 2009,[22] which included a role written specifically for Stan Lee,[23] and featured a sequence where the Venom symbiote jumps "from body to body [through a city], and each person that it inhabits ends up becoming really violent and striking someone else and then it jumps to [them]."[21]

text:
He was a journalist. He had the wrong story, he got in trouble for it ... the whole essence to us for the Marvel characters: stay close to the bible, stay close to the emotional story, and the rest is fun.

—Producer Matt Tolmach on staying true to the character's comic origins when developing Venom.[24]

tag: div

text: Wernick and Reese had turned in a second draft by September 2009, and Reese said that Sony was "pushing forward in whatever ways they push forward".[25][26] A month later, Gary Ross, who was re-writing the script for Spider-Man 4 at the time, was hired to also re-write the Venom script, as well as direct, and produce alongside Arad. Grace was "not considered likely" to return to the role then, with the film starting "from the drawing board" and looking to make the villain "an antihero who becomes a defender of the innocent."[27] In January 2010, Sony announced that the Spider-Man franchise would be rebooted after Raimi decided to no longer pursue direct sequels to Spider-Man 3.[28] By March 2012, Sony was still interested in a Venom film, now looking to capitalize on the release of the first reboot film, The Amazing Spider-Man. The studio was in negotiations with Josh Trank to replace Ross after the latter had left the project to direct The Hunger Games.[29] That June, Arad and fellow producer Matt Tolmach discussed Venom connecting to The Amazing Spider-Man, after comparisons to the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) films crossing over in The Avengers. Arad called it "an Eddie Brock story" only, but Tolmach added, "Hopefully all these worlds will live together in peace someday."[24]

text: In June 2013, Sony revealed plans to use The Amazing Spider-Man 2 to establish their own expanded universe based on the Marvel properties the studio had the film rights to, including Venom. Arad and Tolmach would produce the films as part of a franchise brain trust, with Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci, and Ed Solomon set to write the screenplay for Venom, which Kurtzman would direct.[30] In April 2014, Arad and Tolmach said Venom would be released after The Amazing Spider-Man 3—which was set for release on May 27, 2016—but before The Amazing Spider-Man 4.[31] However, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 under-performed and, with Sony "under tremendous pressure to perform [that had them taking] a hard look at their most important franchise", the direction of the shared universe was rethought. The Amazing Spider-Man 3 was pushed back to 2018, and the Venom film, now known as Venom Carnage, was moved up to 2017. Kurtzman was still attached to direct, and write alongside Solomon.[32] In February 2015, Sony and Marvel Studios announced a new partnership that would see Marvel produce the next Spider-Man film for Sony, and integrate the character into their MCU.[33] Sony still planned to produce the spin-off films without Marvel's involvement.[34][32] By November, they were believed to have been "scrapped", with Sony instead focusing on its new reboot with Marvel.[35]

text: Venom was again revived by Sony in March 2016, with Arad and Tolmach producing, and Dante Harper writing a new screenplay. The project was envisioned as a standalone film, unrelated to Sony and Marvel's new Spider-Man films, which would launch its own franchise.[36] A year later, Sony gave the film an October 5, 2018, release date, and explained that Kurtzman was not involved with the new project, and no new director had been signed, while the screenplay was now being written by Scott Rosenberg and Jeff Pinkner.[37] Venom was expected to not only begin a new franchise, but also a new shared universe independent of the MCU, and was aiming for an R-rating on a smaller budget, inspired by 20th Century Fox's success doing so with X-Men films Deadpool and Logan.[38] Sony's director shortlist for the film was believed to include Adi Shankar, known for his dark, R-rated takes "on the properties he grew up on",[39] and Adam Wingard.[40] In May, Sony announced that Tom Hardy would star as Eddie Brock / Venom in Venom, to be directed by Ruben Fleischer and officially begin "Sony's Marvel Universe". Venom is not considered a spin-off of any other film.[41] Fleischer was chosen after a long search by Sony, while the casting of Hardy, a "huge fan" of Venom, happened very quickly after he left director J. C. Chandor's Triple Frontier in April and Sony "saw an opportunity to court an in-demand talent."[4]

text: Pre-production

text: In June 2017, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige confirmed that the film was solely a Sony project and Marvel had no plans to connect it with the MCU.[2] However, producer Amy Pascal soon clarified that Sony intended to have their MU films take place in "the same world" as the new MCU films starting with Spider-Man: Homecoming, describing them as "adjunct" to that world. She said that Venom would connect to the next film in Sony's MU, Silver & Black, and that there was potential for Tom Holland's Spider-Man to appear in either.[3] The character Carnage was also expected to appear in Venom at that point.[42] In July, Columbia Pictures president Sanford Panitch explained that Sony was not interested in producing "conventional comic-book movies" and was looking to give each film in their MU a distinct style. Venom was considered "a spin on a horror film", inspired by the works of John Carpenter and David Cronenberg but with "more pop and fun". Fleischer said he has "always been drawn to the more antihero superheroes. There's a dark element to [Venom] and a wit that has always appealed to me." He said the film would explore Venom's origins and the "Jekyll and Hyde" relationship that Brock has with the symbiote.[6]

text: Riz Ahmed was in talks to join the film in August,[43] with Matt Smith, Pedro Pascal, and Matthias Schoenaerts also up for the same role.[44] In September, Michelle Williams entered talks to join the film as a district attorney and Brock's love interest.[45] By October, Jenny Slate,[46] Reid Scott,[47] and Scott Haze were in negotiations to join the film,[48] with Slate up for a role as a scientist.[46] Kelly Marcel was writing the latest draft of the film's script.[49]

text: Filming

text: Principal photography began on October 23, 2017,[50] with filming set to take place in Atlanta and New York City.[51] Marvel's Iron Man cinematographer Matthew Libatique returned in that role for the film,[52] while Oliver Scholl served as production designer after also doing so for Spider-Man: Homecoming.[53] Williams was confirmed to have joined the film in November, with Sony organizing her filming schedule to ensure her availability for concurrent, unexpected reshoots on the film All the Money in the World.[8] In December, Fleischer and Hardy said that the film was "important to the Marvel universe", and that it was primarily based on the Venom: Lethal Protector and Planet of the Symbiotes miniseries. Hardy added that, like the former comic, the film would be set in San Francisco.[54] At that point, Woody Harrelson was in talks to portray a henchman in the film,[55] and Williams was revealed to be portraying Ann Weying.[9] Additional filming took place in San Francisco from January 16 to 26, 2018. Locations included Russian Hill, North Beach, Chinatown, and the Financial District.[56][57] Hardy wrapped filming on January 27.[58]

text: Post-production

text: Ahmed and Scott were confirmed to appear in the film in February 2018, and Will Beall was revealed as an additional screenwriter.[11] In the following months, Sope Aluko and Scott Deckert were revealed to be cast in the film,[10][12] Haze and Harrelson were confirmed to appear,[10][13] and Ahmed's role was confirmed to be that of Carlton Drake.[5] Harrelson, who previously worked with Fleischer on Zombieland (2009), explained that he signed on to the film for a small role—he described himself as being "in a little fraction of this movie"—knowing that he would have a bigger part in a potential sequel.[59]

text: Music

text: Ludwig Göransson signed on to compose the score for Venom in March 2018, reuniting with Fleischer after the pair worked together on the 2011 film 30 Minutes or Less.[60] Having composed the music for Marvel's Black Panther, Göransson said that he was interested in continuing to explore music for superhero films because "as a young film composer that is one of the things you dream of ... superhero themes really resonate with audiences."[61]

text: Release

text: Venom is scheduled to be released in the United States on October 5, 2018.[41]

text: Marketing

text: For the Sony Pictures panel at Comic Con Experience 2017, Fleischer and Hardy appeared in a video from the film's set to promote it.[54] A teaser for the film was released in February 2018,[11] which Dani Di Placido called "comically underwhelming" for Forbes. He felt this was a major misstep by Sony given the teaser was meant to win over uninterested Spider-Man fans, particularly after the character's portrayal in Spider-Man 3.[62] The fact that the teaser did not include the title character was a common criticism by commentators.[62][63][64] Sony chairman Tom Rothman later acknowledged this, explaining that the intention had been to "heighten anticipation" for the film.[5]

text: Rothman presented new footage of the film at CinemaCon 2018, and noted that it revealed the film's version of Venom by saying, "See, we didn’t forget to put Venom in the movie!"[5] Placido was more positive of this trailer, praising the appearance of and visuals for Venom, but stating that the dialogue in the trailer raised concerns regarding the film's writing.[65] During the trailer, actress Jenny Slate pronounces the word symbiote as SIM-bye-oht rather than SIM-bee-oht as many commentators believed it should be pronounced. This led to widespread criticism of the film, as well as a 35,700 percent increase in searches for "symbiote pronunciation" according to dictionary Merriam-Webster. The dictionary noted that both pronunciations are technically considered to be acceptable.[66] It was also noted that the trailer reused music that was heard in a major trailer for the Marvel film Avengers: Infinity War not long before, with Hannah Shaw-Williams of Screen Rant questioning whether this was a coincidence or if Sony was "deliberately trying to tie Venom to the MCU in the minds of audiences. Whatever the reason, Venom will need more than just a familiar piece of trailer music in order to win over audiences".[67] According to Fizziology, an analytics company that takes many different social media platforms into account, the second trailer was watched 64.3 million times within 24 hours which was a 72 percent increase over the first trailer. The company said that it was rare for a second trailer to get more views than the first, and also noted that general positive responses were up 46 percent to be comparable to those towards the second trailer for Spider-Man: Homecoming. The majority of positive responses were directed towards the appearance and design of Venom.[68]

text: Future

text: Sony plans for Venom to launch its own franchise.[36] In July 2017, Panitch indicated that future Venom films could crossover more with the Spider-Man films.[6] Harrelson revealed in May 2018 that he was expected to have a larger role in a Venom sequel, describing this move as a roll of the dice since he was unable to read a script for the sequel before signing on to the first film.[59]

text: Notes

text: Jump up ^ Marvel Studios is not involved with this film, and does not plan to integrate it with the MCU,[2] but Sony does consider it to be set in "the same world" as MCU films such as Spider-Man: Homecoming, with producer Amy Pascal describing Venom as being "adjunct" to that world.[3]

tag: ol


document_title: Holy Roman Empire

question_text: what was the name of the frankish king who formed the holy roman empire

question_tokens: what was the name of the frankish king who formed the holy roman empire

text: Holy Roman Empire

text: Name[edit]

text: In various languages the Holy Roman Empire was known as: Latin: Sacrum Romanum Imperium, German: Heiliges Römisches Reich, Italian: Sacro Romano Impero (before Otto I), Italian: Sacro Romano Impero Germanico (by Otto I), Czech: Svatá říše římská, Slovene: Sveto rimsko cesarstvo, Dutch: Heilige Roomse Rijk, French: Saint-Empire romain (before Otto I), French: Saint-Empire romain germanique (by Otto I).[19] Before 1157, the realm was merely referred to as the Roman Empire.[20] The term sacrum ("holy", in the sense of "consecrated") in connection with the medieval Roman Empire was used beginning in 1157 under Frederick I Barbarossa ("Holy Empire"): the term was added to reflect Frederick's ambition to dominate Italy and the Papacy.[21] The form "Holy Roman Empire" is attested from 1254 onward.[22]

text: In a decree following the 1512 Diet of Cologne, the name was changed to the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation (German: Heiliges Römisches Reich Deutscher Nation, Latin: Imperium Romanum Sacrum Nationis Germanicæ),[23][24] a form first used in a document in 1474.[21] The new title was adopted partly because the Empire had lost most of its Italian and Burgundian (Kingdom of Arles) territories by the late 15th century,[25] but also to emphasize the new importance of the German Imperial Estates in ruling the Empire due to the Imperial Reform.[26] By the end of the 18th century, the term "Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation" had fallen out of official use. Besides, contradicting the traditional view concerning that designation, Hermann Weisert has stated in a study on imperial titulature that, despite the claim 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.[27]

text: In a famous assessment of the name, Voltaire remarked sardonically: "This agglomeration which was called and which still calls itself the Holy Roman Empire was in no way holy, nor Roman, nor an empire."[28]

text: History[edit]

text: Early Middle Ages[edit]

text: Carolingian forerunners[edit]

text: As Roman power in Gaul declined during the 5th century, local Germanic tribes assumed control.[29] In the late 5th and early 6th centuries, the Merovingians, under Clovis I and his successors, consolidated Frankish tribes and extended hegemony over others to gain control of northern Gaul and the middle Rhine river valley region.[30][31] By the middle of the 8th century, however, the Merovingians had been reduced to figureheads, and the Carolingians, led by Charles Martel, had become the de facto rulers.[32] In 751, Martel’s son Pepin became King of the Franks, and later gained the sanction of the Pope.[33][34] The Carolingians would maintain a close alliance with the Papacy.[35]

text: In 768 Pepin’s son Charlemagne became King of the Franks and began an extensive expansion of the realm. He eventually incorporated the territories of present-day France, Germany, northern Italy, and beyond, linking the Frankish kingdom with Papal lands.[36][37] On Christmas Day of 800, Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne emperor, restoring the title in the West for the first time in over three centuries.[38][39]

text: After Charlemagne died in 814, the imperial crown passed to his son, Louis the Pious. Upon Louis' death in 840, it passed to his son Lothair, who had been his co-ruler. By this point the territory of Charlemagne had been divided into several territories, and over the course of the later ninth century the title of Emperor was disputed by the Carolingian rulers of Western Francia and Eastern Francia, with first the western king (Charles the Bald) and then the eastern (Charles the Fat), who briefly reunited the Empire, attaining the prize.[citation needed] After the death of Charles the Fat in 888, however, the Carolingian Empire broke apart, and was never restored. According to Regino of Prüm, the parts of the realm "spewed forth kinglets", and each part elected a kinglet "from its own bowels".[40] After the death of Charles the Fat, those crowned emperor by the pope controlled only territories in Italy.[citation needed] The last such emperor was Berengar I of Italy, who died in 924.

text: Formation[edit]

text: Around 900, autonomous stem duchies (Franconia, Bavaria, Swabia, Saxony, and Lotharingia) reemerged in East Francia. After the Carolingian king Louis the Child died without issue in 911, East Francia did not turn to the Carolingian ruler of West Francia to take over the realm but instead elected one of the dukes, Conrad of Franconia, as Rex Francorum Orientalium.[41]:117 On his deathbed, Conrad yielded the crown to his main rival, Henry the Fowler of Saxony (r. 919–36), who was elected king at the Diet of Fritzlar in 919.[41]:118 Henry reached a truce with the raiding Magyars, and in 933 he won a first victory against them in the Battle of Riade.[41]:121

text: Henry died in 936, but his descendants, the Liudolfing (or Ottonian) dynasty, would continue to rule the Eastern kingdom for roughly a century. Upon Henry the Fowler's death, Otto, his son and designated successor,[42] was elected King in Aachen in 936.[43]:706 He overcame a series of revolts from a younger brother and from several dukes. After that, the king managed to control the appointment of dukes and often also employed bishops in administrative affairs.[44]:212–13

text: In 951, Otto came to the aid of Adelaide, the widowed queen of Italy, defeating her enemies, marrying her, and taking control over Italy.[44]:214–15 In 955, Otto won a decisive victory over the Magyars in the Battle of Lechfeld.[43]:707 In 962, Otto was crowned Emperor by Pope John XII,[43]:707 thus intertwining the affairs of the German kingdom with those of Italy and the Papacy. Otto's coronation as Emperor marked the German kings as successors to the Empire of Charlemagne, which through the concept of translatio imperii, also made them consider themselves as successors to Ancient Rome.

text: The kingdom had no permanent capital city.[45] Kings traveled between residences (called Kaiserpfalz) to discharge affairs. However, each king preferred certain places; in Otto's case, this was the city of Magdeburg. Kingship continued to be transferred by election, but Kings often ensured their own sons were elected during their lifetimes, enabling them to keep the crown for their families. This only changed after the end of the Salian dynasty in the 12th century.

text: In 963, Otto deposed the current Pope John XII and chose Pope Leo VIII as the new pope (although John XII and Leo VIII both claimed the papacy until 964 when John XII died). This also renewed the conflict with the Eastern Emperor in Constantinople, especially after Otto's son Otto II (r. 967–83) adopted the designation imperator Romanorum. Still, Otto II formed marital ties with the east when he married the Byzantine princess Theophanu.[43]:708 Their son, Otto III, came to the throne only three years old, and was subjected to a power struggle and series of regencies until his age of majority in 994. Up to that time, he had remained in Germany, while a deposed Duke, Crescentius II, ruled over Rome and part of Italy, ostensibly in his stead.

text: In 996 Otto III appointed his cousin Gregory V the first German Pope.[46] A foreign pope and foreign papal officers were seen with suspicion by Roman nobles, who were led by Crescentius II to revolt. Otto III's former mentor Antipope John XVI briefly held Rome, until the Holy Roman Emperor seized the city.[47]

text: Otto died young in 1002, and was succeeded by his cousin Henry II, who focused on Germany.[44]:215–17

text: Henry II died in 1024 and Conrad II, first of the Salian Dynasty, was elected king only after some debate among dukes and nobles. This group eventually developed into the college of Electors.

text: The Holy Roman Empire became eventually composed of four kingdoms. The kingdoms were:

text:
Kingdom of Germany (part of the empire since 962),
Kingdom of Italy (since 962 until 1648),
Kingdom of Bohemia (since 1002 as the Duchy of Bohemia and raised to a kingdom in 1198),
Kingdom of Burgundy (since 1032 until 1378).

text: High Middle Ages[edit]

text: Investiture controversy[edit]

text: Kings often employed bishops in administrative affairs and often determined who would be appointed to ecclesiastical offices.[48]:101–134 In the wake of the Cluniac Reforms, this involvement was increasingly seen as inappropriate by the Papacy. The reform-minded Pope Gregory VII was determined to oppose such practices, which led to the Investiture Controversy with King Henry IV (r. 1056–1106).[48]:101–134 He repudiated the Pope's interference and persuaded his bishops to excommunicate the Pope, whom he famously addressed by his born name "Hildebrand", rather than his regnal name "Pope Gregory VII".[48]:109 The Pope, in turn, excommunicated the king, declared him deposed, and dissolved the oaths of loyalty made to Henry.[11][48]:109 The king found himself with almost no political support and was forced to make the famous Walk to Canossa in 1077,[48]:122–24 by which he achieved a lifting of the excommunication at the price of humiliation. Meanwhile, the German princes had elected another king, Rudolf of Swabia.[48]:123 Henry managed to defeat him but was subsequently confronted with more uprisings, renewed excommunication, and even the rebellion of his sons. After his death, his second son, Henry V, reached an agreement with the Pope and the bishops in the 1122 Concordat of Worms.[48]:123–34 The political power of the Empire was maintained, but the conflict had demonstrated the limits of the ruler's power, especially in regard to the Church, and it robbed the king of the sacral status he had previously enjoyed. The Pope and the German princes had surfaced as major players in the political system of the empire.

text: Holy Roman Empire under Hohenstaufen dynasty[edit]

text: When the Salian dynasty ended with Henry V's death in 1125, the princes chose not to elect the next of kin, but rather Lothair, the moderately powerful but already old Duke of Saxony. When he died in 1137, the princes again aimed to check royal power; accordingly they did not elect Lothair's favoured heir, his son-in-law Henry the Proud of the Welf family, but Conrad III of the Hohenstaufen family, the grandson of Emperor Henry IV and thus a nephew of Emperor Henry V. This led to over a century of strife between the two houses. Conrad ousted the Welfs from their possessions, but after his death in 1152, his nephew Frederick I "Barbarossa" succeeded him and made peace with the Welfs, restoring his cousin Henry the Lion to his – albeit diminished – possessions.

text: The Hohenstaufen rulers increasingly lent land to ministerialia, formerly non-free servicemen, who Frederick hoped would be more reliable than dukes. Initially used mainly for war services, this new class of people would form the basis for the later knights, another basis of imperial power. A further important constitutional move at Roncaglia was the establishment of a new peace mechanism for the entire empire, the Landfrieden, with the first imperial one being issued in 1103 under Henry IV at Mainz.[49][50] This was an attempt to abolish private feuds, between the many dukes and other people, and to tie the Emperor's subordinates to a legal system of jurisdiction and public prosecution of criminal acts – a predecessor of the modern concept of "rule of law". Another new concept of the time was the systematic foundation of new cities by the Emperor and by the local dukes. These were partly caused by the explosion in population, and they also concentrated economic power at strategic locations. Before this, cities had only existed in the form of old Roman foundations or older bishoprics. Cities that were founded in the 12th century include Freiburg, possibly the economic model for many later cities, and Munich.

text: Frederick I, also called Frederick Barbarossa, was crowned Emperor in 1155. He emphasized the "Romanness" of the empire, partly in an attempt to justify the power of the Emperor independent of the (now strengthened) Pope. An imperial assembly at the fields of Roncaglia in 1158 reclaimed imperial rights in reference to Justinian's Corpus Juris Civilis. Imperial rights had been referred to as regalia since the Investiture Controversy but were enumerated for the first time at Roncaglia. This comprehensive list included public roads, tariffs, coining, collecting punitive fees, and the investiture or seating and unseating of office holders. These rights were now explicitly rooted in Roman Law, a far-reaching constitutional act.

text: Frederick's policies were primarily directed at Italy, where he clashed with the increasingly wealthy and free-minded cities of the north, especially Milan. He also embroiled himself in another conflict with the Papacy by supporting a candidate elected by a minority against Pope Alexander III (1159–81). Frederick supported a succession of antipopes before finally making peace with Alexander in 1177. In Germany, the Emperor had repeatedly protected Henry the Lion against complaints by rival princes or cities (especially in the cases of Munich and Lübeck). Henry gave only lackluster support to Frederick's policies, and in a critical situation during the Italian wars, Henry refused the Emperor's plea for military support. After returning to Germany, an embittered Frederick opened proceedings against the Duke, resulting in a public ban and the confiscation of all his territories. In 1190, Frederick participated in the Third Crusade and died in the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia.[51]

text: During the Hohenstaufen period, German princes facilitated a successful, peaceful eastward settlement of lands that were uninhabited or inhabited sparsely by West Slavs. German speaking farmers, traders, and craftsmen from the western part of the Empire, both Christians and Jews, moved into these areas. The gradual Germanization of these lands was a complex phenomenon that should not be interpreted in the biased terms of 19th-century nationalism. The eastward settlement expanded the influence of the empire to include Pomerania and Silesia, as did the intermarriage of the local, still mostly Slavic, rulers with German spouses. The Teutonic Knights were invited to Prussia by Duke Konrad of Masovia to Christianize the Prussians in 1226. The monastic state of the Teutonic Order (German: Deutschordensstaat) and its later German successor state of Prussia were, however, never part of the Holy Roman Empire.

text: Under the son and successor of Frederick Barbarossa, Henry VI, the Hohenstaufen dynasty reached its apex. Henry added the Norman kingdom of Sicily to his domains, held English king Richard the Lionheart captive, and aimed to establish a hereditary monarchy when he died in 1197. As his son, Frederick II, though already elected king, was still a small child and living in Sicily, German princes chose to elect an adult king, resulting in the dual election of Frederick Barbarossa's youngest son Philip of Swabia and Henry the Lion's son Otto of Brunswick, who competed for the crown. Otto prevailed for a while after Philip was murdered in a private squabble in 1208 until he began to also claim Sicily.

text: Pope Innocent III, who feared the threat posed by a union of the empire and Sicily, now supported Frederick II, who marched to Germany and defeated Otto. After his victory, Frederick did not act upon his promise to keep the two realms separate. Though he had made his son Henry king of Sicily before marching on Germany, he still reserved real political power for himself. This continued after Frederick was crowned Emperor in 1220. Fearing Frederick's concentration of power, the Pope finally excommunicated the Emperor. Another point of contention was the crusade, which Frederick had promised but repeatedly postponed. Now, although excommunicated, Frederick led the Sixth Crusade in 1228, which ended in negotiations and a temporary restoration of the Kingdom of Jerusalem.

text: Despite his imperial claims, Frederick's rule was a major turning point towards the disintegration of central rule in the Empire. While concentrated on establishing a modern, centralized state in Sicily, he was mostly absent from Germany and issued far-reaching privileges to Germany's secular and ecclesiastical princes: In the 1220 Confoederatio cum principibus ecclesiasticis, Frederick gave up a number of regalia in favour of the bishops, among them tariffs, coining, and fortification. The 1232 Statutum in favorem principum mostly extended these privileges to secular territories. Although many of these privileges had existed earlier, they were now granted globally, and once and for all, to allow the German princes to maintain order north of the Alps while Frederick concentrated on Italy. The 1232 document marked the first time that the German dukes were called domini terræ, owners of their lands, a remarkable change in terminology as well.

text: Kingdom of Bohemia[edit]

text: The Kingdom of Bohemia was a significant regional power during the Middle Ages. In 1212, King Ottokar I (bearing the title "king" since 1198) extracted a Golden Bull of Sicily (a formal edict) from the emperor Frederick II, confirming the royal title for Ottokar and his descendants and the Duchy of Bohemia was raised to a kingdom. Bohemian kings would be exempt from all future obligations to the Holy Roman Empire except for participation in the imperial councils. Charles IV set Prague to be the seat of the Holy Roman Emperor.

text: Interregnum[edit]

text: After the death of Frederick II in 1250, the German kingdom was divided between his son Conrad IV (died 1254) and the anti-king, William of Holland (died 1256). Conrad's death was followed by the Interregnum, during which no king could achieve universal recognition, allowing the princes to consolidate their holdings and become even more independent rulers. After 1257, the crown was contested between Richard of Cornwall, who was supported by the Guelph party, and Alfonso X of Castile, who was recognized by the Hohenstaufen party but never set foot on German soil. After Richard's death in 1273, the Interregnum ended with the unanimous election of Rudolf I of Germany, a minor pro-Staufen count.

text: Changes in political structure[edit]

text: During the 13th century, a general structural change in how land was administered prepared the shift of political power towards the rising bourgeoisie at the expense of aristocratic feudalism that would characterize the Late Middle Ages. Instead of personal duties, money increasingly became the common means to represent economic value in agriculture. Peasants were increasingly required to pay tribute to their lands. The concept of "property" began to replace more ancient forms of jurisdiction, although they were still very much tied together. In the territories (not at the level of the Empire), power became increasingly bundled: Whoever owned the land had jurisdiction, from which other powers derived. It is important to note, however, that jurisdiction at this time did not include legislation, which virtually did not exist until well into the 15th century. Court practice heavily relied on traditional customs or rules described as customary.

text: During this time territories began to transform into the predecessors of modern states. The process varied greatly among the various lands and was most advanced in those territories that were almost identical to the lands of the old Germanic tribes, e.g. Bavaria. It was slower in those scattered territories that were founded through imperial privileges.

text: Late Middle Ages[edit]

text: Rise of the territories after the Hohenstaufens[edit]

text: The difficulties in electing the king eventually led to the emergence of a fixed college of prince-electors (Kurfürsten), whose composition and procedures were set forth in the Golden Bull of 1356, which remained valid until 1806. This development probably best symbolizes the emerging duality between emperor and realm (Kaiser und Reich), which were no longer considered identical. The Golden Bull also set forth the system for election of the Holy Roman Emperor. The emperor now was to be elected by a majority rather than by consent of all seven electors. For electors the title became hereditary, and they were given the right to mint coins and to exercise jurisdiction. Also their sons were to know the imperial languages – German, Latin, Italian, and Czech.[52][1]

text: The shift in power away from the emperor is also revealed in the way the post-Hohenstaufen kings attempted to sustain their power. Earlier, the Empire's strength (and finances) greatly relied on the Empire's own lands, the so-called Reichsgut, which always belonged to the king of the day and included many Imperial Cities. After the 13th century, the relevance of the Reichsgut faded, even though some parts of it did remain until the Empire's end in 1806. Instead, the Reichsgut was increasingly pawned to local dukes, sometimes to raise money for the Empire, but more frequently to reward faithful duty or as an attempt to establish control over the dukes. The direct governance of the Reichsgut no longer matched the needs of either the king or the dukes.

text: The kings beginning with Rudolf I of Germany increasingly relied on the lands of their respective dynasties to support their power. In contrast with the Reichsgut, which was mostly scattered and difficult to administer, these territories were relatively compact and thus easier to control. In 1282, Rudolf I thus lent Austria and Styria to his own sons. In 1312, Henry VII of the House of Luxembourg was crowned as the first Holy Roman Emperor since Frederick II. After him all kings and emperors relied on the lands of their own family (Hausmacht): Louis IV of Wittelsbach (king 1314, emperor 1328–47) relied on his lands in Bavaria; Charles IV of Luxembourg, the grandson of Henry VII, drew strength from his own lands in Bohemia. Interestingly, it was thus increasingly in the king's own interest to strengthen the power of the territories, since the king profited from such a benefit in his own lands as well.

text: Imperial reform[edit]

text: The "constitution" of the Empire still remained largely unsettled at the beginning of the 15th century. Although some procedures and institutions had been fixed, for example by the Golden Bull of 1356, the rules of how the king, the electors, and the other dukes should cooperate in the Empire much depended on the personality of the respective king. It therefore proved somewhat damaging that Sigismund of Luxemburg (king 1410, emperor 1433–1437) and Frederick III of Habsburg (king 1440, emperor 1452–1493) neglected the old core lands of the empire and mostly resided in their own lands. Without the presence of the king, the old institution of the Hoftag, the assembly of the realm's leading men, deteriorated. The Imperial Diet as a legislative organ of the Empire did not exist at that time. The dukes often conducted feuds against each other – feuds that, more often than not, escalated into local wars.

text: Simultaneously, the Catholic Church experienced crises of its own, with wide-reaching effects in the Empire. The conflict between several papal claimants (two anti-popes and the "legitimate" Pope) ended only with the Council of Constance (1414–1418); after 1419 the Papacy directed much of its energy to suppress the Hussites. The medieval idea of unifying all Christendom into a single political entity, with the Church and the Empire as its leading institutions, began to decline.

text: With these drastic changes, much discussion emerged in the 15th century about the Empire itself. Rules from the past no longer adequately described the structure of the time, and a reinforcement of earlier Landfrieden was urgently needed. During this time, the concept of "reform" emerged, in the original sense of the Latin verb re-formare – to regain an earlier shape that had been lost.

text: When Frederick III needed the dukes to finance a war against Hungary in 1486, and at the same time had his son (later Maximilian I) elected king, he faced a demand from the united dukes for their participation in an Imperial Court. For the first time, the assembly of the electors and other dukes was now called the Imperial Diet (German Reichstag) (to be joined by the Imperial Free Cities later). While Frederick refused, his more conciliatory son finally convened the Diet at Worms in 1495, after his father's death in 1493. Here, the king and the dukes agreed on four bills, commonly referred to as the Reichsreform (Imperial Reform): a set of legal acts to give the disintegrating Empire some structure. For example, this act produced the Imperial Circle Estates and the Reichskammergericht (Imperial Chamber Court), institutions that would – to a degree – persist until the end of the Empire in 1806.

text: However, it took a few more decades for the new regulation to gain universal acceptance and for the new court to begin to function effectively; only in 1512 would the Imperial Circles be finalized. The King also made sure that his own court, the Reichshofrat, continued to operate in parallel to the Reichskammergericht. Also in 1512, the Empire received its new title, the Heiliges Römisches Reich Deutscher Nation ("Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation").

text: Reformation and Renaissance[edit]

text: In 1516, Ferdinand II of Aragon, grandfather of the future Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, died.[53] Due to a combination of (1) the traditions of dynastic succession in Aragon, which permitted maternal inheritance with no precedence for female rule; (2) the insanity of Charles's mother, Joanna of Castile; and (3) the insistence by his remaining grandfather, Maximilian I, that he take up his royal titles, Charles initiated his reign in Castile and Aragon, a union which evolved into Spain, in conjunction with his mother. This ensured for the first time that all the realms of what is now Spain would be united by one monarch under one nascent Spanish crown. The founding territories retained their separate governance codes and laws. In 1519, already reigning as Carlos I in Spain, Charles took up the imperial title as Karl V. The balance (and imbalance) between these separate inheritances would be defining elements of his reign and would ensure that personal union between the Spanish and German crowns would be short-lived. The latter would end up going to a more junior branch of the Habsburgs in the person of Charles's brother Ferdinand, while the senior branch continued to rule in Spain and in the Burgundian inheritance in the person of Charles's son, Philip II of Spain.

text: In addition to conflicts between his Spanish and German inheritances, conflicts of religion would be another source of tension during the reign of Charles V. Before Charles's reign in the Holy Roman Empire began, in 1517, Martin Luther launched what would later be known as the Reformation. At this time, many local dukes saw it as a chance to oppose the hegemony of Emperor Charles V. The empire then became fatally divided along religious lines, with the north, the east, and many of the major cities – Strasbourg, Frankfurt, and Nuremberg – becoming Protestant while the southern and western regions largely remained Catholic.

text: Baroque period[edit]

text: Charles V continued to battle the French and the Protestant princes in Germany for much of his reign. After his son Philip married Queen Mary of England, it appeared that France would be completely surrounded by Habsburg domains, but this hope proved unfounded when the marriage produced no children. In 1555, Paul IV was elected pope and took the side of France, whereupon an exhausted Charles finally gave up his hopes of a world Christian empire. He abdicated and divided his territories between Philip and Ferdinand of Austria. The Peace of Augsburg ended the war in Germany and accepted the existence of Protestantism in form of Lutheranism, while Calvinism was still not recognized. Anabaptist, Arminian and other minor Protestant communities were also forbidden.

text: Germany would enjoy relative peace for the next six decades. On the eastern front, the Turks continued to loom large as a threat, although war would mean further compromises with the Protestant princes, and so the Emperor sought to avoid it. In the west, the Rhineland increasingly fell under French influence. After the Dutch revolt against Spain erupted, the Empire remained neutral, de facto allowing the Netherlands to depart the empire in 1581, a secession acknowledged in 1648. A side effect was the Cologne War, which ravaged much of the upper Rhine.

text: After Ferdinand died in 1564, his son Maximilian II became Emperor, and like his father accepted the existence of Protestantism and the need for occasional compromise with it. Maximilian was succeeded in 1576 by Rudolf II, a strange man who preferred classical Greek philosophy to Christianity and lived an isolated existence in Bohemia. He became afraid to act when the Catholic Church was forcibly reasserting control in Austria and Hungary, and the Protestant princes became upset over this. Imperial power sharply deteriorated by the time of Rudolf's death in 1612. When Bohemians rebelled against the Emperor, the immediate result was the series of conflicts known as the Thirty Years' War (1618–48), which devastated the Empire. Foreign powers, including France and Sweden, intervened in the conflict and strengthened those fighting Imperial power, but also seized considerable territory for themselves. The long conflict so bled the Empire that it never recovered its strength.

text: The actual end of the empire came in several steps. The Peace of Westphalia in 1648, which ended the Thirty Years' War, gave the territories almost complete independence. Calvinism was now allowed, but Anabaptists, Arminians and other Protestant communities would still lack any support and continue to be persecuted well until the end of the Empire. The Swiss Confederation, which had already established quasi-independence in 1499, as well as the Northern Netherlands, left the Empire. The Habsburg Emperors focused on consolidating their own estates in Austria and elsewhere.

text: At the Battle of Vienna (1683), the Army of the Holy Roman Empire, led by the Polish King John III Sobieski, decisively defeated a large Turkish army, stopping the western Ottoman advance and leading to the eventual dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire in Europe. The army was half forces of the Poland-Lithuania Commonwealth, mostly cavalry, and half forces of the Holy Roman Empire (German/Austrian), mostly infantry.

text: Modern period[edit]

text: Prussia and Austria[edit]

text: By the rise of Louis XIV, the Habsburgs were chiefly dependent on their hereditary lands to counter the rise of Prussia; some of whose territories lay inside the Empire. Throughout the 18th century, the Habsburgs were embroiled in various European conflicts, such as the War of the Spanish Succession, the War of the Polish Succession, and the War of the Austrian Succession. The German dualism between Austria and Prussia dominated the empire's history after 1740.

text: French Revolutionary Wars and final dissolution[edit]

text: From 1792 onwards, revolutionary France was at war with various parts of the Empire intermittently.

text: The German mediatization was the series of mediatizations and secularizations that occurred between 1795 and 1814, during the latter part of the era of the French Revolution and then the Napoleonic Era. "Mediatization" was the process of annexing the lands of one imperial estate to another, often leaving the annexed some rights. For example, the estates of the Imperial Knights were formally mediatized in 1806, having de facto been seized by the great territorial states in 1803 in the so-called Rittersturm. "Secularization" was the abolition of the temporal power of an ecclesiastical ruler such as a bishop or an abbot and the annexation of the secularized territory to a secular territory.

text: The empire was dissolved on 6 August 1806, when the last Holy Roman Emperor Francis II (from 1804, Emperor Francis I of Austria) abdicated, following a military defeat by the French under Napoleon at Austerlitz (see Treaty of Pressburg). Napoleon reorganized much of the Empire into the Confederation of the Rhine, a French satellite. Francis' House of Habsburg-Lorraine survived the demise of the empire, continuing to reign as Emperors of Austria and Kings of Hungary until the Habsburg empire's final dissolution in 1918 in the aftermath of World War I.

text: The Napoleonic Confederation of the Rhine was replaced by a new union, the German Confederation, in 1815, following the end of the Napoleonic Wars. It lasted until 1866 when Prussia founded the North German Confederation, a forerunner of the German Empire which united the German-speaking territories outside of Austria and Switzerland under Prussian leadership in 1871. This state developed into modern Germany.

text: The only princely member state of the Holy Roman Empire that has preserved its status as a monarchy until today is the Principality of Liechtenstein. The only Free Imperial Cities still being states within Germany are Hamburg and Bremen. All other historic member states of the HRE were either dissolved or are republican successor states to their princely predecessor states.

text: Institutions[edit]

text: The Holy Roman Empire was not a highly centralized state like most countries today. Instead, it was divided into dozens – eventually hundreds – of individual entities governed by kings,[54] dukes, counts, bishops, abbots, and other rulers, collectively known as princes. There were also some areas ruled directly by the Emperor. At no time could the Emperor simply issue decrees and govern autonomously over the Empire. His power was severely restricted by the various local leaders.

text: From the High Middle Ages onwards, the Holy Roman Empire was marked by an uneasy coexistence of the princes of the local territories who were struggling to take power away from it. To a greater extent than in other medieval kingdoms such as France and England, the Emperors were unable to gain much control over the lands that they formally owned. Instead, to secure their own position from the threat of being deposed, Emperors were forced to grant more and more autonomy to local rulers, both nobles, and bishops. This process began in the 11th century with the Investiture Controversy and was more or less concluded with the 1648 Peace of Westphalia. Several Emperors attempted to reverse this steady dissemination of their authority but were thwarted both by the papacy and by the princes of the Empire.

text: Imperial estates[edit]

text: The number of territories in the Empire was considerable, rising to about 300 at the time of the Peace of Westphalia. Many of these Kleinstaaten ("little states") covered no more than a few square miles, and/or included several non-contiguous pieces, so the Empire was often called a Flickenteppich ("patchwork carpet").

text: An entity was considered a Reichsstand (imperial estate) if, according to feudal law, it had no authority above it except the Holy Roman Emperor himself. The imperial estates comprised:

text:
Territories ruled by a hereditary nobleman, such as a prince, archduke, duke, or count.
Territories in which secular authority was held by a clerical dignitary, such as an archbishop, bishop, or abbot. Such a cleric was a prince of the church. In the common case of a prince-bishop, this temporal territory (called a prince-bishopric) frequently overlapped with his often-larger ecclesiastical diocese, giving the bishop both civil and clerical powers. Examples are the prince-archbishoprics of Cologne, Trier, and Mainz.
Free imperial cities, which were subject only to the jurisdiction of the emperor.

text: For a list of Reichsstände in 1792, see List of Imperial Diet participants (1792).

text: King of the Romans[edit]

text: A prospective Emperor had first to be elected King of the Romans (Latin: Rex Romanorum; German: römischer König). German kings had been elected since the 9th century; at that point they were chosen by the leaders of the five most important tribes (the Salian Franks of Lorraine, Ripuarian Franks of Franconia, Saxons, Bavarians, and Swabians). In the Holy Roman Empire, the main dukes and bishops of the kingdom elected the King of the Romans. In 1356, Emperor Charles IV issued the Golden Bull, which limited the electors to seven: the King of Bohemia, the Count Palatine of the Rhine, the Duke of Saxony, the Margrave of Brandenburg, and the archbishops of Cologne, Mainz, and Trier. During the Thirty Years' War, the Duke of Bavaria was given the right to vote as the eighth elector, and the Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg (colloquially, Hanover) was granted a ninth electorate; additionally, the Napoleonic Wars resulted in several electorates being reallocated, but these new electors never voted before the Empire's dissolution. A candidate for election would be expected to offer concessions of land or money to the electors in order to secure their vote.

text: After being elected, the King of the Romans could theoretically claim the title of "Emperor" only after being crowned by the Pope. In many cases, this took several years while the King was held up by other tasks: frequently he first had to resolve conflicts in rebellious northern Italy or was quarreling with the Pope himself. Later Emperors dispensed with the papal coronation altogether, being content with the styling Emperor-Elect: the last Emperor to be crowned by the Pope was Charles V in 1530.

text: The Emperor had to be male and of noble blood. No law required him to be a Catholic, but as the majority of the Electors adhered to this faith, no Protestant was ever elected. Whether and to what degree he had to be German was disputed among the Electors, contemporary experts in constitutional law, and the public. During the Middle Ages, some Kings and Emperors were not of German origin, but since the Renaissance, German heritage was regarded as vital for a candidate in order to be eligible for imperial office.[55]

text: Imperial Diet (Reichstag)[edit]

text: The Imperial Diet (Reichstag, or Reichsversammlung) was not a legislative body as we understand it today, as its members envisionned it more like a central forum where it was more important to negociate than to decide.[56] The Diet was theoretically superior to the emperor himself. It was divided into three classes. The first class, the Council of Electors, consisted of the electors, or the princes who could vote for King of the Romans. The second class, the Council of Princes, consisted of the other princes. The Council of Princes was divided into two "benches," one for secular rulers and one for ecclesiastical ones. Higher-ranking princes had individual votes, while lower-ranking princes were grouped into "colleges" by geography. Each college had one vote.

text: The third class was the Council of Imperial Cities, which was divided into two colleges: Swabia and the Rhine. The Council of Imperial Cities was not fully equal with the others; it could not vote on several matters such as the admission of new territories. The representation of the Free Cities at the Diet had become common since the late Middle Ages. Nevertheless, their participation was formally acknowledged only as late as in 1648 with the Peace of Westphalia ending the Thirty Years' War.

text: Imperial courts[edit]

text: The Empire also had two courts: the Reichshofrat (also known in English as the Aulic Council) at the court of the King/Emperor, and the Reichskammergericht (Imperial Chamber Court), established with the Imperial Reform of 1495.

text: Imperial circles[edit]

text: As part of the Imperial Reform, six Imperial Circles was established in 1500; four more were established in 1512. These were regional groupings of most (though not all) of the various states of the Empire for the purposes of defense, imperial taxation, supervision of coining, peace-keeping functions, and public security. Each circle had its own parliament, known as a Kreistag ("Circle Diet"), and one or more directors, who coordinated the affairs of the circle. Not all imperial territories were included within the imperial circles, even after 1512; the Lands of the Bohemian Crown were excluded, as were Switzerland, the imperial fiefs in northern Italy, the lands of the Imperial Knights, and certain other small territories like the Lordship of Jever.

text: Army[edit]

text: The Army of the Holy Roman Empire (German Reichsarmee, Reichsheer or Reichsarmatur; Latin exercitus imperii) was created in 1422 and came to an end even before the Empire as the result of the Napoleonic Wars. It must not be confused with the Imperial Army (Kaiserliche Armee) of the Emperor.

text: Despite appearances to the contrary, the Army of the Empire did not constitute a permanent standing army that was always at the ready to fight for the Empire. When there was danger, an Army of the Empire was mustered from among the elements constituting it,[57] in order to conduct an imperial military campaign or Reichsheerfahrt. In practice, the imperial troops often had local allegiances stronger than their loyalty to the Emperor.

text: Administrative centres[edit]

text: Reichshofrat resided in Vienna.

text: Reichskammergericht resided in Worms, Augsburg, Nuremberg, Regensburg, Speyer and Esslingen before it was moved permamently to Wetzlar.

text: Reichstag resided variously in Paderborn, Bad Lippspringe, Ingelheim am Rhein, Diedenhofen (now Thionville), Aachen, Worms, Forchheim, Trebur, Fritzlar, Ravenna, Quedlinburg, Dortmund, Verona, Minden, Mainz, Frankfurt am Main, Merseburg, Goslar, Würzburg, Bamberg, Schwäbisch Hall, Augsburg, Nuremberg, Quierzy-sur-Oise, Speyer, Gelnhausen, Erfurt, Eger (now Cheb), Esslingen, Lindau, Freiburg, Cologne, Konstanz and Trier before it was moved permamently to Regensburg.

text: The Holy Roman Empire never had a capital city. Usually, the Holy Roman Emperor ruled from a place of his own choice. This was called an imperial seat. Seats of the Holy Roman Emperor included: Aachen (from 794), Munich (1328–1347 and 1744–1745), Prague (1355–1437 and 1576–1611), Vienna (1438–1576, 1611–1740 and 1745–1806) and Frankfurt am Main (1742–1744) among other cities.

text: Imperial elections were mostly held in Frankfurt am Main, but also took place in Augsburg, Rhens, Cologne and Regensburg. Going as far as into the 16th century, the elected Holy Roman Emperor was then crowned and appointed by the Pope in Rome, but individual coronations also happened in Ravenna, Bologna and Reims.

text: Demographics[edit]

text: Population[edit]

text:
Population of the Holy Roman Empire

Year
Population
Ref.

1500
16,000,000
[2][3]

1618
21,000,000
[4]

1648
16,000,000
[4]

1786
26,265,000
[5]

1800
24,000,000
[58]

tag: table

text: Largest cities[edit]

text: Largest cities or towns of the Empire by year:

text:
1050: Regensburg 40,000 people. Rome 35,000. Mainz 30,000. Speyer 25,000. Cologne 21,000. Trier 20,000. Worms 20,000. Lyon 20,000. Verona 20,000. Florence 15,000.[59]
1300–1350: Prague 77,000 people. Cologne 54,000 people. Aachen 21,000 people. Magdeburg 20,000 people. Nuremberg 20,000 people. Vienna 20,000 people. Danzig (now Gdańsk) 20,000 people. Straßburg (now Strasbourg) 20,000 people. Lübeck 15,000 people. Regensburg 11,000 people.[60][61][62][63]
1500: Prague 70,000. Cologne 45,000. Nuremberg 38,000. Augsburg 30,000. Danzig (now Gdańsk) 30,000. Lübeck 25,000. Breslau (now Wrocław) 25,000. Regensburg 22,000. Vienna 20,000. Straßburg (now Strasbourg) 20,000. Magdeburg 18,000. Ulm 16,000. Hamburg 15,000.[64]
1600: Prague 100,000. Vienna 50,000. Augsburg 45,000. Cologne 40,000. Nuremberg 40,000. Hamburg 40,000. Magdeburg 40,000. Breslau (now Wrocław) 40,000. Straßburg (now Strasbourg) 25,000. Lübeck 23,000. Regensburg 20,000. Ulm 21,000. Frankfurt am Main 20,000. Munich 20,000.[64]

text: Religion[edit]

text: Roman Catholicism constituted the single official religion of the Empire until 1555. The Holy Roman Emperor was always a Roman Catholic.

text: Lutheranism was officially recognized in the Peace of Augsburg of 1555, and Calvinism in the Peace of Westphalia of 1648. Those two constituted the only officially recognized Protestant denominations, while various other Protestant confessions such as Anabaptism, Arminianism, etc. coexisted illegally within the Empire. Anabaptism came in a variety of denominations, including Mennonites, Schwarzenau Brethren, Hutterites, the Amish, and multiple other groups.