CONTENTS

Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. CONTENTS v
3. TRANSLATOR’S PREFACE TO THE ENGLISH EDITION vii
4. A NOTE ON THE TRANSLATION xiii
5. INTRODUCTION 1
6. 1. What Was the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation? 10
7. 2. A Body Made of Head and Limbs 17
8. 3. Institutional Consolidation, 1495–1521 43
9. 4. The Challenge of the Reformation, 1521–1555 60
10. 5. From the Consolidation to the Crisis of the Imperial Institutions, 1555–1618 76
11. 6. The Thirty Years’ War and the Peace of Westphalia 88
12. 7. The Westphalian Order and the Renewed Rise of the Emperor 106
13. 8. Political Polarization, 1740–1790 120
14. 9. The Dissolution of the Empire, 1790–1806 132
15. 10. Once Again: What Was the Holy Roman Empire? 140
16. THE ROMAN- GERMAN EMPERORS OF THE EARLY MODERN PERIOD 147
17. SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY 149
18. INDEX 157