Whaley’s two volumes cover the years from 1493 to 1806, while Wilson’s book covers the entire 1,000 years in one volume. These similarities may well account for the recent publication of two superb but very different studies of the Old Reich: Joachim Whaley’s 2012 Germany and the Holy Roman Empire and Peter H. It rests on treaties among the members but also on several hundred thousand pages of the acquis communautaire: decisions, resolutions, directives and judgments by various bodies in the EU itself. Today’s successors to Moser cannot decide if the EU is a union of states or a superstate. We have various kinds of lands, various forms of government, with estates and without them, imperial towns, a nobility of whom some are immediate, subjects of all different sorts, and a thousand other such things - to think, for oneself, what good is it here?

The greatest student of the Holy Roman Empire, Johann Jacob Moser, concluded in his 1776 study:

As Voltaire sneered in 1756, ‘it’s not holy, not Roman and not an empire’. This vivid comparison has much to commend it. Like the Holy Roman Empire which lasted for 1,000 years before Napoleon put it out of its misery in 1806, the EU may not disintegrate but slip into a glacial decline, its political and bureaucratic elites continuing faithfully to observe the rites of a confederacy bereft of power and relevance. Previous AMAs | Previous Roundtables Featuresįeature posts are posted weekly.Last month in the Financial Times, Tony Barber closed a gloomy summary of the European Union’s future with this comparison: May 25th | Panel AMA with /r/AskBibleScholars Please Subscribe to our Google Calendar for Upcoming AMAs and Events To nominate someone else as a Quality Contributor, message the mods. Our flaired users have detailed knowledge of their historical specialty and a proven record of excellent contributions to /r/AskHistorians. Please Read and Understand the Rules Before Contributing. Report Comments That Break Reddiquette or the Subreddit Rules. Serious On-Topic Comments Only: No Jokes, Anecdotes, Clutter, or other Digressions. Provide Primary and Secondary Sources If Asked. Write Original, In-Depth and Comprehensive Answers, Using Good Historical Practices. Questions should be clear and specific in what they ask, and should be able to get detailed answers from historians whose expertise is likely to be in particular times and places. Nothing Less Than 20 Years Old, and Don't Soapbox. Be Nice: No Racism, Bigotry, or Offensive Behavior.

Downvote and Report comments that are unhelpful or grossly off-topic.

Upvote informative, well sourced answers.

New to /r/AskHistorians? Please read our subreddit rules and FAQ before posting! Apply for Flair

Joachim whaley holy roman empire