| Notes |
- Emerick ancestors are listed under a variety of spellings, Emmerich, Emerich, Emerick, Emrich and Emrick. As a general rule they are listed as Emerick, except for my direct ancestors, Christoff Emmerich; his son Christoff Emmerich Jr.; his son, Henrich Emmerich; his son, Johann Michael Emmerich, in order that I might be better able to identify them in tracing the family tree through early church records, wills, etc. Notwithstanding this, Johann Michael is listed as Emmerich, Emerich, Emrich and finally Emerick, as in his will probated July 31, 1744 in Berks County, Pennsylvania. (Note to file by J. P. Rhein)
Delkenheim is five kilometers southeast of Wiesbaden, the church book begins 1652. (Source - The Palatine Families of New York, page 208)
Delkenheim is now a part of Wiesbaden, which is in the Frankfurt/Main area, in the German state of Hesse. (Note to file - J.P. Rhein)
"When we talk about Germans we must recall that when our ancestors came to this country in the 17th and 18th centuries they did not come from Germany for there was no Germany as we know it. It was a general term, but Germany was officially called the Holy Roman Empire. This included not only present-day Germany, but also parts of France and Poland. At one time it included all of Switzerland." (Source - Pages From the Past, Palatines to America Publications, 1992, Number 2)
THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE
The Holy Roman Empire, political entity in western Europe from 800 to 1806. Although the borders of the empire shifted greatly throughout its history, its principal area was always that of the German states. From the 10th century its rulers were elected German kings who usually sought, but did not always receive, imperial coronation by the popes in Rome.
The Holy Roman Empire was an attempt to revive the Western Roman Empire, whose legal and political structure deteriorated during the 5th and 6th centuries. Although the Byzantine Empire retained nominal sovereignty over the Western Empire, its influence was eclipsed in the west with the coalescence of the Germanic tribes into independent Christian kingdoms during the 6th and 7th centuries.
The spiritual influence of the western division of the church expanded simultaneously. Lacking any military force or practical administration, the church decided to confer imperial status on the dominant western European power. In 800, Pope Leo III crowned Frankish king Charlemagne as emperor. This act established a papal claim to the right to select, crown, and even depose emperors. This was asserted, at least in theory, for nearly 700 years. In its primary stage, the resurrected Western Empire endured only a short time after the death of Charlemagne in 814. However, the popes maintained the imperial organization and title for most of the 9th century.
The empire in the West, at first an unstable union of Germany and northern Italy and later a loose union of Germanic states, remained in almost continuous existence for more than 800 years. During this phase the empire played a significant role in central European politics and ecclesiastical affairs. A central feature of this period was the struggle between the popes and the emperors for control of the church.
In 1157 Emperor Frederick I tried to suppress both the restless nobles of Germany and the self-governing cities of Italy. He was defeated at Legnano in 1176 by the cities of the Lombard League, who thus established their independence from imperial authority. Emperor Frederick II renewed imperial efforts to vanquish the Italian cities and the papacy in the 13th century, but he was unsuccessful.
The death of Frederick II in 1250 left the imperial throne vacant, and two rival candidates attempted to win support for their claims. The office was little more than honorary, however, as the empire comprised a loose confederation of sovereign states and principalities. During the reign of Emperor Charles V (1519-1558), the concept of a temporal state in harmony with the spiritual dominions of the church crumbled beneath the tenets of the Protestant Reformation. In 1555 the Religious Peace of Augsburg permitted each free city and state of Germany to exercise choice between the adoption of Lutheranism or Catholicism. With the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, which ended the Thirty Years' War, the empire lost all remaining sovereignty over its constituent states. The later Habsburg emperors were concerned mainly with aggrandizement of their dominions in Austria. Because of well-founded fears that Napoleon I of France intended to annex the imperial title, Francis II dissolved the empire in 1806. (Source - The Encarta 99 Desk Encyclopedia Copyright @ & (p) 1998 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved)
Holy Roman Emperors
Carolingian Kings and Emperors
800-14 Charlemagne (Charles the Great)
814-40 Louis the Pious
840-55 Lothair I
855-75 Louis II
875-77 Charles II the Bald
881-87 Charles III the Fat
891-94 Guido of Spoleto
892-98 Lambert of Spoleto (coemperor)
896-901 Arnulf (rival)
901-05 Louis III of Provence
905-24 Berengar
911-18 Conrad I of Franconia (rival)
Saxon Kings and Emporers
918-36 Henry I the Fowler
936-73 Otto I the Great
973-83 Otto II
983-1002 Otto III
1002-24 Henry II the Saint
Franconian (Salian) Emperors
1024-39 Conrad II
1039-56 Henry III the Black
1056-1106 Henry IV
1077-80 Rudolf of Swabia (rival)
1081-93 Hermann of Luxembourg (rival)
1093-1101 Conrad of Franconia (rival)
1106-25 Henry V
1126-37 Lothair II
Hohenstaufen Kings and Emperors
1138-52 Conrad III
1152-90 Frederick Barbarossa
1190-97 Henry VI
1198-1215 Otto IV
1198-1208 Philip of Swabia (rival)
1215-50 Frederick II
1246-47 Henry Raspe of Thuringia (rival)
1247-56 William of Holland (rival)
1250-54 Conrad IV
1254-73 no ruler (the Great Interregnum)
Rules from Various Noble Families
1257-72 Richard of Cornwall (rival)
1257-73 Alfonso X of Castile (rival)
1273-91 Rudolf I, Hapsburg
1292-98 Adolf I of Nassau
1298-1308 Albert I, Hapsburg
1308-13 Henry VII, Luxembourg
1314-47 Louis IV of Bavaria
1314-25 Frederick of Hapsburg (co regent)
1347-78 Charles IV, Luxembourg
1378-1400 Wenceslas of Bohemia
1400 Frederick III of Brunswick
1400-10 Rupert of the Palatinate
1411-37 Sigismund, Luxembourg
Hapsburg Emperors
1438-39 Albert II
1440-93 Frederick III
1493-1519 Maximilian I
1519-56 Charles V
1556-64 Ferdinand I
1564-76 Maximilian II
1576-1612 Rudolf II
1612-19 Matthias
1619-37 Ferdinand II
1637-57 Ferdinand III
1658-1705 Leopold I
1705-11 Joseph I
1711-40 Charles VI
1742-45 Charles VII of Bavaria
Hapsburg-Lorraine Emperors
1745-65 Francis I of Lorraine
1765-90 Joseph II
1790-92 Leopold II
1792-1806 Francis II
(Source - The Encarta 99 New World Almanac, Copyright 1998, Helicon Publishing Ltd. All rights reserved)
"The history of the Holy Roman Empire can be divided into four periods: the age of emperors, the age of princes, the early Habsburg period, and the final phase.
(i)Age of the Emperors
The first age, from 962 to 1250, was dominated by the strong emperors of the Saxon, Salian (or Franconian), and Hohenstaufen dynasties. These emperors made serious efforts to control Italy, which in practical political terms was the most important part of the empire. Their power, however, depended on their German resources, which were never great. Italy consisted of the Lombard area, with its wealthy towns; the Papal States; scattered regions still claimed by the Byzantine Empire; and the Norman kingdom of Naples and Sicily. The emperors generally tried to govern through existing officials such as counts and bishops rather than by creating a direct administrative system. The papacy, weak and disturbed by the Roman aristocracy, needed the emperors, who, during the Saxon and early Salian generations, thought of the Bishop of Rome as subject to the same kind of control that they exercised over their own German bishops. Henry III, for example, deposed unsatisfactory Popes and nominated new ones as he deemed fit.
During the reigns of Henry IV and Henry V in the late 11th and early 12th centuries, the papacy was influenced by a powerful reform movement that demanded an end to lay domination. Popes Gregory VII and Urban II insisted on independence for the papacy and for the church in general during the Investiture Controversy. Later Popes continued jealously to guard their freedom, and this produced conflict with the Hohenstaufen emperors Frederick I and Frederick II, both of whom wanted to exercise control over all of Italy. The later Hohenstaufen emperors gained control of the Norman kingdom in southern Italy and declared it a fief of the popes, who nevertheless worried about their independence and often supported the emperors'Lombard foes. In the 13th century, Popes Innocent 111, Gregory IX, and Innocent IV restricted the authority of Otto IV and Frederick 11 in many bitter disputes.
(ii) Age of the Princes
During the age of the princes, from 1250 to 1438, the emperors were much weaker. They exercised minimal authority in Italy, and many of them were never crowned emperor by the pope. Even in Germany their power was reduced, for Frederick II had dissipated royal prerogatives and resources in his northern lands while struggling to dominate Italy. The emperors were unable to restrain the German nobles or to resist French encroachments on the western frontiers of the empire, and the Slavic rulers in the east rejected all imperial overlordship. The Guelphs, or anti-imperialists in Italy (see Guelfs and Ghibellines), spoke of ending the empire or transferring it to the French kings. Political theorists such as Engelbert of Admont (1250-1331), Alexander of Roes (late 13th century), and even Dante, however, insisted that the German emperors were needed. Marsilius of Padua, in his Defensorpacis, argued for the end of all papal influence on the empire.
At this time the practice of electing the German king, or emperor, was given formal definition by the Golden Bull (1356) of Emperor Charles IV. This document, which defined the status of the seven German princely electors, made it clear that the emperor held office by election rather than hereditary right. The electors usually chose insignificant rulers who could not interfere with the electors' privileges, but such rulers could neither govern effectively nor maintain imperial rights. Their power was largely limited to strengthening their own families. The empire consequently began to disintegrate into nearly independent territories or self-governing groups such as the Hanseatic League.
(iii)Early Hapsburg Period
Afler 1438 the electors almost always chose a member of the Hapsburg dynasty of Austria as king;the one exception was the election (1742) of the Bavarian Charles VII. The Habsburg Frederick III was the last emperor to be crowned in Rome; his great-grandson Charles V was the last to be crowned by a pope.
By this time a few of the more farsighted princes saw the need to strengthen the empire's central government. From 1485 to 1555 these reformers strove to create a federal system. The diet, originally a loose assembly of princes, had been organized into three strata--electors, princes, and representatives of the imperial cities--by the Golden Bull and came to resemble a legislature. In 1500 it was proposed that an executive committee (Reichsregiment) appointed by the diet be given administrative authority. A system of imperial courts was created, and permanent institutions to provide for defense and taxation were also discussed. The various states were organized into ten districts or circles.
These reform efforts seldom worked, however, because the princes would not relinquish their jurisdiction. The situation was further complicated by the advent of the Reformation, which fostered religious conflicts that divided the principalities against one another. In addition, the princes became alarmed at the sudden growth of power of the Habsburgs when that dynasty acquired Spain. Under the guise of the Counter-Reformation, Ferdinand II and Ferdinand III tried to concentrate power in their hands, but defeat in the Thirty Years' War undid their efforts and proved that the empire could not reform itself.
(iv) Final Phase
After the Treaty of Westphalia (1648) the Holy Roman Empire was little more than a loose confederation of about 300 independent principalities and 1,500 or more semi-sovereign bodies or individuals. Threats from the Ottoman Empire or from Louis XIV of France occasionally stimulated imperial cooperation, but usually each state considered only its own welfare. The Austrian-Prussian wars, Hanover's acquisition of the English throne, and Saxony's holding of the Polish crown exemplify the particularism that prevailed.
Napoleon I finally destroyed the empire. After defeating Austria and its imperial allies in 1797 and 1801, he annexed some German land and suggested that the larger territories compensate themselves by confiscating the free cities and ecclesiastical states. By the Diet's Recess (1803), 112 small states were thus seized by their neighbors. Three years later Napoleon compelled 16 German states to form the Confederation of the Rhine and to secede from the empire. On March 6, 1806, Francis II, who had previously assumed the title of Emperor of Austria, abdicated as Holy Roman Emperor and declared the old empire dissolved."
(Source - Raymond H. Schmatidt; Barraclough, Geoffrey, The Origins of Modern Germany, 2d rev. ed. (1947; repr. 1984) Bryce, James, The Holy Roman Empire, rev. ed. (I 978), Heer, Friedrich, The Holy Roman Empire, trans. by Janet Sondheimer (1968), Zophy, Jonathan W.,ed., Holy Roman Empire: A Dictionary Handbook (1980), From the 1995 Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia, Copyright 1995 Grolier Incorporated, From the article "Holy Roman Empire," Microsoft Encarta'95)
|
Search | Advanced Search | Search Families | Search Site
1586 - 
