Why was holy roman empire called that?
The HRE was born when Charlemagne was crowned by the Pope in 800AD. It was considered Holy because the Pope did the crowning, thereby sealing Charlemagne’s empire as being fundamentally Christian. It was considered an Empire because in Charlemagne’s time it really was an empire, thanks to his conquests. Of course it split apart after his death, since at that time kings divided their lands between their sons instead of giving it all to the first born. After awhile it really didn’t qualify as an empire any more, but the name stuck. I can think of two reasons why it might be considered Roman: 1. The Pope was based in Rome, and Rome was part of the Charlemagne’s empire. 2. The Roman Empire cast a long shadow over the chaos of middle age Europe. Charlemagne’s empire was the largest since Rome fell, and so in a way a lot of people liked to see it as Rome restored. This is a common thread in history: Moscow often saw itself as ‘the third Rome’, and Napoleon liked to see himself as a new Caesa
