King of the Romans
King of the Romans sounds like a contradiction in terms. The men who held the title were German kings, elected by German princes, yet they carried a name that reached back to the ancient world and forward to an empire that spanned much of Europe. Henry II was the first to hold it in this formal sense, beginning in 1002, and the title would survive in one form or another until the Empire itself dissolved in 1806.
What the title actually meant shifted constantly over those eight centuries. At its simplest, it described a gap: the period between a king's election in Germany and his coronation as Holy Roman Emperor in Rome, performed by the Pope. But that gap could last years. Some kings waited decades. A few never made the journey at all. And the title carried a particular kind of weight because of those journeys not taken, those crownings delayed or denied.
The story of who held this title, and why it mattered so much to call yourself King of the Romans rather than simply King of the Germans, turns out to be a story about the long contest between German kings and the papacy over who had the right to confer sacred authority.
Henry IV was six years old when he was elected to rule the Empire in 1056. Too young to govern, and too young to fight the contest that would define his reign, he was placed under the authority of regents while the papacy watched the vacancy at the top of the imperial structure with growing interest.
What Henry did, as he grew older and more embattled, was reach for a name. He adopted the title Romanorum Rex, King of the Romans, to press his claim to the Imperial coronation that the Pope controlled. The title was a declaration: his authority reached beyond Germany, and the Pope was obligated to crown him Emperor. Pope Gregory VII responded with deliberate contempt, calling Henry Teutonicorum Rex, King of the Germans, a phrase designed to shrink his claims to the merely local.
Henry persisted. He kept using Romanorum Rex throughout a long and bitter conflict with Gregory that gave historians the term Investiture Controversy. In 1084, after years of struggle, he was finally crowned Emperor, not by the reigning Pope but by Antipope Clement III. His successors picked up the same practice: Romanorum Rex before the Roman coronation, Romanorum Imperator after it. The distinction between the two titles became constitutional shorthand for the difference between a king waiting for his crowning and an emperor who had received it.
Frankfurt became the customary site for royal elections after 1147, a practice recorded in the legal code known as the Schwabenspiegel around 1275. The shift to that city marked a broader transformation in how German kings were chosen.
Originally, all noblemen present at an election could participate, voting by unanimous acclamation. Over time, the circle of voters narrowed to the most powerful bishops and secular lords. Emperor Charles IV formalized this in the Golden Bull of 1356, which restricted the franchise to exactly seven Prince-electors. These were the Prince-Archbishops of Mainz, Trier, and Cologne, along with the King of Bohemia, the Count Palatine of the Rhine, the Saxon duke, and the Margrave of Brandenburg. The right to vote was now a hereditary privilege attached to specific titles.
The same document specified that the outcome required a majority vote, as established by the 1338 Declaration of Rhense. Charles IV was working against Papal influence; he wanted the elected king's authority to rest on the election itself, not on the Pope's subsequent approval. The Golden Bull remained in force as constitutional law from 1356 until 1806, when the Empire ended.
After his coronation as King of the Romans, usually celebrated at Charlemagne's throne in Aachen Cathedral by the Archbishop of Cologne, the new king faced a journey. First came a second coronation in Pavia or Milan, where he received the Iron Crown of Lombardy as King of Italy. Then came the final crossing to Rome, where the Pope would place the Imperial Crown on his head.
The medievale chronicler Widukind of Corvey recorded the details of Otto's coronation in 936 in his Res gestae saxonicae, and the ceremony at Aachen became a solemn set piece repeated by subsequent kings. The Imperial Crown itself was placed at the coronation at least as early as 1024, when Conrad II was crowned.
In practice, the journey was rarely swift. Wars, political crises at home, and hostile relations with the papacy all intervened. Philip of Swabia, elected in 1198, was crowned at Mainz Cathedral rather than Aachen because circumstances forced it, and he had a second coronation in Aachen only after defeating his rival Otto IV. Some kings held the title of King of the Romans for their entire reigns without ever completing the final leg to Rome. The title served them throughout: it stressed, as the source puts it, the plenitude of the king's authority over the Empire and his warrant to be future Emperor, without formally infringing on the Pope's right to perform the crowning.
In 1508, something changed permanently. Maximilian I had tried in good faith to travel to Rome for his Imperial coronation, but the attempt failed. The Pope responded by permitting Maximilian to use a new title: Electus Romanorum Imperator, Elected Emperor of the Romans. It was not quite the same as being crowned Emperor by the Pope in Rome, but it was enough.
Maximilian's official titles captured the shift in grandiose detail. His Latin and German styling named him elected Roman Emperor, always Augustus, and listed his various kingdoms, with Germany among them. He also introduced a separate title, King in Germania, though this never became his primary designation.
His successors followed his lead. Beginning with Ferdinand I, the rulers of the Empire abandoned the quest for Papal coronation entirely. They styled themselves Emperors upon coronation in Germany, or, if they had been elected as heirs during a sitting Emperor's lifetime, upon that Emperor's death. The last king to receive the Imperial Crown from a Pope was Charles V, crowned by Pope Clement VII in Bologna in 1530. After that, the long medieval cycle of election, Italian crowning, and Roman coronation simply ceased.
The Holy Roman Empire was an elective monarchy, which meant no son inherited the throne by right of birth alone. Emperors found a practical workaround: they had a relative, usually a son, elected during their own lifetime. That elected heir bore the title King of the Romans.
This created its own complications. During the Middle Ages, the convention was to elect a junior King of the Romans only when the sitting ruler already held the full title of Emperor. The logic was that two theoretically equal kings would be an awkward arrangement. The one exception came between 1147 and 1150, when Conrad III was ruling King of the Romans and his son Henry Berengar was elected King of the Romans as heir. Henry Berengar died in 1150, before his father, so the succession question resolved itself.
In practice, the heir held the title but rarely held real power. Administration of the Empire stayed with the Emperor or Emperor elect. The heir might receive certain delegated duties, but the governing authority remained concentrated at the top. When Joseph II was elected heir on the 27th of March 1764, he succeeded as Emperor elect on the 18th of August 1765 upon the death of Emperor Francis I, following exactly this pattern.
Modern German historians coined their own term to navigate the tangle of overlapping titles: Römisch-deutscher König, Roman-German King. The label exists to distinguish the medieval elected king from the classical Roman emperors, from the Roman-German Emperor, and from the German Emperors of the modern period. It is a scholarly tool, not a title anyone actually used.
When Napoleon I had a son in 1811, he introduced one final echo of the old tradition. The boy, later known as Napoleon II, was styled King of Rome at birth. He was known by that title throughout his short life, though from 1818 onwards his maternal grandfather, Emperor Francis I of Austria, officially designated him Duke of Reichstadt. Francis had reigned until 1806 as the last Holy Roman Emperor, the same year the Golden Bull of 1356 finally ceased to have effect.
The title of King of the Romans thus left behind two distinct residues: an academic designation used by historians to organize the medieval German succession, and a Napoleonic echo that lasted only as long as a child's life. The line of individuals who actually bore the title stretches from Henry II in 1002 to Joseph II, whose election as heir in 1764 preceded his accession as Emperor elect in 1765.
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Common questions
What did the title King of the Romans mean in the Holy Roman Empire?
King of the Romans was the title held by a German king between his election by the princes and his coronation as Holy Roman Emperor by the Pope in Rome. From the 16th century onwards, it was used solely for an elected heir during his predecessor's lifetime, after German rulers stopped seeking Papal coronation.
Who was the first King of the Romans and when did the title begin?
Henry II was the first to hold the title in its formal sense, from 1002. The title had roots in earlier Ottonian practice, when the king was styled King of the Franks, but the specific designation King of the Romans took hold from the late Salian period.
Why did Henry IV call himself King of the Romans instead of King of the Germans?
Henry IV adopted the title Romanorum Rex to press his sacred claim to be crowned Emperor by the Pope, signaling that his authority extended beyond Germany to the whole Empire. Pope Gregory VII deliberately countered this by calling him Teutonicorum Rex, King of the Germans, to imply his power was only local. Henry was finally crowned Emperor in 1084 by Antipope Clement III.
Who had the right to elect the King of the Romans?
Under the Golden Bull of 1356, issued by Emperor Charles IV, only seven Prince-electors could vote: the Prince-Archbishops of Mainz, Trier, and Cologne, plus the King of Bohemia, the Count Palatine of the Rhine, the Saxon duke, and the Margrave of Brandenburg. Earlier practice had allowed all present noblemen to vote by acclamation before the franchise was narrowed. The Golden Bull remained in force until the Empire's dissolution in 1806.
Who was the last person to be crowned Holy Roman Emperor by a Pope?
Charles V was the last king to receive the Imperial Crown from a Pope, crowned by Pope Clement VII in Bologna in 1530. After that, rulers of the Empire styled themselves Emperor upon coronation in Germany without seeking Papal approval, beginning with Ferdinand I.
What happened to the title King of the Romans after the Holy Roman Empire ended?
The title effectively ceased with the Empire's dissolution in 1806. Napoleon I introduced a related title, King of Rome, for his son Napoleon II at birth in 1811, though from 1818 onwards the boy was officially styled Duke of Reichstadt by his grandfather, Emperor Francis I of Austria, the last Holy Roman Emperor.